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To the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Men and Women Religious, Lay
Faithful, and All People of Good Will
THE GOSPEL OF LIFE is at the heart of Jesus' message. Lovingly received
day after day by the Church, it is to be preached with dauntless fidelity
as "good news" to the people of every age and culture.
At the dawn of salvation, it is the Birth of a Child which is
proclaimed as joyful news: "I bring you good news of a great joy which
will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of
David a Saviour, who is. Christ the Lord" (Lk 2:10-11). The source
of this "great joy" is the Birth of the Saviour; but Christmas also
reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which
accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation and
fulfilment of joy at every child born into the world (cf. Jn
16:21).
When he presents the heart of his redemptive mission, Jesus says: "I
came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10).
In truth, he is referring to that "new" and "eternal" life which consists
in communion with the Father, to which every person is freely called in
the Son by the power of the Sanctifying Spirit. It is precisely in this
"life" that all the aspects and stages of human life achieve their full
significance.
The incomparable worth of the human person
2. Man is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions
of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of
God. The loftiness of this supernatural vocation reveals the
greatness and the inestimable value of human life even in
its temporal phase. Life in time, in fact, is the fundamental condition,
the initial stage and an integral part of the entire unified process of
human existence. It is a process which, unexpectedly and undeservedly, is
enlightened by the promise and renewed by the gift of divine life, which
will reach its full realization in eternity (cf. 1 Jn 3:1-2). At
the same time, it is precisely this supernatural calling which highlights
the relative character of each individual's earthly life. After
all, life on earth is not an "ultimate" but a "penultimate" reality; even
so, it remains a sacred reality entrusted to us, to be preserved
with a sense of responsibility and brought to perfection in love and in
the gift of ourselves to God and to our brothers and sisters.
The Church knows that this Gospel of life, which she has
received from her Lord,[1] has a profound and persuasive echo in the heart
of every person--believer and non-believer alike--because it marvellously
fulfils all the heart's expectations while infinitely surpassing them.
Even in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every person
sincerely open to truth and goodness can, by the light of reason and the
hidden action of grace, come to recognize in the natural law written in
the heart (cf. Rom 2:14-15) the sacred value of human life from its
very beginning until its end, and can affirm the right of every human
being to have this primary good respected to the highest degree. Upon the
recognition of this right, every human community and the political
community itself are founded.
In a special way, believers in Christ must defend and promote this
right, aware as they are of the wonderful truth recalled by the Second
Vatican Council: "By his incarnation the Son of God has united himself in
some fashion with every human being".[2] This saving event reveals to
humanity not only the boundless love of God who "so loved the world that
he gave his only Son" (Jn 3:16), but also the incomparable value
of every human person.
The Church, faithfully contemplating the mystery of the Redemption,
acknowledges this value with ever new wonder.[3] She feels called to
proclaim to the people of all times this "Gospel", the source of
invincible hope and true joy for every period of history. The Gospel of
God's love for man, the Gospel of the dignity of the person and the Gospel
of life are a single and indivisible Gospel.
For this reason, man--living man--represents the primary and
fundamental way for the Church.[4]
New threats to human life
3. Every individual, precisely by reason of the mystery of the Word of
God who was made flesh (cf. Jn 1:14), is entrusted to the maternal
care of the Church. Therefore every threat to human dignity and life must
necessarily be felt in the Church's very heart; it cannot but affect her
at the core of her faith in the Redemptive Incarnation of the Son of God,
and engage her in her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of life in
all the world and to every creature (cf. Mk 16:15).
Today this proclamation is especially pressing because of the
extraordinary increase and gravity of threats to the life of individuals
and peoples, especially where life is weak and defenceless. In addition to
the ancient scourges of poverty, hunger, endemic diseases, violence and
war, new threats are emerging on an alarmingly vast scale.
The Second Vatican Council, in a passage which retains all its
relevance today, forcefully condemned a number of crimes and attacks
against human life. Thirty years later, taking up the words of the Council
and with the same forcefulness I repeat that condemnation in the name of
the whole Church, certain that I am interpreting the genuine sentiment of
every upright conscience: "Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any
type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or wilful
self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person,
such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce
the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living
conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution,
the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working
conditions, where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather
than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others like
them are infamies indeed. They poison human society, and they do more harm
to those who practise them than to those who suffer from the injury.
Moreover, they are a supreme dishonour to the Creator".[5]
4. Unfortunately, this disturbing state of affairs, far from
decreasing, is expanding: with the new prospects opened up by scientific
and technological progress there arise new forms of attacks on the dignity
of the human being. At the same time a new cultural climate is developing
and taking hold, which gives crimes against life a new and--if
possible--even more sinister character, giving rise to further grave
concern: broad sectors of public opinion justify certain crimes against
life in the name of the rights of individual freedom, and on this basis
they claim not only exemption from punishment but even authorization by
the State, so that these things can be done with total freedom and indeed
with the free assistance of health-care systems.
All this is causing a profound change in the way in which life and
relationships between people are considered. The fact that legislation in
many countries, perhaps even departing from basic principles of their
Constitutions, has determined not to punish these practices against life,
and even to make them altogether legal, is both a disturbing symptom and a
significant cause of grave moral decline. Choices once unanimously
considered criminal and rejected by the common moral sense are gradually
becoming socially acceptable. Even certain sectors of the medical
profession, which by its calling is directed to the defence and care of
human life, are increasingly willing to carry out these acts against the
person. In this way the very nature of the medical profession is distorted
and contradicted, and the dignity of those who practise it is degraded. In
such a cultural and legislative situation, the serious demographic, social
and family problems which weigh upon many of the world's peoples and which
require responsible and effective attention from national and
international bodies, are left open to false and deceptive solutions,
opposed to the truth and the good of persons and nations.
The end result of this is tragic: not only is the fact of the
destruction of so many human lives still to be born or in their final
stage extremely grave and disturbing, but no less grave and disturbing is
the fact that conscience itself, darkened as it were by such widespread
conditioning, is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between
good and evil in what concerns the basic value of human life.
In communion with all the Bishops of the world
5. The Extraordinary Consistory of Cardinals held in Rome on 4-7
April 1991 was devoted to the problem of the threats to human life in our
day. After a thorough and detailed discussion of the problem and of the
challenges it poses to the entire human family and in particular to the
Christian community, the Cardinals unanimously asked me to reaffirm with
the authority of the Successor of Peter the value of human life and its
inviolability, in the light of present circumstances and attacks
threatening it today.
In response to this request, at Pentecost in 1991 I wrote a personal
letter to each of my Brother Bishops asking them, in the spirit of
episcopal collegiality, to offer me their cooperation in drawing up a
specific document.[6] I am deeply grateful to all the Bishops who replied
and provided me with valuable facts, suggestions and proposals. In so
doing they bore witness to their unanimous desire to share in the
doctrinal and pastoral mission of the Church with regard to the Gospel
of life.
In that same letter, written shortly after the celebration of the
centenary of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum, I drew everyone's
attention to this striking analogy: "Just as a century ago it was the
working classes which were oppressed in their fundamental rights, and the
Church very courageously came to their defence by proclaiming the
sacrosanct rights of the worker as a person, so now, when another category
of persons is being oppressed in the fundamental right to life, the Church
feels in duty bound to speak out with the same courage on behalf of those
who have no voice. Hers is always the evangelical cry in defence of the
world's poor, those who are threatened and despised and whose human rights
are violated".[7]
Today there exists a great multitude of weak and defenceless human
beings, unborn children in particular, whose fundamental right to life is
being trampled upon. If, at the end of the last century, the Church could
not be silent about the injustices of those times, still less can she be
silent today, when the social injustices of the past, unfortunately not
yet overcome, are being compounded in many regions of the world by still
more grievous forms of injustice and oppression, even if these are being
presented as elements of progress in view of a new world order.
The present Encyclical, the fruit of the cooperation of the Episcopate
of every country of the world, is therefore meant to be a precise and
vigorous reaffirmation of the value of human life and its
inviolability, and at the same time a pressing appeal addressed to
each and every person, in the name of God: respect, protect, love and
serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find
justice, development, true freedom, peace and happiness!
May these words reach all the sons and daughters of the Church! May
they reach all people of good will who are concerned for the good of every
man and woman and for the destiny of the whole of society!
6. In profound communion with all my brothers and sisters in the faith,
and inspired by genuine friendship towards all, I wish to meditate upon
once more and proclaim the Gospel of life, the splendour of truth
which enlightens consciences, the clear light which corrects the darkened
gaze, and the unfailing source of faithfulness and steadfastness in facing
the ever new challenges which we meet along our path.
As I recall the powerful experience of the Year of the Family, as if to
complete the Letter which I wrote "to every particular family in
every part of the world",[8] I look with renewed confidence to every
household and I pray that at every level a general commitment to support
the family will reappear and be strengthened, so that today too--even amid
so many difficulties and serious threats--the family will always remain,
in accordance with God's plan, the "sanctuary of life".[9]
To all the members of the Church, the people of life and for
life, I make this most urgent appeal, that together we may offer this
world of ours new signs of hope, and work to ensure that justice and
solidarity will increase and that a new culture of human life will be
affirmed, for the building of an authentic civilization of truth and love.
Chapter I
"The Voice of Your Brother's Blood Cries
to Me from the Ground"
(Present-Day Threats to Human Life)
"Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him" (Genesis
4:8): The roots of violence against life
7. "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the
living. For he has created all things that they might exist. . . God
created man for incorruption, and made him in the image of his own
eternity, but through the devil's envy death entered the world, and
those who belong to his party experience it" (Wis 1:13-14;
2:23-24).
The Gospel of life, proclaimed in the beginning when man was
created in the image of God for a destiny of full and perfect life (cf.
Gen 2:7; Wis 9:2-3), is contradicted by the painful
experience of death which enters the world and casts its shadow of
meaninglessness over man's entire existence. Death came into the world as
a result of the devil's envy (cf. Gen 3:1,4-5) and the sin of our
first parents (cf. Gen 2:17, 3:17-19). And death entered it in a
violent way, through the killing of Abel by his brother Cain: "And
when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and
killed him" (Gen 4:8).
This first murder is presented with singular eloquence in a page of the
Book of Genesis which has universal significance: it is a page rewritten
daily, with inexorable and degrading frequency, in the book of human
history.
Let us re-read together this biblical account which, despite its
archaic structure and its extreme simplicity, has much to teach us.
Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the
ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of
the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock
and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his
offering, but for Cain and his offering he had not regard. So Cain was
very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, 'Why are
you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you
not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the
door; its desire is for you, but you must master it'.
"Cain said to Abel his brother, 'Let us go out to the field'. And
when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and
killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He
said, I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?' And the Lord said, 'What
have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from
the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its
mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the
ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a
fugitive and a wanderer on the earth'. Cain said to the Lord, 'My
punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me this
day away from the ground; and from your face I shall be hidden; and I
shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me
will slay me'. Then the Lord said to him, 'Not so! If any one slays
Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold'. And the Lord put a
mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him. Then Cain went
away from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east
of Eden. (Gen 4:2-16)
8. Cain was "very angry" and his countenance "fell" because "the Lord
had regard for Abel and his offering" (Gen 4:4-5). The biblical
text does not reveal the reason why God prefers Abel's sacrifice to
Cain's. It clearly shows however that God, although preferring Abel's
gift, does not interrupt his dialogue with Cain. He admonishes him,
reminding him of his freedom in the face of evil: man is in no way
predestined to evil. Certainly, like Adam, he is tempted by the malevolent
force of sin which, like a wild beast, lies in wait at the door of his
heart, ready to leap on its prey. But Cain remains free in the face of
sin. He can and must overcome it: "Its desire is for you, but you must
master it" (Gen 4:7).
Envy and anger have the upper hand over the Lord's warning, and
so Cain attacks his own brother and kills him. As we read in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church: "In the account of Abel's murder
by his brother Cain, Scripture reveals the presence of anger and envy in
man, consequences of original sin, from the beginning of human history.
Man has become the enemy of his fellow man"[10]
Brother kills brother. Like the first fratricide, every murder
is a violation of the "spiritual" kinship uniting mankind in one
great family,[11] in which all share the same fundamental good: equal
personal dignity. Not infrequently the kinship "of flesh and blood"
is also violated; for example when threats to life arise within the
relationship between parents and children, such as happens in abortion or
when, in the wider context of family or kinship, euthanasia is encouraged
or practised.
At the root of every act of violence against one's neighbour there is
a concession to the "thinking" of the evil one, the one who "was a
murderer from the beginning" (Jn 8:44). As the Apostle John reminds
us: "For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that
we should love one another, and not be like Cain who was of the evil one
and murdered his brother" (1 Jn 3:11-12). Cain's killing of his
brother at the very dawn of history is thus a sad witness of how evil
spreads with amazing speed: man's revolt against God in the earthly
paradise is followed by the deadly combat of man against man.
After the crime, God intervenes to avenge the one killed. Before
God, who asks him about the fate of Abel, Cain, instead of showing remorse
and apologizing, arrogantly eludes the question: "I do not know; am I my
brother's keeper?" (Gen 4:9). "I do not know": Cain tries to
cover up his crime with a lie. This was and still is the case, when all
kinds of ideologies try to justify and disguise the most atrocious crimes
against human beings. "Am I my brother's keeper?": Cain does not
wish to think about his brother and refuses to accept the responsibility
which every person has towards others. We cannot but think of today's
tendency for people to refuse to accept responsibility for their brothers
and sisters. Symptoms of this trend include the lack of solidarity towards
society's weakest members--such as the elderly, the infirm, immigrants,
children--and the indifference frequently found in relations between the
world's peoples even when basic values such as survival, freedom and peace
are involved.
9. But God cannot leave the crime unpunished: from the ground on
which it has been spilt, the blood of the one murdered demands that God
should render justice (cf. Gen 37:26; Is 26:21; Ez
24:7-8). From this text the Church has taken the name of the "sins which
cry to God for justice", and, first among them, she has included wilful
murder.[12] For the Jewish people, as for many peoples of antiquity, blood
is the source of life. Indeed "the blood is the life" (Dt 12:23),
and life, especially human life, belongs only to God: for this reason
whoever attacks human life, in some way attacks God himself.
Cain is cursed by God and also by the earth, which will deny him
its fruit (cf. Gen 4: 12). He is punished: he will live in
the wilderness and the desert. Murderous violence profoundly changes man's
environment. From being the "garden of Eden" (Gen 2:15), a place of
plenty, of harmonious interpersonal relationships and of friendship with
God, the earth becomes "the land of Nod" (Gen 4:16), a place of
scarcity, loneliness and separation from God. Cain will be "a fugitive and
a wanderer on the earth" (Gen 4:14): uncertainty and restlessness
will follow him forever.
And yet God, who is always merciful even when he punishes, "put a
mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him" (Gen
4:15). He thus gave him a distinctive sign, not to condemn him to the
hatred of others, but to protect and defend him from those wishing to kill
him, even out of a desire to avenge Abel's death. Not even a murderer
loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this.
And it is precisely here that the paradoxical mystery of the merciful
justice of God is shown forth. As Saint Ambrose writes: "Once the
crime is admitted at the very inception of this sinful act of parricide,
then the divine law of God's mercy should be immediately extended. If
punishment is forthwith inflicted on the accused, then men in the exercise
of justice would in no way observe patience and moderation, but would
straightaway condemn the defendant to punishment. . . . God drove Cain out
of his presence and sent him into exile far away from his native land, so
that he passed from a life of human kindness to one which was more akin to
the rude existence of a wild beast. God, who preferred the correction
rather than the death of a sinner, did not desire that a homicide be
punished by the exaction of another act of homicide".[13]
"What have you done?" (Genesis 4:10): The eclipse of the value of
life
10. The Lord said to Cain: "What have you done? The voice of your
brother's blood is crying to me from the ground" (Gen 4:10). The
voice of the blood shed by men continues to cry out, from generation
to generation, in ever new and different ways.
The Lord's question: "What have you done?", which Cain cannot escape,
is addressed also to the people of today, to make them realize the extent
and gravity of the attacks against life which continue to mark human
history; to make them discover what causes these attacks and feeds them;
and to make them ponder seriously the consequences which derive from these
attacks for the existence of individuals and peoples.
Some threats come from nature itself, but they are made worse by the
culpable indifference and negligence of those who could in some cases
remedy them. Others are the result of situations of violence, hatred and
conflicting interests, which lead people to attack others through murder,
war, slaughter and genocide.
And how can we fail to consider the violence against life done to
millions of human beings, especially children, who are forced into
poverty, malnutrition and hunger because of an unjust distribution of
resources between peoples and between social classes? And what of the
violence inherent not only in wars as such but in the scandalous arms
trade, which spawns the many armed conflicts which stain our world with
blood? What of the spreading of death caused by reckless tampering with
the world's ecological balance, by the criminal spread of drugs, or by the
promotion of certain kinds of sexual activity which, besides being morally
unacceptable, also involve grave risks to life? It is impossible to
catalogue completely the vast array of threats to human life, so many are
the forms, whether explicit or hidden, in which they appear today!
11. Here though we shall concentrate particular attention on another
category of attacks, affecting life in its earliest and in its final
stages, attacks which present new characteristics with respect to the
past and which raise questions of extraordinary seriousness. It is not
only that in generalized opinion these attacks tend no longer to be
considered as "crimes"; paradoxically they assume the nature of "rights",
to the point that the State is called upon to give them legal
recognition and to make them available through the free services of
health-care personnel. Such attacks strike human life at the time of
its greatest frailty, when it lacks any means of self-defence. Even more
serious is the fact that, most often, those attacks are carried out in the
very heart of and with the complicity of the family--the family which by
its nature is called to be the "sanctuary of life".
How did such a situation come about? Many different factors have to be
taken into account. In the background there is the profound crisis of
culture, which generates scepticism in relation to the very foundations of
knowledge and ethics, and which makes it increasingly difficult to grasp
clearly the meaning of what man is, the meaning of his rights and his
duties. Then there are all kinds of existential and interpersonal
difficulties, made worse by the complexity of a society in which
individuals, couples and families are often left alone with their
problems. There are situations of acute poverty, anxiety or frustration in
which the struggle to make ends meet, the presence of unbearable pain, or
instances of violence, especially against women, make the choice to defend
and promote life so demanding as sometimes to reach the point of heroism.
All this explains, at least in part, how the value of life can today
undergo a kind of "eclipse", even though conscience does not cease to
point to it as a sacred and inviolable value, as is evident in the
tendency to disguise certain crimes against life in its early or final
stages by using innocuous medical terms which distract attention from the
fact that what is involved is the right to life of an actual human person.
12. In fact, while the climate of widespread moral uncertainty can in
some way be explained by the multiplicity and gravity of today's social
problems, and these can sometimes mitigate the subjective responsibility
of individuals, it is no less true that we are confronted by an even
larger reality, which can be described as a veritable structure of
sin. This reality is characterized by the emergence of a culture which
denies solidarity and in many cases takes the form of a veritable "culture
of death". This culture is actively fostered by powerful cultural,
economic and political currents which encourage an idea of society
excessively concerned with efficiency. Looking at the situation from this
point of view, it is possible to speak in a certain sense of a war of
the powerful against the weak: a life which would require greater
acceptance, love and care is considered useless, or held to be an
intolerable burden, and is therefore rejected in one way or another. A
person who, because of illness, handicap or, more simply, just by
existing, compromises the well-being or life-style of those who are more
favoured tends to be looked upon as an enemy to be resisted or eliminated.
In this way a kind of "conspiracy against life" is unleashed. This
conspiracy involves not only individuals in their personal, family or
group relationships, but goes far beyond, to the point of damaging and
distorting, at the international level, relations between peoples and
States.
13. In order to facilitate the spread of abortion, enormous sums
of money have been invested and continue to be invested in the production
of pharmaceutical products which make it possible to kill the fetus in the
mother's womb without recourse to medical assistance. On this point,
scientific research itself seems to be almost exclusively preoccupied with
developing products which are ever more simple and effective in
suppressing life and which at the same time are capable of removing
abortion from any kind of control or social responsibility.
It is frequently asserted that contraception, if made safe and
available to all, is the most effective remedy against abortion. The
Catholic Church is then accused of actually promoting abortion, because
she obstinately continues to teach the moral unlawfulness of
contraception. When looked at carefully, this objection is clearly
unfounded. It may be that many people use contraception with a view to
excluding the subsequent temptation of abortion. But the negative values
inherent in the "contraceptive mentality"--which is very different from
responsible parenthood, lived in respect for the full truth of the
conjugal act--are such that they in fact strengthen this temptation when
an unwanted life is conceived. Indeed, the pro-abortion culture is
especially strong precisely where the Church's teaching on contraception
is rejected. Certainly, from the moral point of view contraception and
abortion are specifically different evils: the former contradicts
the full truth of the sexual act as the proper expression of conjugal
love, while the latter destroys the life of a human being; the former is
opposed to the virtue of chastity in marriage, the latter is opposed to
the virtue of justice and directly violates the divine commandment "You
shall not kill".
But despite their differences of nature and moral gravity,
contraception and abortion are often closely connected, as fruits of the
same tree. It is true that in many cases contraception and even abortion
are practised under the pressure of real-life difficulties, which
nonetheless can never exonerate from striving to observe God's law fully.
Still, in very many other instances such practices are rooted in a
hedonistic mentality unwilling to accept responsibility in matters of
sexuality, and they imply a self-centered concept of freedom, which
regards procreation as an obstacle to personal fulfilment. The life which
could result from a sexual encounter thus becomes an enemy to be avoided
at all costs, and abortion becomes the only possible decisive response to
failed contraception.
The close connection which exists, in mentality, between the practice
of contraception and that of abortion is becoming increasingly obvious. It
is being demonstrated in an alarming way by the development of chemical
products, intrauterine devices and vaccines which, distributed with the
same ease as contraceptives, really act as abortifacients in the very
early stages of the development of the life of the new human being.
14. The various techniques of artificial reproduction, which
would seem to be at the service of life and which are frequently used with
this intention, actually open the door to new threats against life. Apart
from the fact that they are morally unacceptable, since they separate
procreation from the fully human context of the conjugal act,[14] these
techniques have a high rate of failure: not just failure in relation to
fertilization but with regard to the subsequent development of the embryo,
which is exposed to the risk of death, generally within a very short space
of time. Furthermore, the number of embryos produced is often greater than
that needed for implantation in the woman's womb, and these so-called
"spare embryos" are then destroyed or used for research which, under the
pretext of scientific or medical progress, in fact reduces human life to
the level of simple "biological material" to be freely disposed of.
Prenatal diagnosis, which presents no moral objections if
carried out in order to identify the medical treatment which may be needed
by the child in the womb, all too often becomes an opportunity for
proposing and procuring an abortion. This is eugenic abortion, justified
in public opinion on the basis of a mentality--mistakenly held to be
consistent with the demands of "therapeutic interventions"--which accepts
life only under certain conditions and rejects it when it is affected by
any limitation, handicap or illness.
Following this same logic, the point has been reached where the most
basic care, even nourishment, is denied to babies born with serious
handicaps or illnesses. The contemporary scene, moreover, is becoming even
more alarming by reason of the proposals, advanced here and there, to
justify even infanticide, following the same arguments used to
justify the right to abortion. In this way, we revert to a state of
barbarism which one hoped had been left behind forever.
15. Threats which are no less serious hang over the incurably
ill and the dying. In a social and cultural context which makes
it more difficult to face and accept suffering, the temptation
becomes all the greater to resolve the problem of suffering by
eliminating it at the root, by hastening death so that it occurs at
the moment considered most suitable.
Various considerations usually contribute to such a decision, all of
which converge in the same terrible outcome. In the sick person the sense
of anguish, of severe discomfort, and even of desperation brought on by
intense and prolonged suffering can be a decisive factor. Such a situation
can threaten the already fragile equilibrium of an individual's personal
and family life, with the result that, on the one hand, the sick person,
despite the help of increasingly effective medical and social assistance,
risks feeling overwhelmed by his or her own frailty; and on the other
hand, those close to the sick person can be moved by an understandable
even if misplaced compassion. All this is aggravated by a cultural climate
which fails to perceive any meaning or value in suffering, but rather
considers suffering the epitome of evil, to be eliminated at all costs.
This is especially the case in the absence of a religious outlook which
could help to provide a positive understanding of the mystery of
suffering.
On a more general level, there exists in contemporary culture a certain
Promethean attitude which leads people to think that they can control life
and death by taking the decisions about them into their own hands. What
really happens in this case is that the individual is overcome and crushed
by a death deprived of any prospect of meaning or hope. We see a tragic
expression of all this in the spread of euthanasia--disguised and
surreptitious, or practised openly and even legally. As well as for
reasons of a misguided pity at the sight of the patient's suffering,
euthanasia is sometimes justified by the utilitarian motive of avoiding
costs which bring no return and which weigh heavily on society. Thus it is
proposed to eliminate malformed babies, the severely handicapped, the
disabled, the elderly, especially when they are not self-sufficient, and
the terminally ill. Nor can we remain silent in the face of other more
furtive, but no less serious and real, forms of euthanasia. These could
occur for example when, in order to increase the availability of organs
for transplants, organs are removed without respecting objective and
adequate criteria which verify the death of the donor.
16. Another present-day phenomenon, frequently used to justify
threats and attacks against life, is the demographic question. This
question arises in different ways in different parts of the world. In the
rich and developed countries there is a disturbing decline or collapse of
the birthrate. The poorer countries, on the other hand, generally have a
high rate of population growth, difficult to sustain in the context of low
economic and social development, and especially where there is extreme
underdevelopment. In the face of overpopulation in the poorer countries,
instead of forms of global intervention at the international
level--serious family and social policies, programmes of cultural
development and of fair production and distribution of
resources--anti-birth policies continue to be enacted.
Contraception, sterilization and abortion are certainly part of the
reason why in some cases there is a sharp decline in the birthrate. It is
not difficult to be tempted to use the same methods and attacks against
life also where there is a situation of "demographic explosion".
The Pharaoh of old, haunted by the presence and increase of the
children of Israel, submitted them to every kind of oppression and ordered
that every male child born of the Hebrew women was to be killed (cf.
Ex 1:7-22). Today not a few of the powerful of the earth act in the
same way. They too are haunted by the current demographic growth, and fear
that the most prolific and poorest peoples represent a threat for the
well-being and peace of their own countries. Consequently, rather than
wishing to face and solve these serious problems with respect for the
dignity of individuals and families and for every person's inviolable
right to life, they prefer to promote and impose by whatever means a
massive programme of birth control. Even the economic help which they
would be ready to give is unjustly made conditional on the acceptance of
an anti-birth policy.
17. Humanity today offers us a truly alarming spectacle, if we consider
not only how extensively attacks on life are spreading but also their
unheard-of numerical proportion, and the fact that they receive widespread
and powerful support from a broad consensus on the part of society, from
widespread legal approval and the involvement of certain sectors of
health-care personnel.
As I emphatically stated at Denver, on the occasion of the Eighth World
Youth Day, "with time the threats against life have not grown weaker. They
are taking on vast proportions. They are not only threats coming from the
outside, from the forces of nature or the 'Cains' who kill the 'Abels';
no, they are scientifically and systematically programmed threats.
The twentieth century will have been an era of massive attacks on life, an
endless series of wars and a continual taking of innocent human life.
False prophets and false teachers have had the greatest success".[15]
Aside from intentions, which can be varied and perhaps can seem convincing
at times, especially if presented in the name of solidarity, we are in
fact faced by an objective "conspiracy against life", involving
even international Institutions, engaged in encouraging and carrying out
actual campaigns to make contraception, sterilization and abortion widely
available. Nor can it be denied that the mass media are often implicated
in this conspiracy, by lending credit to that culture which presents
recourse to contraception, sterilization, abortion and even euthanasia as
a mark of progress and a victory of freedom, while depicting as enemies of
freedom and progress those positions which are unreservedly pro-life.
"Am I my brother's keeper?" (Genesis 4:9): A perverse idea of
freedom
18. The panorama described needs to be understood not only in terms of
the phenomena of death which characterize it but also in the variety of
causes which determine it. The Lord's question: "What have you done?"
(Gen 4:10), seems almost like an invitation addressed to Cain to go
beyond the material dimension of his murderous gesture, in order to
recognize in it all the gravity of the motives which occasioned it
and the consequences which result from it.
Decisions that go against life sometimes arise from difficult or even
tragic situations of profound suffering, loneliness, a total lack of
economic prospects, depression and anxiety about the future. Such
circumstances can mitigate even to a notable degree subjective
responsibility and the consequent culpability of those who make these
choices which in themselves are evil. But today the problem goes far
beyond the necessary recognition of these personal situations. It is a
problem which exists at the cultural, social and political level, where it
reveals its more sinister and disturbing aspect in the tendency, ever more
widely shared, to interpret the above crimes against life as legitimate
expressions of individual freedom, to be acknowledged and protected as
actual rights.
In this way, and with tragic consequences, a long historical process is
reaching a turning-point. The process which once led to discovering the
idea of "human rights"-- rights inherent in every person and prior to any
Constitution and State legislation--is today marked by a surprising
contradiction. Precisely in an age when the inviolable rights of the
person are solemnly proclaimed and the value of life is publicly affirmed,
the very right to life is being denied or trampled upon, especially at the
more significant moments of existence: the moment of birth and the moment
of death.
On the one hand, the various declarations of human rights and the many
initiatives inspired by these declarations show that at the global level
there is a growing moral sensitivity, more alert to acknowledging the
value and dignity of every individual as a human being, without any
distinction of race, nationality, religion, political opinion or social
class.
On the other hand, these noble proclamations are unfortunately
contradicted by a tragic repudiation of them in practice. This denial is
still more distressing, indeed more scandalous, precisely because it is
occurring in a society which makes the affirmation and protection of human
rights its primary objective and its boast. How can these repeated
affirmations of principle be reconciled with the continual increase and
widespread justification of attacks on human life? How can we reconcile
these declarations with the refusal to accept those who are weak and
needy, or elderly, or those who have just been conceived? These attacks go
directly against respect for life and they represent a direct threat to
the entire culture of human rights. It is a threat capable, in the
end, of jeopardizing the very meaning of democratic coexistence: rather
than societies of "people living together", our cities risk becoming
societies of people who are rejected, marginalized, uprooted and
oppressed. If we then look at the wider worldwide perspective, how can we
fail to think that the very affirmation of the rights of individuals and
peoples made in distinguished international assemblies is a merely futile
exercise of rhetoric, if we fail to unmask the selfishness of the rich
countries which exclude poorer countries from access to development or
make such access dependent on arbitrary prohibitions against procreation,
setting up an opposition between development and man himself? Should we
not question the very economic models often adopted by States which, also
as a result of international pressures and forms of conditioning, cause
and aggravate situations of injustice and violence in which the life of
whole peoples is degraded and trampled upon?
19. What are the roots of this remarkable contradiction?
We can find them in an overall assessment of a cultural and moral
nature, beginning with the mentality which carries the concept of
subjectivity to an extreme and even distorts it, and recognizes as a
subject of rights only the person who enjoys full or at least incipient
autonomy and who emerges from a state of total dependence on others. But
how can we reconcile this approach with the exaltation of man as a
being who is "not to be used"? The theory of human rights is based
precisely on the affirmation that the human person, unlike animals and
things, cannot be subjected to domination by others. We must also mention
the mentality which tends to equate personal dignity with the capacity
for verbal and explicit, or at least perceptible,
communication. It is clear that on the basis of these
presuppositions there is no place in the world for anyone who, like the
unborn or the dying, is a weak element in the social structure, or for
anyone who appears completely at the mercy of others and radically
dependent on them, and can only communicate through the silent language of
a profound sharing of affection. In this case it is force which becomes
the criterion for choice and action in interpersonal relations and in
social life. But this is the exact opposite of what a State ruled by law,
as a community in which the "reasons of force" are replaced by the "force
of reason", historically intended to affirm.
At another level, the roots of the contradiction between the solemn
affirmation of human rights and their tragic denial in practice lies in a
notion of freedom which exalts the isolated individual in an
absolute way, and gives no place to solidarity, to openness to others and
service of them. While it is true that the taking of life not yet born or
in its final stages is sometimes marked by a mistaken sense of altruism
and human compassion, it cannot be denied that such a culture of death,
taken as a whole, betrays a completely individualistic concept of freedom,
which ends up by becoming the freedom of "the strong" against the weak who
have no choice but to submit.
It is precisely in this sense that Cain's answer to the Lord's
question: "Where is Abel your brother?" can be interpreted: "I do not
know; am I my brother's keeper?" (Gen 4:9). Yes, every man
is his "brother's keeper", because God entrusts us to one another. And it
is also in view of this entrusting that God gives everyone freedom, a
freedom which possesses an inherently relational dimension. This is
a great gift of the Creator, placed as it is at the service of the person
and of his fulfilment through the gift of self and openness to others; but
when freedom is made absolute in an individualistic way, it is emptied of
its original content, and its very meaning and dignity are contradicted.
There is an even more profound aspect which needs to be emphasized:
freedom negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to the
destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its
essential link with the truth. When freedom, out of a desire to
emancipate itself from all forms of tradition and authority, shuts out
even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth, which
is the foundation of personal and social life, then the person ends up by
no longer taking as the sole and indisputable point of reference for his
own choices the truth about good and evil, but only his subjective and
changeable opinion or, indeed, his selfish interest and whim.
20. This view of freedom leads to a serious distortion of life in
society. If the promotion of the self is understood in terms of
absolute autonomy, people inevitably reach the point of rejecting one
another. Everyone else is considered an enemy from whom one has to defend
oneself. Thus society becomes a mass of individuals placed side by side,
but without any mutual bonds. Each one wishes to assert himself
independently of the other and in fact intends to make his own interests
prevail. Still, in the face of other people's analogous interests, some
kind of compromise must be found, if one wants a society in which the
maximum possible freedom is guaranteed to each individual. In this way,
any reference to common values and to a truth absolutely binding on
everyone is lost, and social life ventures on to the shifting sands of
complete relativism. At that point, everything is negotiable,
everything is open to bargaining: even the first of the fundamental
rights, the right to life.
This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government:
the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the
basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people--even
if it is the majority. This is the sinister result of a relativism which
reigns unopposed: the "right" ceases to be such, because it is no longer
firmly founded on the inviolable dignity of the person, but is made
subject to the will of the stronger part. In this way democracy,
contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of
totalitarianism. The State is no longer the "common home" where all can
live together on the basis of principles of fundamental equality, but is
transformed into a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the
right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenceless members,
from the unborn child to the elderly, in the name of a public interest
which is really nothing but the interest of one part. The appearance of
the strictest respect for legality is maintained, at least when the laws
permitting abortion and euthanasia are the result of a ballot in
accordance with what are generally seen as the rules of democracy. Really,
what we have here is only the tragic caricature of legality; the
democratic ideal, which is only truly such when it acknowledges and
safeguards the dignity of every human person, is betrayed in its very
foundations: "How is it still possible to speak of the dignity of
every human person when the killing of the weakest and most innocent is
permitted? In the name of what justice is the most unjust of
discriminations practised: some individuals are held to be deserving of
defence and others are denied that dignity?"[16] When this happens, the
process leading to the breakdown of a genuinely human co-existence and the
disintegration of the State itself has already begun.
To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to
recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a
perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over
others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: "Truly,
truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin"
(Jn 8:34).
"And from your face I shall be hidden" (Genesis 4:14): The eclipse
of the sense of God and of man
21. In seeking the deepest roots of the struggle between the "culture
of life" and the "culture of death", we cannot restrict ourselves to the
perverse idea of freedom mentioned above. We have to go to the heart of
the tragedy being experienced by modern man: the eclipse of the sense
of God and of man, typical of a social and cultural climate dominated
by secularism, which, with its ubiquitous tentacles, succeeds at times in
putting Christian communities themselves to the test. Those who allow
themselves to be influenced by this climate easily fall into a sad vicious
circle: when the sense of God is lost, there is also a tendency to lose
the sense of man, of his dignity and his life; in turn, the systematic
violation of the moral law, especially in the serious matter of respect
for human life and its dignity, produces a kind of progressive darkening
of the capacity to discern God's living and saving presence.
Once again we can gain insight from the story of Abel's murder by his
brother. After the curse imposed on him by God, Cain thus addresses the
Lord: "My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven
me this day away from the ground; and from your face I shall be
hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and wanderer on the earth, and
whoever finds me will slay me" (Gen 4:13-14). Cain is convinced
that his sin will not obtain pardon from the Lord and that his inescapable
destiny will be to have to "hide his face" from him. If Cain is capable of
confessing that his fault is "greater than he can bear", it is because he
is conscious of being in the presence of God and before God's just
judgment. It is really only before the Lord that man can admit his sin and
recognize its full seriousness. Such was the experience of David who,
after "having committed evil in the sight of the Lord", and being rebuked
by the Prophet Nathan, exclaimed: "My offences truly I know them; my sin
is always before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned; what is evil
in your sight I have done" (Ps 51:5-6).
22. Consequently, when the sense of God is lost, the sense of man is
also threatened and poisoned, as the Second Vatican Council concisely
states: "Without the Creator the creature would disappear . . . But when
God is forgotten the creature itself grows unintelligible".[17] Man is no
longer able to see himself as "mysteriously different" from other earthly
creatures; he regards himself merely as one more living being, as an
organism which, at most, has reached a very high stage of perfection.
Enclosed in the narrow horizon of his physical nature, he is somehow
reduced to being "a thing", and no longer grasps the "transcendent"
character of his "existence as man". He no longer considers life as a
splendid gift of God, something "sacred" entrusted to his responsibility
and thus also to his loving care and "veneration". Life itself becomes a
mere "thing", which man claims as his exclusive property, completely
subject to his control and manipulation.
Thus, in relation to life at birth or at death, man is no longer
capable of posing the question of the truest meaning of his own existence,
nor can he assimilate with genuine freedom these crucial moments of his
own history. He is concerned only with "doing", and, using all kinds of
technology, he busies himself with programming, controlling and dominating
birth and death. Birth and death, instead of being primary experiences
demanding to be "lived", become things to be merely "possessed" or
"rejected".
Moreover, once all reference to God has been removed, it is not
surprising that the meaning of everything else becomes profoundly
distorted. Nature itself, from being "mater" (mother), is now
reduced to being "matter", and is subjected to every kind of manipulation.
This is the direction in which a certain technical and scientific way of
thinking, prevalent in present-day culture, appears to be leading when it
rejects the very idea that there is a truth of creation which must be
acknowledged, or a plan of God for life which must be respected. Something
similar happens when concern about the consequences of such a "freedom
without law" leads some people to the opposite position of a "law without
freedom", as for example in ideologies which consider it unlawful to
interfere in any way with nature, practically "divinizing" it. Again, this
is a misunderstanding of nature's dependence on the plan of the Creator.
Thus it is clear that the loss of contact with God's wise design is the
deepest root of modern man's confusion, both when this loss leads to a
freedom without rules and when it leaves man in "fear" of his freedom.
By living "as if God did not exist", man not only loses sight of the
mystery of God, but also of the mystery of the world and the mystery of
his own being.
23. The eclipse of the sense of God and of man inevitably leads to a
practical materialism, which breeds individualism, utilitarianism
and hedonism. Here too we see the permanent validity of the words of the
Apostle: "And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them
up to a base mind and to improper conduct" (Rom 1:28). The values
of being are replaced by those of having. The only goal
which counts is the pursuit of one's own material well-being. The
so-called "quality of life" is interpreted primarily or exclusively as
economic efficiency, inordinate consumerism, physical beauty and pleasure,
to the neglect of the more profound dimensions--interpersonal, spiritual
and religious--of existence.
In such a context suffering, an inescapable burden of human
existence but also a factor of possible personal growth, is "censored",
rejected as useless, indeed opposed as an evil, always and in every way to
be avoided. When it cannot be avoided and the prospect of even some future
well-being vanishes, then life appears to have lost all meaning and the
temptation grows in man to claim the right to suppress it.
Within this same cultural climate, the body is no longer
perceived as a properly personal reality, a sign and place of relations
with others, with God and with the world. It is reduced to pure
materiality: it is simply a complex of organs, functions and energies to
be used according to the sole criteria of pleasure and efficiency.
Consequently, sexuality too is depersonalized and exploited: from
being the sign, place and language of love, that is, of the gift of self
and acceptance of another, in all the other's richness as a person, it
increasingly becomes the occasion and instrument for self-assertion and
the selfish satisfaction of personal desires and instincts. Thus the
original import of human sexuality is distorted and falsified, and the two
meanings, unitive and procreative, inherent in the very nature of the
conjugal act, are artificially separated: in this way the marriage union
is betrayed and its fruitfulness is subjected to the caprice of the
couple. Procreation then becomes the "enemy" to be avoided in
sexual activity: if it is welcomed, this is only because it expresses a
desire, or indeed the intention, to have a child "at all costs", and not
because it signifies the complete acceptance of the other and therefore an
openness to the richness of life which the child represents.
In the materialistic perspective described so far, interpersonal
relations are seriously impoverished. The first to be harmed are
women, children, the sick or suffering, and the elderly. The criterion of
personal dignity--which demands respect, generosity and service--is
replaced by the criterion of efficiency, functionality and usefulness:
others are considered not for what they "are", but for what they "have, do
and produce". This is the supremacy of the strong over the weak.
24. It is at the heart of the moral conscience that the eclipse
of the sense of God and of man, with all its various and deadly
consequences for life, is taking place. It is a question, above all, of
the individual conscience, as it stands before God in its
singleness and uniqueness.[18] But it is also a question, in a certain
sense, of the "moral conscience" of society: in a way it too is
responsible, not only because it tolerates or fosters behaviour contrary
to life, but also because it encourages the "culture of death", creating
and consolidating actual "structures of sin" which go against life. The
moral conscience, both individual and social, is today subjected, also as
a result of the penetrating influence of the media, to an extremely
serious and mortal danger: that of confusion between good and
evil, precisely in relation to the fundamental right to life. A large
part of contemporary society looks sadly like that humanity which Paul
describes in his Letter to the Romans. It is composed "of men who by their
wickedness suppress the truth" (1:18): having denied God and believing
that they can build the earthly city without him, "they became futile in
their thinking" so that "their senseless minds were darkened" (1:21);
"claiming to be wise, they became fools" (1:22), carrying out works
deserving of death, and "they not only do them but approve those who
practise them" (1:32). When conscience, this bright lamp of the soul (cf.
Mt 6:22-23), calls "evil good and good evil" (Is 5:20), it
is already on the path to the most alarming corruption and the darkest
moral blindness.
And yet all the conditioning and efforts to enforce silence fail to
stifle the voice of the Lord echoing in the conscience of every
individual: it is always from this intimate sanctuary of the conscience
that a new journey of love, openness and service to human life can begin.
"You have come to the sprinkled blood" (cf. Hebrews 12:22, 24):
Signs of hope and invitation to commitment
25. "The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground"
(Gen 4:10). It is not only the voice of the blood of Abel, the
first innocent man to be murdered, which cries to God, the source and
defender of life. The blood of every other human being who has been killed
since Abel is also a voice raised to the Lord. In an absolutely singular
way, as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, the voice
of the blood of Christ, of whom Abel in his innocence is a prophetic
figure, cries out to God: "You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of
the living God . . . to the mediator of a new covenant, and to the
sprinkled blood that speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel"
(12:22, 24).
It is the sprinkled blood. A symbol and prophetic sign of it had
been the blood of the sacrifices of the Old Covenant, whereby God
expressed his will to communicate his own life to men, purifying and
consecrating them (cf. Ex 24:8; Lev 17:11). Now all of this
is fulfilled and comes true in Christ: his is the sprinkled blood which
redeems, purifies and saves; it is the blood of the Mediator of the New
Covenant "poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins" (Mt
26:28). This blood, which flows from the pierced side of Christ on the
Cross (cf. Jn 19:34), "speaks more graciously" than the blood of
Abel; indeed, it expresses and requires a more radical "justice", and
above all it implores mercy,[19] it makes intercession for the brethren
before the Father (cf. Heb 7:25), and it is the source of perfect
redemption and the gift of new life.
The blood of Christ, while it reveals the grandeur of the Father's
love, shows how precious man is in God's eyes and bow priceless the
value of his life. The Apostle Peter reminds us of this: "You know
that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers,
not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Pt
1:18-19). Precisely by contemplating the precious blood of Christ, the
sign of his self-giving love (cf. Jn 13:1), the believer learns to
recognize and appreciate the almost divine dignity of every human being
and can exclaim with ever renewed and grateful wonder: "How precious must
man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he 'gained so great a Redeemer'
(Exsultet of the Easter Vigil), and if God 'gave his only Son' in
order that man 'should not perish but have eternal life' (cf. Jn
3:16)!".[20]
Furthermore, Christ's blood reveals to man that his greatness, and
therefore his vocation, consists in the sincere gift of self.
Precisely because it is poured out as the gift of life, the blood of
Christ is no longer a sign of death, of definitive separation from the
brethren, but the instrument of a communion which is richness of life for
all. Whoever in the Sacrament of the Eucharist drinks this blood and
abides in Jesus (cf. Jn 6:56) is drawn into the dynamism of his
love and gift of life, in order To bring to its fullness the original
vocation to love which belongs to everyone (cf. Gen 1:27; 2:18-24).
It is from the blood of Christ that all draw the strength to commit
themselves to promoting life. It is precisely this blood that is
the most powerful source of hope, indeed it is the foundation of the
absolute certitude that in God's plan life will be victorious. "And
death shall be no more", exclaims the powerful voice which comes from the
throne of God in the Heavenly Jerusalem (Rev 21:4). And Saint Paul
assures us that the present victory over sin is a sign and anticipation of
the definitive victory over death, when there "shall come to pass the
saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory'. 'O death,
where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"' (1 Cor
15:54-55).
26. In effect, signs which point to this victory are not lacking in our
societies and cultures, strongly marked though they are by the "culture of
death". It would therefore be to give a one-sided picture, which could
lead to sterile discouragement, if the condemnation of the threats to life
were not accompanied by the presentation of the positive signs at
work in humanity's present situation.
Unfortunately it is often hard to see and recognize these positive
signs, perhaps also because they do not receive sufficient attention in
the communications media. Yet, how many initiatives of help and support
for people who are weak and defenceless have sprung up and continue to
spring up in the Christian community and in civil society, at the local,
national and international level, through the efforts of individuals,
groups, movements and organizations of various kinds!
There are still many married couples who, with a generous sense
of responsibility, are ready to accept children as "the supreme gift of
marriage".[21] Nor is there a lack of families which, over and
above their everyday service to life, are willing to accept abandoned
children, boys and girls and teenagers in difficulty, handicapped persons,
elderly men and women who have been left alone. Many centres in support
of life, or similar institutions, are sponsored by individuals and
groups which, with admirable dedication and sacrifice, offer moral and
material support to mothers who are in difficulty and are tempted to have
recourse to abortion. Increasingly, there are appearing in many places
groups of volunteers prepared to offer hospitality to persons
without a family, who find themselves in conditions of particular distress
or who need a supportive environment to help them to overcome destructive
habits and discover anew the meaning of life.
Medical science, thanks to the committed efforts of researchers
and practitioners, continues in its efforts to discover ever more
effective remedies: treatments which were once inconceivable but which now
offer much promise for the future are today being developed for the
unborn, the suffering and those in an acute or terminal stage of sickness.
Various agencies and organizations are mobilizing their efforts to bring
the benefits of the most advanced medicine to countries most afflicted by
poverty and endemic diseases. In a similar way national and international
associations of physicians are being organized to bring quick relief to
peoples affected by natural disasters, epidemics or wars. Even if a just
international distribution of medical resources is still far from being a
reality, how can we not recognize in the steps taken so far the sign of a
growing solidarity among peoples, a praiseworthy human and moral
sensitivity and a greater respect for life?
27. In view of laws which permit abortion and in view of efforts, which
here and there have been successful, to legalize euthanasia, movements
and initiatives to raise social awareness in defence of life have
sprung up in many parts of the world. When, in accordance with their
principles, such movements act resolutely, but without resorting to
violence, they promote a wider and more profound consciousness of the
value of life, and evoke and bring about a more determined commitment to
its defence.
Furthermore, how can we fail to mention all those daily gestures of
openness, sacrifice and unselfish care which countless people lovingly
make in families, hospitals, orphanages, homes for the elderly and other
centres or communities which defend life? Allowing herself to be guided by
the example of Jesus the "Good Samaritan" (cf. Lk 10:29-37) and
upheld by his strength, the Church bas always been in the front line in
providing charitable help: so many of her sons and daughters, especially
men and women Religious, in traditional and ever new forms, have
consecrated and continue to consecrate their lives to God, freely giving
of themselves out of love for their neighbour, especially for the weak and
needy. These deeds strengthen the bases of the "civilization of love and
life", without which the life of individuals and of society itself loses
its most genuinely human quality. Even if they go unnoticed and remain
hidden to most people, faith assures us that the Father "who sees in
secret" (Mt 6:6) not only will reward these actions but already
here and now makes them produce lasting fruit for the good of all.
Among the signs of hope we should also count the spread, at many levels
of public opinion, of a new sensitivity ever more opposed to war as
an instrument for the resolution of conflicts between peoples, and
increasingly oriented to finding effective but "non-violent" means to
counter the armed aggressor. In the same perspective there is evidence of
a growing public opposition to the death penalty, even when such a
penalty is seen as a kind of "legitimate defence" on the part of society.
Modern society in fact has the means of effectively suppressing crime by
rendering criminals harmless without definitively denying them the chance
to reform.
Another welcome sign is the growing attention being paid to the
quality of life and to ecology, especially in more developed
societies, where people's expectations are no longer concentrated so much
on problems of survival as on the search for an overall improvement of
living conditions. Especially significant is the reawakening of an ethical
reflection on issues affecting life. The emergence and ever more
widespread development of bioethics is promoting more reflection
and dialogue--between believers and non-believers, as well as between
followers of different religions--on ethical problems, including
fundamental issues pertaining to human life.
28. This situation, with its lights and shadows, ought to make us all
fully aware that we are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good
and evil, death and life, the "culture of death" and the "culture of
life". We find ourselves not only "faced with" but necessarily "in the
midst of" this conflict: we are all involved and we all share in it, with
the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally
pro-life.
For us too Moses' invitation rings out loud and clear: "See, I have set
before you this day life and good, death and evil. . . . I have set before
you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you
and your descendants may live" (Dt 30:15,19). This invitation
is very appropriate for us who are called day by day to the duty of
choosing between the "culture of life" and the "culture of death". But the
call of Deuteronomy goes even deeper, for it urges us to make a choice
which is properly religious and moral. It is a question of giving our own
existence a basic orientation and living the law of the Lord faithfully
and consistently: "If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which
I command you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking
in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes
and his ordinances, then you shall live . . . therefore choose life, that
you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his
voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of
days" (30:16,19-20).
The unconditional choice for life reaches its full religious and moral
meaning when it flows from, is formed by and nourished by faith in
Christ. Nothing helps us so much to face positively the conflict
between death and life in which we are engaged as faith in the Son of God
who became man and dwelt among men so "that they may have life, and have
it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). It is a matter of faith in the Risen
Lord, who has conquered death; faith in the blood of Christ "that
speaks more graciously than the blood of Abel" (Heb 12:24).
With the light and strength of this faith, therefore, in facing the
challenges of the present situation, the Church is becoming more aware of
the grace and responsibility which come to her from her Lord of
proclaiming, celebrating and serving the Gospel of life.
Chapter II
"I Came that They May Have Life"
(The Christian Message Concerning Life)
"The life was made manifest, and we saw it" (1 John 1:2): With our
gaze fixed on Christ, "the Word of life"
29. Faced with the countless grave threats to life present in the
modern world, one could feel overwhelmed by sheer powerlessness: good can
never be powerful enough to triumph over evil!
At such times the People of God, and this includes every believer, is
called to profess with humility and courage its faith in Jesus Christ,
"the Word of life" (1 Jn 1:1). The Gospel of life is not
simply a reflection, however new and profound, on human life. Nor is it
merely a commandment aimed at raising awareness and bringing about
significant changes in society. Still less is it an illusory promise of a
better future. The Gospel of life is something concrete and
personal, for it consists in the proclamation of the very person of
Jesus. Jesus made himself known to the Apostle Thomas, and in him to
every person, with the words: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life"
(Jn 14:6). This is also how he spoke of himself to Martha, the
sister of Lazarus: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in
me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me
shall never die" (Jn 11:25-26). Jesus is the Son who from all
eternity receives life from the Father (cf. Jn 5:26), and who has
come among men to make them sharers in this gift: "I came that they may
have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10).
Through the words, the actions and the very person of Jesus, man is
given the possibility of "knowing" the complete truth concerning
the value of human life. From this "source" he receives, in particular,
the capacity to "accomplish" this truth perfectly (cf. Jn 3:21),
that is, to accept and fulfil completely the responsibility of loving and
serving, of defending and promoting human life. In Christ, the Gospel
of life is definitively proclaimed and fully given. This is the Gospel
which, already present in the Revelation of the Old Testament, and indeed
written in the heart of every man and woman, has echoed in every
conscience "from the beginning", from the time of creation itself, in such
a way that, despite the negative consequences of sin, it can also be
known in its essential traits by human reason. As the Second Vatican
Council teaches, Christ "perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his
whole work of making himself present and manifesting himself; through his
words and deeds, his signs and wonders, but especially through his death
and glorious Resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of
truth. Moreover, he confirmed with divine testimony what revelation
proclaimed: that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and
death, and to raise us up to life eternal".[22]
30. Hence, with our attention fixed on the Lord Jesus, we wish to hear
from him once again "the words of God" (Jn 3:34) and meditate anew
on the Gospel of life. The deepest and most original meaning of
this meditation on what revelation tells us about human life was taken up
by the Apostle John in the opening words of his First Letter: "That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the
word of life--the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to
it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was
made manifest to us--that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to
you, so that you may have fellowship with us" (1:1-3).
In Jesus, the "Word of life", God's eternal life is thus proclaimed and
given. Thanks to this proclamation and gift, our physical and spiritual
life, also in its earthly phase, acquires its full value and meaning, for
God's eternal life is in fact the end to which our living in this world is
directed and called. In this way the Gospel of life includes
everything that human experience and reason tell us about the value of
human life, accepting it, purifying it, exalting it and bringing it to
fulfilment.
"The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my
salvation" (Exodus 15:2): Life is always a good
31. The fullness of the Gospel message about life was prepared for in
the Old Testament. Especially in the events of the Exodus, the centre of
the Old Testament faith experience, Israel discovered the preciousness of
its life in the eyes of God. When it seemed doomed to extermination
because of the threat of death hanging over all its newborn males (cf.
Ex 1:15-22), the Lord revealed himself to Israel as its Saviour,
with the power to ensure a future to those without hope. Israel thus comes
to know clearly that its existence is not at the mercy of a Pharaoh
who can exploit it at his despotic whim. On the contrary, Israel's life is
the object of God's gentle and intense love.
Freedom from slavery meant the gift of an identity, the recognition of
an indestructible dignity and the beginning of a new history, in
which the discovery of God and discovery of self go hand in hand. The
Exodus was a foundational experience and a model for the future. Through
it, Israel comes to learn that whenever its existence is threatened it
need only turn to God with renewed trust in order to find in him effective
help: "I formed you, you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be
forgotten by me" (Is 44:21).
Thus, in coming to know the value of its own existence as a people,
Israel also grows in its perception of the meaning and value of life
itself. This reflection is developed more specifically in the Wisdom
Literature, on the basis of daily experience of the precariousness of life
and awareness of the threats which assail it. Faced with the
contradictions of life, faith is challenged to respond.
More than anything else, it is the problem of suffering which
challenges faith and puts it to the test. How can we fail to appreciate
the universal anguish of man when we meditate on the Book of Job? The
innocent man overwhelmed by suffering is understandably led to wonder:
"Why is light given to him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in
soul, who long for death, but it comes not, and dig for it more than for
hid treasures?" (3:20-21). But even when the darkness is deepest, faith
points to a trusting and adoring acknowledgment of the "mystery": "I know
that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted"
(Job 42:2).
Revelation progressively allows the first notion of immortal life
planted by the Creator in the human heart to be grasped with ever greater
clarity: "He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put
eternity into man's mind" (Ec 3:11). This first notion of
totality and fullness is waiting to be manifested in love and brought
to perfection, by God's free gift, through sharing in his eternal life.
"The name of Jesus . . . has made this man strong" (Acts 3:16): In
the uncertainties of human life, Jesus brings life's meaning to
fulfilment
32. The experience of the people of the Covenant is renewed in the
experience of all the "poor" who meet Jesus of Nazareth. Just as God who
"loves the living" (cf. Wis 11:26) had reassured Israel in the
midst of danger, so now the Son of God proclaims to all who feel
threatened and hindered that their lives too are a good to which the
Father's love gives meaning and value.
"The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to
them" (Lk 7:22). With these words of the Prophet Isaiah (35:5-6,
61:1), Jesus sets forth the meaning of his own mission: all who suffer
because their lives are in some way "diminished" thus hear from him the
"good news" of God's concern for them, and they know for certain that
their lives too are a gift carefully guarded in the hands of the Father
(cf. Mt 6:25-34).
It is above all the "poor" to whom Jesus speaks in his preaching and
actions. The crowds of the sick and the outcasts who follow him and seek
him out (cf. Mt 4:23-25) find in his words and actions a revelation
of the great value of their lives and of how their hope of salvation is
well-founded.
The same thing has taken place in the Church's mission from the
beginning. When the Church proclaims Christ as the one who "went about
doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was
with him" (Acts 10:38), she is conscious of being the bearer of a
message of salvation which resounds in all its newness precisely amid the
hardships and poverty of human life. Peter cured the cripple who daily
sought alms at the "Beautiful Gate" of the Temple in Jerusalem, saying: "I
have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6). By faith in Jesus, "the
Author of life" (Acts 3:15), life which lies abandoned and cries
out for help regains self-esteem and full dignity.
The words and deeds of Jesus and those of his Church are not meant only
for those who are sick or suffering or in some way neglected by society.
On a deeper level they affect the very meaning of every person's life
in its moral and spiritual dimensions. Only those who recognize that
their life is marked by the evil of sin can discover in an encounter with
Jesus the Saviour the truth and the authenticity of their own existence.
Jesus himself says as much: "Those who are well have no need of a
physician, but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance" (Lk 5:31-32).
But the person who, like the rich land-owner in the Gospel parable,
thinks that he can make his life secure by the possession of material
goods alone, is deluding himself. Life is slipping away from him, and very
soon he will find himself bereft of it without ever having appreciated its
real meaning: "Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the
things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (Lk 12:20).
33. In Jesus' own life, from beginning to end, we find a singular
"dialectic" between the experience of the uncertainty of human life and
the affirmation of its value. Jesus' life is marked by uncertainty from
the very moment of his birth. He is certainly accepted by the
righteous, who echo Mary's immediate and joyful "yes" (cf. Lk
1:38). But there is also, from the start, rejection on the part of
a world which grows hostile and looks for the child in order "to destroy
him" (Mt 2:13); a world which remains indifferent and unconcerned
about the fulfilment of the mystery of this life entering the world:
"there was no place for them in the inn" (Lk 2:7). In this contrast
between threats and insecurity on the one hand and the power of God's gift
on the other, there shines forth all the more dearly the glory which
radiates from the house at Nazareth and from the manger at Bethlehem: this
life which is born is salvation for all humanity (cf. Lk 2:11).
Life's contradictions and risks were fully accepted by Jesus: "though
he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you
might become rich" (2 Cor 8:9). The poverty of which Paul speaks is
not only a stripping of divine privileges, but also a sharing in the
lowliest and most vulnerable conditions of human life (cf. Phil
2:6-7). Jesus lived this poverty throughout his life, until the
culminating moment of the Cross: "he humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name which is above every name" (Phil
2:8-9). It is precisely by his death that Jesus reveals all the
splendour and value of life, inasmuch as his self-oblation on the
Cross becomes the source of new life for all people (cf. Jn 12:32).
In his journeying amid contradictions and in the very loss of his life,
Jesus is guided by the certainty that his life is in the hands of the
Father. Consequently, on the Cross, he can say to him: "Father, into your
hands I commend my spirit!" (Lk 23:46), that is, my life. Truly
great must be the value of human life if the Son of God has taken it up
and made it the instrument of the salvation of all humanity!
"Called . . . to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans
8:28-29): God's glory shines on the face of man
34. Life is always a good. This is an instinctive perception and a fact
of experience, and man is called to grasp the profound reason why this is
so.
Why is life a good? This question is found everywhere in the
Bible, and from the very first pages it receives a powerful and amazing
answer. The life which God gives man is quite different from the life of
all other living creatures, inasmuch as man, although formed from the dust
of the earth (cf. Gen 2:7, 3:19; Job 34:15; Ps
103:14; 104:29), is a manifestation of God in the world, a sign of his
presence, a trace of his glory (cf. Gen 1:26-27; Ps
8:6). This is what Saint Irenaeus of Lyons wanted to emphasize in his
celebrated definition: "Man, living man, is the glory of God".[23] Man has
been given a sublime dignity, based on the intimate bond which
unites him to his Creator: in man there shines forth a reflection of God
himself.
The Book of Genesis affirms this when, in the first account of
creation, it places man at the summit of God's creative activity, as its
crown, at the culmination of a process which leads from indistinct chaos
to the most perfect of creatures. Everything in creation is ordered to
man and everything is made subject to him: "Fill the earth and subdue
it; and have dominion over . . . every living thing" (1:28); this is God's
command to the man and the woman. A similar message is found also in the
other account of creation: "The Lord God took the man and put him in the
garden of Eden to till it and keep it" (Gen 2:15). We see here a
clear affirmation of the primacy of man over things; these are made
subject to him and entrusted to his responsible care, whereas for no
reason can he be made subject to other men and almost reduced to the level
of a thing.
In the biblical narrative, the difference between man and other
creatures is shown above all by the fact that only the creation of man is
presented as the result of a special decision on the part of God, a
deliberation to establish a particular and specific bond with the
Creator: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"
(Gen 1:26). The life which God offers to man is a gift by
which God shares something of himself with his creature.
Israel would ponder at length the meaning of this particular bond
between man and God. The Book of Sirach too recognizes that God, in
creating human beings, "endowed them with strength like his own, and made
them in his own image" (17:3). The biblical author sees as part of this
image not only man's dominion over the world but also those spiritual
faculties which are distinctively human, such as reason, discernment
between good and evil, and free will: "He filled them with knowledge and
understanding, and showed them good and evil" (Sir 17:7). The
ability to attain truth and freedom are human prerogatives inasmuch as
man is created in the image of his Creator, God who is true and just (cf.
Dt 32:4). Man alone, among all visible creatures, is "capable of
knowing and loving his Creator".[24] The life which God bestows upon man
is much more than mere existence in time. It is a drive towards fullness
of life; it is the seed of an existence which transcends the very
limits of time: "For God created man for incorruption, and made him in
the image of his own eternity" (Wis 2:23).
35. The Yahwist account of creation expresses the same conviction. This
ancient narrative speaks of a divine breath which is breathed
into man so that he may come to life: "The Lord God formed man of dust
from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and
man became a living being" (Gen 2:7).
The divine origin of this spirit of life explains the perennial
dissatisfaction which man feels throughout his days on earth. Because he
is made by God and bears within himself an indelible imprint of God, man
is naturally drawn to God. When he heeds the deepest yearnings of the
heart, every man must make his own the words of truth expressed by Saint
Augustine: "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are
restless until they rest in you".[25]
How very significant is the dissatisfaction which marks man's life in
Eden as long as his sole point of reference is the world of plants and
animals (cf. Gen 2:20). Only the appearance of the woman, a being
who is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones (cf. Gen 2:23), and
in whom the spirit of God the Creator is also alive, can satisfy the need
for interpersonal dialogue, so vital for human existence. In the other,
whether man or woman, there is a reflection of God himself, the definitive
goal and fulfilment of every person.
"What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you
care for him?", the Psalmist wonders (Ps 8:4). Compared to the
immensity of the universe, man is very small, and yet this very contrast
reveals his greatness: "You have made him little less than a god, and
crown him with glory and honour" (Ps 8:5). The glory of God
shines on the face of man. In man the Creator finds his rest, as Saint
Ambrose comments with a sense of awe: "The sixth day is finished and the
creation of the world ends with the formation of that masterpiece which is
man, who exercises dominion over all living creatures and is as it were
the crown of the universe and the supreme beauty of every created being.
Truly we should maintain a reverential silence, since the Lord rested from
every work he had undertaken in the world. He rested then in the depths of
man, he rested in man's mind and in his thought; after all, he had created
man endowed with reason, capable of imitating him, of emulating his
virtue, of hungering for heavenly graces. In these his gifts God reposes,
who has said: 'Upon whom shall I rest, if not upon the one who is humble,
contrite in spirit and trembles at my word?' (Is 66:1-2). I thank
the Lord our God who has created so wonderful a work in which to take his
rest"[26]
36. Unfortunately, God's marvellous plan was marred by the appearance
of sin in history. Through sin, man rebels against his Creator and ends up
by worshipping creatures: "They exchanged the truth about God for a
lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator"
(Rom 1:25). As a result man not only deforms the image of God in
his own person, but is tempted to offences against it in others as well,
replacing relationships of communion by attitudes of distrust,
indifference, hostility and even murderous hatred. When God is not
acknowledged as God, the profound meaning of man is betrayed and
communion between people is compromised.
In the life of man, God's image shines forth anew and is again revealed
in all its fullness at the coming of the Son of God in human flesh.
"Christ is the image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15), he "reflects
the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature" (Heb 1:3).
He is the perfect image of the Father.
The plan of life given to the first Adam finds at last its fulfilment
in Christ. Whereas the disobedience of Adam had ruined and marred God's
plan for human life and introduced death into the world, the redemptive
obedience of Christ is the source of grace poured out upon the human race,
opening wide to everyone the gates of the kingdom of life (cf. Rom
5:12-21). As the Apostle Paul states: "The first man Adam became a living
being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit" (1 Cor 15:45).
All who commit themselves to following Christ are given the fullness of
life: the divine image is restored, renewed and brought to perfection in
them. God's plan for human beings is this, that they should "be conformed
to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:29). Only thus, in the splendour of
this image, can man be freed from the slavery of idolatry, rebuild lost
fellowship and rediscover his true identity.
"Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die" (John 11:26): The
gift of eternal life
37. The life which the Son of God came to give to human beings cannot
be reduced to mere existence in time. The life which was always "in him"
and which is the "light of men" (Jn 1:4) consists in being
begotten of God and sharing in the fullness of his love: "To all who
received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children
of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of
the will of man, but of God" (Jn 1:12-13).
Sometimes Jesus refers to this life which he came to give simply as
"life", and he presents being born of God as a necessary condition if man
is to attain the end for which God has created him: "Unless one is born
anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (Jn 3:3). To give this life
is the real object of Jesus' mission: he is the one who "comes down from
heaven, and gives life to the world" (Jn 6:33). Thus can he truly
say: "He who follows me . . . will have the light of life" (Jn
8:12).
At other times, Jesus speaks of "eternal life". Here the adjective does
more than merely evoke a perspective which is beyond time. The life which
Jesus promises and gives is "eternal" because it is a full participation
in the life of the "Eternal One". Whoever believes in Jesus and enters
into communion with him has eternal life (cf. Jn 3:15; 6:40)
because he hears from Jesus the only words which reveal and communicate to
his existence the fullness of life. These are the "words of eternal life"
which Peter acknowledges in his confession of faith: "Lord, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have
come to know, that you are the Holy One of God" (Jn 6:68-69). Jesus
himself, addressing the Father in the great priestly prayer, declares what
eternal life consists in: "This is eternal life, that they may know you
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (Jn 17:3).
To know God and his Son is to accept the mystery of the loving communion
of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit into one's own life, which
even now is open to eternal life because it shares in the life
of God.
38. Eternal life is therefore the life of God himself and at the same
time the life of the children of God. As they ponder this
unexpected and inexpressible truth which comes to us from God in Christ,
believers cannot fail to be filled with ever new wonder and unbounded
gratitude. They can say in the words of the Apostle John: "See what love
the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so
we are. . . . Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is" (1 Jn 3:1-2).
Here the Christian truth about life becomes most sublime. The
dignity of this life is linked not only to its beginning, to the fact that
it comes from God, but also to its final end, to its destiny of fellowship
with God in knowledge and love of him.
In the light of this truth Saint Irenaeus qualifies and completes his
praise of man: "the glory of God" is indeed, "man, living man", but "the
life of man consists in the vision of God".[27]
Immediate consequences arise from this for human life in its earthly
state, in which, for that matter, eternal life already springs forth
and begins to grow. Although man instinctively loves life because it is a
good, this love will find further inspiration and strength, and new
breadth and depth, in the divine dimensions of this good Similarly, the
love which every human being has for life cannot be reduced simply to a
desire to have sufficient space for self-expression and for entering into
relationships with others; rather, it develops in a joyous awareness that
life can become the "place" where God manifests himself, where we meet him
and enter into communion with him. The life which Jesus gives in no way
lessens the value of our existence in time; it takes it and directs it to
its final destiny: "I am the resurrection and the life . . . whoever lives
and believes in me shall never die" (Jn 11:25-26).
"From man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting"
(Genesis 9:5): Reverence and love for every human life
39. Man's life comes from God; it is his gift, his image and imprint, a
sharing in his breath of life. God therefore is the sole Lord of
this life: man cannot do with it as he wills. God himself makes this
clear to Noah after the Flood: "For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand
an accounting . . . and from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand
an accounting for human life" (Gen 9:5). The biblical text is
concerned to emphasize how the sacredness of life has its foundation in
God and in his creative activity: "For God made man in his own image"
(Gen 9:6).
Human life and death are thus in the hands of God, in his power: "In
his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind",
exclaims Job (12:10). "The Lord brings to death and brings to life; he
brings down to Sheol and raises up" (1 Sam 2:6). He alone can say:
"It is I who bring both death and life" (Dt 32:39).
But God does not exercise this power in an arbitrary and threatening
way, but rather as part of his care and loving concern for his
creatures. If it is true that human life is in the hands of God, it is
no less true that these are loving hands, like those of a mother who
accepts, nurtures and takes care of her child: "I have calmed and quieted
my soul, like a child quieted at its mother's breast; like a child that is
quieted is my soul" (Ps 131:2; cf. Is 49:15; 66:12-13;
Hos 11:4). Thus Israel does not see in the history of peoples and
in the destiny of individuals the outcome of mere chance or of blind fate,
but rather the results of a loving plan by which God brings together all
the possibilities of life and opposes the powers of death arising from
sin: "God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the
living. For he created all things that they might exist" (Wis
1:13-14).
40. The sacredness of life gives rise to its inviolability, written
from the beginning in man's heart, in his conscience. The question:
"What have you done?" (Gen 4:10), which God addresses to Cain after
he has killed his brother Abel, interprets the experience of every person:
in the depths of his conscience, man is always reminded of the
inviolability of life--his own life and that of others--as something which
does not belong to him, because it is the property and gift of God the
Creator and Father.
The commandment regarding the inviolability of human life reverberates
at the heart of the "ten words" in the covenant of Sinai (cf.
Ex 34:28). In the first place that commandment prohibits murder:
"You shall not kill" (Ex 20:13); "do not slay the innocent and
righteous" (Ex 23:7). But, as is brought out in Israel's later
legislation, it also prohibits all personal injury inflicted on another
(cf. Ex 21:12-27). Of course we must recognize that in the Old
Testament this sense of the value of life, though already quite marked,
does not yet reach the refinement found in the Sermon on the Mount. This
is apparent in some aspects of the current penal legislation, which
provided for severe forms of corporal punishment and even the death
penalty. But the overall message, which the New Testament will bring to
perfection, is a forceful appeal for respect for the inviolability of
physical life and the integrity of the person. It culminates in the
positive commandment which obliges us to be responsible for our neighbour
as for ourselves: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Lev
19:18).
41. The commandment "You shall not kill", included and more fully
expressed in the positive command of love for one's neighbour, is
reaffirmed in all its force by the Lord Jesus. To the rich young
man who asks him: "Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal
life?", Jesus replies: "If you would enter life, keep the commandments"
(Mt 19:16,17). And he quotes, as the first of these: "You shall not
kill" (Mt 19:18). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus demands from
his disciples a righteousness which surpasses that of the Scribes
and Pharisees, also with regard to respect for life: "You have heard that
it was said to the men of old, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills
shall be liable to judgment'. But I say to you that every one who is angry
with his brother shall be liable to judgment" (Mt 5:21-22).
By his words and actions Jesus further unveils the positive
requirements of the commandment regarding the inviolability of life. These
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