S TRENNA 2007

by Pascual Chávez Villanueva

LOVING LIFE

COMMITMENT TO LIFE

“Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Lk. 12,30)

THe Church has received the Gospel of life and has been sent to proclaim it and make it become reality. This vocation and mission requires a generous response from all its members. Together we need to feel “our duty to preach the Gospel of life, to celebrate it in the Liturgy and in our whole existence, and to serve it with the various programmes and structures which support and promote life.” (EV 79). In this regard, I want to mention some choices we have to make.

■ Defending the value of every human life. Life can be seen as always surrounded by dangers, threatened by violence, challenged by death. The threats that are the result of hatred, the abuse of power, or opposed interests (murders, wars, massacres), aggravated by indifference and a lack of concern. To this are to be added the abuse of millions of human beings who struggle to scarcely survive or who die of hunger, the arms trade that is becoming ever more deadly, environmental changes, the diffusion of drugs, road accidents, terrorist attacks, all of which cause a veritable blood bath. In the face of this “dark cloud,” it is essential to defend the inviolable and sacred value of life and to promote a positive attitude towards it seen as a gift to develop and a sense of gratitude towards the one who has given it to us, to foster an overall vision that involves all material, economic or social activities but also spiritual progress.

Safeguarding the life of the poor. Every life is precious and deserves respect. It follows that not only a healthy, useful and happy life has its justification but also a life that in a sense is diminished through pain and sickness, that of the unborn child and that of the elderly invalid. The life of the powerful is precious, but so too and perhaps even more so is that of the poor and the abandoned. As children of God we are called to protect and to take care of those whose life is more disadvantaged, more at risk, more defenceless, more marginalised. We have to be able to think up and create new forms of a missionary presence in the world of marginalisation and exclusion.

Educating to the value of life. This is the task for parents, educators, teachers, catechists and theologians. The new generations need to find genuine “masters of life”. Young people are looking not only for information or instruction, but for witnesses who encourage and accompany the development of their best qualities. It is indispensable to highlight the absolute value of life, fostering respect for the individual, fostering a positive view about it and hope for the future, fighting against whatever is an obstacle to living with dignity and in solidarity. Daily attitudes and gestures - even the simplest ones - need to be a school of life for the young. As educators we need to know how to reawaken in them the joy of living, appreciation for values, the taste for being of service to others and to nature and bearing witness that life is a vocation.

Educating “to accept and experience sexuality, and love and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection … Only a true love is able to protect life” (EV 97). It would be difficult to arrive at a genuine appreciation of human life if it were not appreciated within the family circle, if within the family there were a climate of violence, if the interruption of a life considered inconvenient or unwanted were to be presented as progress, if life were lived having as its aim competitiveness, success or power.

Proclaiming Jesus Christ as the meaning of life. The proclamation should lead young people to a personal relationship with Jesus, the source and the model of a full life. Perhaps as never before, nowadays evangelisation in the face of a world that exalts deceitful and illusory models is urgently needed. The young admit to a great interior emptiness and try to fill it with pleasure, entertainment, sex, drugs or by becoming bullies and delinquents. But neither pleasure nor consumption satisfies their aspirations and their needs. Many are living in social and economic situations where they are excluded or in a state of serious personal fragility. In these situations there needs to ring out the “good news” of a God who loves life, who wants the happiness of all those who live. Evangelisation is the best proclamation of a human life that is full and happy. We need to set ourselves to achieve this with frankness and dedication.

Finally, being grateful for life and celebrating it. Every life, as a gift of God, has not only a dimension of commitment, but also of worship. It is in itself an expression of praise, since it is marvel of love. Welcoming it is already an act of worship, of giving thanks. Celebrating life encourages a look of contemplation on the face of nature, of the world, of creation, towards which at times we all have utilitarian and consumer attitudes; faced with people with whom we often maintain merely superficial or functional relationships; before a society and situations that very often we bend to suit our own interests … We need to know how to enjoy silence, to learn how to listen patiently, to express admiration and surprise before the unexpected and the unimaginable. We need to know how to make space for others, to be able to establish with them a new relationship of closeness and trust. It is from this that praise and prayer arise. Celebrating life is to admire, love and pray to the God of life: “I thank you for the wonder of my being, for the wonders of all your creation.” (Psalm 139,14). ■