Respect for Life After Birth

“Babies are a gift from God!” We’ve all heard that. They are sweet, gentle, beautiful, intelligent, strong, and soft and cuddly. They smell good (most of the time) and their laughter is one of the best sounds in the world. I love babies! I’ve been blessed with 5 of them and each of their births has been an experience of God for me. But babies are also dependent on others, and because of this they are vulnerable, and our Church reminds us today -- on Respect Life Sunday --that babies need protecting in the womb, just to make it into this big world.

The Church also reminds us today that babies grow up. Some grow up in loving families and stable homes, with a supportive father and mother leading the way and a savings account waiting for them when they’re older. Other babies grow up in homes where they are abused, or in homes where there isn’t enough money to pay for food, rent, and utilities, or sometimes they might not even know who their father is. Sometimes their home is a car. Some babies grow up to be hardworking doctors and nurses and teachers and scientists and engineers.  But some babies grow up as women who find themselves in a violent marriage, or as young men who struggle with mental illness and go on shooting rampages. Or they grow up to be imprisoned or even executed, like an inmate at Greensville Correctional Center named Robert Gleason was on Wednesday night. “Respect Life” is about all kinds of grown-up babies, too.

What the Church teaches us is this: every life is sacred and every life deserves dignity -- no matter what. Our bishops have written: “our witness to respect for life shines most brightly when we demand respect for each and every human life including the lives of those who fail to show that respect for others. The antidote to violence is love, not more violence.” (USCCB, Living the Gospel of Life, no. 22, 1998.)

I recently saw the musical Les Miserables. Cried my eyes out! We might ask ourselves, in light of Respect Life, are we going to live like Inspector Javert, who relentlessly pursues Jean Valjean to condemn him? Are we going to represent the Gospel from a place of condemnation? Or are we going to be like the Bishop, who shows Valjean forgiveness and mercy when he is caught stealing his silver? The Bishop gives him a new lease on life, and Valjean and his life are transformed by the redeeming love of Christ.

         Today’s Second Collection will fund the Diocesan Respect Life Fund, which supports grants for activities sponsored by local parishes to protect and promote the sanctity and dignity of human life from conception to natural death. These activities have been geared towards direct services, education, and advocacy to alleviate or end threats to human life at stages the Church considers to be most vulnerable.

As we reflect about what Respect Life Sunday is all about, remember this: our Church reminds us that respect for life begins in the womb and it must be given to every human being at every stage of his or her development.

By: Jennifer Snyder of St. Edwards the Confessor Catholic Church, Richmond, VA