杏MAP导航 at General Audience: welcome life as God鈥檚 gift
By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp
During the Wednesday General Audience, 杏MAP导航 Francis reflected on the Fifth Commandment: You shall not kill. When life is welcomed as a gift from God, he said, the vision of interpreting life through the lens of eliminating problems can be corrected.
Value of life
The reading from Wisdom 11:24-26 provided the inspiration for the 杏MAP导航鈥檚 remarks. 杏MAP导航 Francis reaffirmed that the Fifth Commandment is concise and to the point. It is 鈥渁 defending wall for the foundational value in human relations: the value of life鈥�, he said.
Gift of God, not a problem
杏MAP导航 Francis then noted a contradictory approach to life: the suppression of 鈥渉uman life in the mother鈥檚 womb in order to safeguard other values鈥�.
It is not right to 'take out' a human being, no matter how little, to resolve a problem. That is like hiring a hitman to resolve a problem.
Fear is the culprit
Fear leads to violence and rejection, the 杏MAP导航 continued. Welcoming life as a gift of God leads to accepting life in all of its expressions. 杏MAP导航 Francis mentioned that parents are in need of true support should they discover that the baby they are expecting will be disabled. Then he said,
A sick child, 鈥ust as an elderly person, needs assistance鈥�. He or she who is presented as a problem is in reality God鈥檚 gift who can draw me out of my self-centeredness to make me grow in love.
God鈥檚 love is the measure for life
The world鈥檚 idols prompt people to reject life, the 杏MAP导航 said. 杏MAP导航 Francis listed these idols: money, power, and success. He called them 鈥渕istaken parameters by which to evaluate life鈥�. Whereas 鈥渢he only authentic measure for life is love, the love that God has for it!鈥�
Secret of God鈥檚 love
The secret of love was shown in how God鈥檚 own Son lived, the 杏MAP导航 continued.
He became man to the point of assuming rejection, weakness, poverty and pain on the cross. In every sick child, in every weak elderly person, in every desperate migrant, in every life that is fragile and threatened, Christ is seeking our heart so as to disclose the joy of love.
Therefore, the 杏MAP导航 concluded:
Do not despise life! 鈥� We need to say to so many young people: do not despise your existence! Stop rejecting the work of God! You are a work of God! 鈥� For the Gospel says that 'God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him might not die, but have eternal life' (John 3:16).
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