God Does Not Accept Death - Nor May We
Pope John Paul II
The following is an excerpt from a talk given by Pope John Paul II to the people of Münster, West Germany on May, 1987.
Today...the Church must with clarity and patience strongly uphold the right to life of everyone, especially of those not yet born who therefore need special protection. It must unconditionally defend the Fifth Commandment: thou shalt not kill. Contrary to all the cosmetic language and the refusal to contemplate the question, most people surely sense that abortion is the deliberate killing of innocent human life. It is encouraging to note that many people are beginning to ponder this matter because they perceive more and more the inconsistencies of today’s moral values and judgments.
Surely no peace movement is worthy of the name if it does not also try to stop the war on unborn life with the same energy that it tries to stop other wars. No ecological movement can be taken seriously if it ignores the maltreatment and destruction in their mothers’ wombs of countless children who are capable of life. No emancipated woman should derive pleasure from her greater self-determination if she has won it at the cost of a human life that had been entrusted to her and which itself had a right to self-determination.
Let us at long last place human life itself among those precious assets that deserve our every protection and for which it is worthwhile to solicit the broad approval of society! Doctors and social workers, parliamentarians, journalists and teachers ought to be in conscience bound to call publicly for the legal protection of human life.
The Son of God has be come man: Jesus wants to be our brother. Therefore no one should think little of, maltreat or kill others. The right to life is the most fundamental, the most sanctified of all human rights.
At Easter time we are especially aware that our God is a God of life, the God who raised Jesus from the dead. God does not accept death, nor may we. With the Resurrection of Jesus Christ God launched a new initiative in defense of life. It is our duty to help maintain that initiative. It is the duty of all Christians to side in God’s spirit with life and peace, with truth and justice.
In the final analysis, the life of this world derives from the goodness and charity which God bestows on us and which people show to one another. Do we not all wait until someone is good to us, accepts us, encourages us or comforts us and gives us help where we need it?
Where the goodness of our heart determines our lives there is also room for the weak, the old and the injured; there is also room and a future for unborn life in the mother’s womb. The experience of mercy arouses in us the hope that when our life is over we will benefit from the final unsurpassable goodness - the infinite and eternal love of God.
God is the beginning; He is also the end and eternity. All life derives from him and life leads back to him. From God and back to God - that is man’s path of life. Choose life! Choose the whole life! And in so doing choose eternal life!
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