A People for Life

Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”

God created man in his image;

in the divine image he created him;

male and female he created them.

             …God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good (Gn 1:26-31).

The dignity of the human person is there, in our Creation Story. Man and woman were created to be like God and to be with God; to have rule over all the Earth. This divine worth is shared among all humans, of every race, tongue, and age. As Blessed John Paul II said in his 1995 address to the United Nations, “Each and every human person has been created in the ‘image and likeness’ of the One who is the origin of all that is.”

The inherent dignity of every human person is especially important to remember in America today, as we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  In the face of deep-seated hatred and racism, Martin Luther King, Jr. changed this nation with a dream: that America would one day be “a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality.”

He peacefully stood with his brothers, preaching the divine worth and equality of every human person, no matter what color or race. He was murdered for this vision, but his witness lives on and continues to change hearts throughout the world. 

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of equality is something we must continue to fight for. Tomorrow, January 22, marks the 40^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion in America. Millions of unborn children have been murdered in their mothers’ wombs over the last 40 years. Each day, babies continue to lose their lives to the culture of death.

 But we know, as Blessed John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, that 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.” Therefore, we must challenge people in our communities to see the humanity and the worth of the unborn child. We must be “people for life,” ensuring that “a new culture of love and solidarity develop for the true good of the whole of human society.”

On this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, let us continue to pray for a greater respect for life in America and throughout the world. Let us do this as a united people for life, “so that the world may believe” that God is with us (John 17:21).