“I’m sorry you are living.”
As October’s Respect Life Month approaches each year, I go back to that sentence from the cover of a card I received some 30 years ago. It came from a second-grader when I was leaving a parish in Houston where I was helping out during grad school. The students made farewell cards, and that one became my favorite. I always cherish the idea that he simply misspelled the word “leaving” … otherwise, it’s a pretty dark sentiment.
I attended a summit on Catholic health care a couple of weeks ago, a joint effort of our bishops and the Minnesota Catholic Conference along with the Catholic Health
Association of Minnesota. A range of speakers sounded a common message: the Church’s clear and consistent teaching about life is often lost in our culture. It is hard to be heard without messages being interpreted through a partisan political lens.
Yet our faith transcends every attempt to corral it for other ends. Both revelation and reason proclaim that each person is made in the image of God with inviolable dignity and the fundamental right to life and protection all across the spectrum of age, circumstance, and condition. Respect for human life begins with the sincere inner conviction that is the polar opposite of that child’s spelling error: “I’m glad that you are living.”
It is admittedly easier for us to love some people and harder to love others. Those we know, those closest to us, those we admire – for them, it is natural to say “I’m glad you are living.” For others – strangers, those who challenge us, those with whom we differ strongly on things important to us, those we fear at some level – for them, it requires grace from God to truly say: “Though it is hard for me, I am glad you are living.”
The erosion of respect for human life is the daily experience for so many. We see it in the scourge of pornography; in the coarseness and violence of much music and film, art and media; in the ready dismissal of human dignity in those who are unexpected or uncomfortable for us; in the narrowness when people focus on personal gain regardless of the impact on others. Human lives can be bought and sold in trafficking; virtually every aspect of life gets saturated in some sexual message; we are tempted to divide others into those worthy of our regard and those who fail to meet our criteria, thus disposable from our concern.
From the perspective of faith, we discern the age-old long shadow of original sin, continuing to darken intellects and weaken wills. The seed of doubt in God’s wisdom and love that was planted by the one Jesus calls “the Father of Lies” grows like the weeds that invade fields and gardens.
And that same faith gives us hope, for it reveals our hope that the risen Jesus is present to free us from this cycle of error, fear, and sin. We have a Redeemer, One greater than anything in the world … One Who says to us unfailingly, regardless of our faults and rebellion: “I’m glad you are living.” Laws and policies are necessary but imperfect means to change societies. Ultimately, it is only the change of hearts – each heart – that will build a true culture of life.
St. John Paul II taught in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) that this culture must begin with gratitude. Thank you, God, that I am alive, I am made by your love, I have a purpose and a dignity that nothing and no one can nullify. My life matters, regardless of where I live, what I do, how much I make, what is in my past. I am loved by the God who is love.
And so is everyone else.
Today, thank someone for what they do to help others and witness to God’s love. Be grateful for them and for the gifts God has given them. Above all, in words, in action, with a prayer or a smile, with your forthcoming votes this November, tell one another: “I am glad you are living.”
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