Many of us tend to take that which we enjoy for granted. Only as we experience that all that has been entrusted to us is passing do we come to appreciate that which we enjoy. As a young adult, I really took to heart how much my mother meant to me when she had to go to a hospital for major surgery. How relieved and grateful our family was when mom experienced a successful operation! What a joy it was to have her back home.
All too often, we can take the Lord’s most precious gift of life for granted for ourselves. Let’s look at why human life is precious and therefore needs to be safeguarded first for ourselves and for every other person both before and after birth. First, all of life is a gift. This can be said for the following reasons. Who of us chose to be born? Did we choose to be male or female? How many of us selected our parents? Did we choose the time in history when we came on the scene? Did we choose to be born in this part of the world or wherever it is where we were born? Can we choose not to die? These questions suggest that our lives are not our own to do with as we please.
Human life is precious because of its uniqueness. Never before you or I were born has the world seen the likes of you or of me. Never again will there be another person like you or like me. As Christians, we do not believe in re-incarnation. As was the case with our Lord Himself and as an extension of His redeeming Presence, God has a unique purpose for every person who has been conceived. According to the Lord’s purpose and design, the world is to be a better place in which to live as a result of each person who is conceived.
This gives us the basis for living with hope. The conception of every person expresses the Good News that God has not given up on the world that He has created, including the human race, in spite of all of the evil that occurs.
As we take to heart the preciousness of human life, we will want to do all that we can to safeguard this gift both for ourselves as well as for every other person both before and after her/his birth. On the one hand, we will want to avoid taking unnecessary risks that jeopardize the gift of life. We will strive to avoid abusing each and all of the gifts that the Lord has entrusted to us for our well-being. Nothing that the Lord has created is evil or bad. Depending upon how we relate to that which has been entrusted to us, any blessing can be an instrument that can hurt ourselves and others, thus jeopardizing the gift of life.
At the same time, as we treasure the gift of life, we will strive to relate to the Lord’s other gifts in a manner that promotes our well-being and that of others. We will take to heart that in the setting in which all things are passing, many opportunities to help ourselves and others knock but once.
As we appreciate the precious nature of our own lives and do all that we can to relate to the Lord’s blessings in a manner that promotes our own well-being and that of others, we will be embracing the Gospel of life, both for ourselves as well as for every other person, both the born and those to be born.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor