A Personal Study of Holy Scripture & Relational Perspectives 
Vis-à-Vis  Respect for Life

        Within the verity that God became man and paid the ultimate price to redeem humanity, subsists the motivating force.  This epitomizes the perfect example of love.  Love is the true fundamental vocation of man.  Love can certainly be equated with respect for the miracle of life.  Without Love, and all that the Word implies, mankind has no pure direction. "The Pope believes that the world is engaged in a struggle between good and evil and that life issues form one of the battlefields.  He sees a number of threats to human life in modern society, most notably abortion, contraception, euthanasia, and feels compelled to stand in the first line of battle protecting the 'culture of life'  against the 'culture of death.' ...The Pope believes that contemporary culture has the tendency to reduce life to a commodity. ... If life is not respected at the beginning when it is most defenseless, who will protect  the elderly, the infirm, the handicapped?" John Paul II  An Invitation to Joy.  Human dignity is directly proportionate to human rights.  This dignity has been restored by the supreme act of Christ's compassion.  No person can rightfully take this dignity out of the human element.  "The Gospel is the fullest confirmation of all human rights.  Without it we can easily find ourselves far from the truth about man.  The Gospel, in fact confirms the divine rule which upholds the moral order of the universe and confirms it, particularly through the incarnation itself. Who is man, if the Son took on human nature?  Who must this man be, if the Son of God pays the supreme price for his dignity?  The Redeemer confirms human rights simply by restoring the fullness of the dignity of man received when God created him in His image and likeness.  ...we can find in the Gospel a consistent declaration of all human rights, even those that for various reasons can make us feel uneasy.  The person is a being for whom the only suitable dimension is love."  This theme is primary in the chapter on Human Rights by Pope John Paul II in  
Crossing the Threshold of Hope. 

    Once an offspring is conceived, should a potential parent, or another, be able to legally determine whether this individual lives or dies?  Should mere mortals have the right to declare any human deserving of death, including one's self?  According to the `Gospels of Love',  absolutely not!  This seems preposterous and presumptuous upon God's mercy to assume judgment over His creation which has been set so lovingly in Grace.  No person, having been created in the image of our Heavenly Father, has the right to kill another human being, whether this being is a baby or a full grown adult. 

'Life is one of the most beautiful titles which the Bible attributes to God.  He is the living God."
Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican City, 1996
Pope John Paul II  

"Catholic social teaching is based on two truths about the human person: human life is both sacred and social. Because we esteem human life as sacred, we have a duty to protect and foster it at all stages of development, from conception to death, and in all circumstances. Because we acknowledge that human life is also social, society must protect and foster it. Precisely because life is sacred, the taking of even one life is a momentous event."

Cardinal Joseph Bernardin

Should not we, as living images of God, be responsible for our brothers and sisters?  Are we not responsible for the multitudinous numbers who hunger for food, housing, and love?  Repression of the human spirit must be curtailed.  We must become benefactors of the necessities for living unto our other selves.  

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.  As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one." (John 17:20-22) .   

This 'oneness' is the river of life.  Living water must flow forth from the charity of our hearts.  
"If you would hearken My commandments, your prosperity would be like a river, and your vindication like the waves of the sea." (Is 48:18).
  If we are, indeed, members of the same body (a mystical body, if you will) then we must follow the precepts of Christ Jesus as dignified so illustriously in the Gospel according to John. 
Love is equated with respect for life and is His mandate!

"I am the resurrection and the Life.
Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die."   
(John 11:25-26)
Our Savior Jesus has said these things and they are true. Therefore, He must surely be our very life, that which is living amongst  and within us.  This is the most precious of gifts!  Biological sciences deal with the study of life, as do the Gospels.  Although Holy Scriptures recognize the biological essence of man, they penetrate much further into the psyche of man, into the soul.  The Word of God defines, expands, and completes the essence of life,  as Christ Jesus is the true healer unifying the Mystical Body.  The biological sciences are limited by natural law and intellect, whereas the scriptures are an expansion of all life and wholeness in Truth.  What are these attitudes that respect life and corroborate the physical with the spiritual?  According to Pope John Paul II, Human dignity in the presence of truth are these attitudes.  As a biological science major, I believe unity of body and spirit should actually be the main focus of medical science.  According to Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, " Being a physician represents a way to respond to God's care that can share in the work of Jesus, known in tradition as the divine physician." 
  For Cardinal Bernardin, see the web site below: http://www.meddean.luc.edu/lumen/MedEd/IPM/cath9a.htm 

           The main focus of this project is most basic and simply respect for all life.  Scripture substantiates the preciousness of this gift of life, which modern attitudes and civil laws at times protect and sometimes seemingly contradict. Topics included within these web pages are abortion and the right to life, euthanasia, and to some degree, abuse against basic human rights, such as: war, capital punishment, child abuse, racial impropriety and world hunger.  Also, I make some mention of healing  the whole person, the mind and body of the human spirit, essentially  in love, and quite possibly in a new world .  Establishing this project and defining these attitudes through web presence, incorporating written and pictorial media to possibly reach a larger, even international, audience is my goal.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, these pictorial displays are included for visual stimulation and illustration. Please feel free to email me with your perspectives.

           Major texts from the Old and New Testaments are utilized here, especially noted are texts from the Gospel of John including: The Rivers of Living Water (Jn 7:37-39), Jesus the Light of the World (Jn 8:12-20), Jesus the Resurrection and the Life (Jn 11:17-27), The New Commandment (Jn 13: 34-35), and Jesus the True Vine (Jn 15:1-17).                      

Joe Walker 1999
Loyola Marymount University

As is life, this site is a work in progress
Last updated
10 June 2002
 

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