HLI: "What Christmas Reveals About Human Dignity"

This is from Fr. Shenan Boquet, the President of Human Life International.

No feast in the liturgical calendar more perfectly and completely justifies, celebrates, and embodies the pro-life cause than Christmas. Pope St. John Paul II highlighted this connection in the opening paragraphs of his great pro-life encyclical – Evangelium Vitae – where he quotes the angels’ triumphant greeting to the shepherds of Bethlehem: “I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Christmas, wrote the sainted pope, “reveals the full meaning of every human birth, and the joy which accompanies the Birth of the Messiah is thus seen to be the foundation and fulfilment of joy at every child born into the world” (no. 1).

As pro-lifers gazing upon the nativity scene, we cannot but be struck by two things: 1) that the Christ child, lying in the manger, was so recently an unborn child, resting in the womb of His mother, Mary and 2) That this tiny human frame, so weak and helpless, is the tabernacle for God Himself, the second Person of the Most Holy Trinity.

For over 2,000 years, Christians have meditated upon and unpacked the significance of this divine revelation, the revelation of God in the flesh. And one of many world-changing insights they have hit upon is this: If God the Son could so completely and perfectly unite Himself with His human nature, then there must be something about human nature itself that is of such high dignity that this union was even possible in the first place.

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“Man,” wrote St. John Paul II, “is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God. The loftiness of this supernatural vocation reveals the greatness and the inestimable value of human life even in its temporal phase. Life in time, in fact, is the fundamental condition, the initial stage and an integral part of the entire unified process of human existence.” (EV. no. 2)

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"Not only must human life not be taken, but it must be protected with loving concern. The meaning of life is found in giving and receiving love, and in this light human sexuality and procreation reach their true and full significance. Love also gives meaning to suffering and death; despite the mystery which surrounds them, they can become saving events. Respect for life requires that science and technology should always be at the service of man and his integral development. Society as a whole must respect, defend and promote the dignity of every human person, at every moment and in every condition of that person’s life. (no. 81)"

Hit the link above for the full posting on HLI's website.