ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends,

How good it is for us today, on Respect Life Sunday, to gather here, in the name of Jesus, to celebrate the sanctity of life! And what better context for such a celebration than the Eucharist—the very Bread of Life and source of human strength. From this source, the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we receive the complete truth concerning the value of human life. Jesus tells us, "I am the way, the truth and the life" (John 14:6).

The same loving God who shares Himself with us in the Eucharist imprints His own image on every living being. Indeed, our late Pope John Paul II reminded us of this in his encyclical The Gospel of Life, when he wrote: "In every child which is born and in every person who lives or dies, we see the image of God’s glory. We celebrate this glory in every human being, a sign of the living God, an icon of Jesus Christ" (no. 84). Truly, the bright-eyed smile of a newborn child and the pain-filled face of someone who is dying equally reflect the sacred dignity of the human person. The homeless, prisoners, the aged, and the disabled all bear the image of Christ suffering and glorified. We need to see that behind each human face there is a unique part of God’s plan of love. It is in this plan of God that all of life finds its sacredness, and in this sacredness that life becomes inviolable from the very moment of conception until natural death.

What we know to be true, however, is not always the practice of the day. Understandably, those who recognize the imprint of God’s image in every human person, regardless of age or circumstance are overwhelmed at times by the suffering, violence and injustice perpetrated on the innocent by the forces of evil. As we see the abortionist, the tyrant and the terrorist, we cry out, pleading for the most vulnerable among us. We feel the same frustration that we hear echoed in the first reading from the Book of the prophet Isaiah where it is written: "What more was there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?" We likewise weep with the landowner in today’s Gospel over an innocent son lost at the hands of evildoers.

At times, our country seems like the vineyard which has been overgrown with weeds. Where solid human and Christian values once flourished, we now find a devaluation of human life and a lack of respect for the dignity of each person. The easy accessibility of abortion, the lack of concern for the elderly, and the misuse of technology in the name of medical progress seem to be signs of a nation gone astray. God looks to His people to bear good fruit and finds so much contrary to His law.

Saint Matthew’s Gospel today follows through with the analogy of the landowner and the vineyard. Again, the proprietor does all he can to ensure that his vineyard is cared for and the plants are carefully nurtured. Again, he anticipates a rich and abundant harvest; and again, his hopes are dashed—this time by wicked tenants who grossly misuse the trust the landowner had placed in them. Just as the tenants in this Gospel reading, so we too must return to God the good fruits of our labor in this life. We must spend our lives working to build up the Kingdom of God; and we know that vital to that Kingdom is the Gospel of love and the sanctity of all human life.

Today there is an urgency to the need to build a culture of life in our society. So many forces are waging war against it. The dignity of the human person is assailed at every turn by those who would make human life nothing more than the object of their pleasure or choice, to be used in whatever way suits their whim. Never before in our history has the human person been in such jeopardy. Never before have the stakes been so high.

Still, this is no a time for despair. Rather, the final message of today’s Gospel is one of hope—a hope that is linked to the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has conquered sin and death. God does not respond to the wretched tenants the way people expect him to. He is a God of boundless compassion, whose heart overflows with love for His own. We continually have another chance to make things right. There is always room to do more. There is always time to begin again to commit ourselves and our nation to the protection of all human life. Despite difficult times, we must remain people of life—confident that the message of the dignity of life and the call for justice, which we promote and which we struggle so hard to foster in our world, are truly the work of God. Despite all obstacles, our faith generates in us an unswerving hope in the victory of life. Patiently building a culture of life will lead us to the fulfillment of God’s plan for human life and dignity. Though seemingly thwarted, life will be victorious!

The Gospel of life is at the heart of Jesus’ message and it has been entrusted to us to make incarnate in a world searching for direction and meaning. This is not an easy task where human life is constantly being violated in so many ways. This is especially true where life is weak and vulnerable. Abortion, poverty, disease, and violence constantly threaten human life throughout our land. Scientific research and experimentation manipulate new life in ways previously unheard of. Who will speak for the defenseless among us? Who will carry the message of the sacredness of life? Those who have known and continue to know the loving embrace of God, those who have come into a relationship with Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist, those whose very lives radiate genuine respect for life in all stages and conditions. These are the ones who will dispel darkness and lend their hands to building a new culture of life. Hopefully, we are all counted among their numbers; for, in the words of Saint Teresa of Avila: "Christ has no body now but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks out in compassion on the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good…."

On this Respect Life Sunday, let us recommit ourselves to being people of life and for life. In our homes and schools and workplaces, on the playing field and the highway and in the voting booth—in every daily task and interaction with one another let us consistently choose respect for human dignity and human life. Let us recognize the dignity and sacredness of life in others which is inherent in them by virtue of their very creation by God.

Dear friends: God calls us His people to stand up for human dignity and human life in every instance in which they are threatened or imperiled. He calls us to acknowledge and observe—and to help others acknowledge and observe—this holy law written clearly in our hearts. Whatever is contrary to this law of God and nature, even if it is declared "legal," will always be immoral.

Respect Life Sunday draws our special attention to this enormous challenge, for the fulfillment of which God gives us grace and strength. How exhilarating then, dear friends, this our mission of respecting, protecting, loving and serving human life—all human life, God’s precious gift! Amen.