We Must Choose Life Over Death

Oct. 13, 2024

October is Respect Life Month. Today I want to contrast the Gospel of life and the culture of death. Pope John Paul II addressed these two visions of reality in his 1995 Encyclical entitled Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life).
   
What is the culture of death? It is a set of attitudes and beliefs that deny the sacredness of human life. The first time we see this culture emerge in Scripture is the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain. Cain resented the fact that God accepted the sacrifice of Abel and did not accept his own sacrifice, and so he killed him. Abel appeared to Cain to be a problem and a thorn in his side. Killing his brother was a strategy for dealing with his pain and his anger. The culture of death sees killing of other people as an acceptable strategy for dealing with problems and difficulties. It does not recognize others as children of God, as possessing infinite value and worth.

How do we deal with criminals? We execute them. How do we do with enemies? We destroy them through war. Someone possesses something that I want. I kill to get it. I am pregnant with a child that I do not want. I abort it. So, the culture of death sees killing as a strategy, as a tactic.
   
The Gospel of life declares that every human being is a child of God, created in God’s image and likeness, known and loved by God.
—Fr. Mike Comer