LET US REDISCOVER LIFE

JuLY 8, 2007

"I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). These words of Christ are addressed to us, people of every time and place.
God is the creator of all that exists. On the earth, which he created, he placed man and woman. The special place of human beings in all that God made lies in their being given a share in God's own providence for the whole of creation. The Creator has entrusted the world to us as a gift and as a responsibility. He who is eternal providence made us in his image and likeness, so that we too would be able to see to our development and the development of the world in harmony with his will.

Yet millions of men and women live without making sense out of what they do and what happens to them.

Our restless hearts reach out beyond our own limits in search of a perfect, eternal love. In the midst of all of life's contradictions, we search for life's true meaning. We wonder and ask, Why? Why am I here? Why am I alive at all? What must I do? None of us is alone in posing these questions. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have expressed it this way: "In the face of the modern development of the world, an ever-increasing number of people are raising the most basic questions... What is man? What is the sense of sorrow, of evil, of death, which continues to exist despite so much progress? What can man offer to society? What can he expect from it? What follows this earthly life?"

To fail to ask these questions is to miss the great adventure of the search for the truth about life. We who are members of the Church believe that in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God the Father reveals all his love for humanity. Jesus Christ is truly the world's shepherd. Our hearts must be open to his words. Only the Good Shepherd will lead us to the full truth about life.

With the passing of time the threats to life do not lessen. They grow enormous. The 20th century has been a time of massive attacks against life, an unending series of wars and a continuing slaughter of innocent human beings.
But that is not all. There is also spreading an anti-life mentality -- an attitude of hostility to life in the womb and life in its last stages. Precisely when science and medicine are achieving a greater capacity to safeguard health and life, the threats against life are becoming more insidious. Abortion and euthanasia are hailed as "rights" and solutions to "problems". In the modern metropolis, life -- God's first gift, and the fundamental right of every individual, on which all other rights are based -- is often treated as just one more commodity to be organized, commercialized, and manipulated according to convenience.

Christ sees everything that threatens life. He sees so many people throwing their lives away in a flight into irresponsibility and falsehood. Why do people's consciences not rebel against today's evils? Is it because conscience itself is losing the ability to distinguish good from evil?

In today's technological culture, people are used to dominating matter in order to transform it according to their wishes. The temptation is to want to manipulate morality, as well. Good comes to mean what is pleasing or useful. Evil means whatever gets in the way of our wishes.

This surely is a false morality, and we must not give in to it. We must not stifle our conscience! Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of a person, where we are alone with God. In the depths of conscience, we detect a law that is the voice of God, calling us to free ourselves from the grip of evil desires and sin, and stimulating us to seek what is good and true. Only by listening to and obeying the voice of God in our most intimate being will we reach the freedom we yearn for. As Jesus said, only the truth will make you free (cf. Jn 8:32).

We are creatures who have no life of our own except from God. In order to have life, and to restore the original harmony of creation, we must respect that divine image in all of creation and in a special way in human life itself.

Christ laid down his own life to destroy our death, and he rose to restore our life. We need courage and generosity to face up to all that life demands of us, and to celebrate, defend and promote the gift of life. If we do this, the whole world may rediscover the truth, goodness, and beauty of the life we possess, which comes from God.

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap