“God looked upon everything he had made, and he found it very good.” (Genesis 1:31a)
In poetic fashion, the Book of Genesis unfolds a profound theology of the creation of the world. God creates all out of nothing. Each stage of creation — the creation of light, the sky and the water, the dry land and the sea, trees and plants, stars and planets, land and sea creatures — concludes with God looking upon what he created and seeing how good it was.
Then, God created the first human beings, “in the divine image he created” them, “male and female he created them.” God looked upon them and saw that they were very good.
The basis of our human dignity is that we were created in the image and likeness of God. Every human being has an inherent worth that is immeasurable. Each human life is sacred.
In the New Testament, Jesus demonstrates in word and action the love of God for each individual. He blesses the children, he heals the sick, he casts out demons from the possessed.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples his expectations of them in their interaction with others. The disciples of Jesus approach him with a question: “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” (Matthew 18:1b) Jesus tells his disciples that if they wish to enter the kingdom of heaven, they must become like children. (Matthew 18:3) That is, they must identify with the most vulnerable in this world.
Young children in the time of Jesus had no social status and no significance in the political realm. They were vulnerable and entirely dependent upon the protection and sustenance that their families provided them. To be great in the Kingdom of God means recognizing the dignity of the most vulnerable, identifying with them, and seeking to protect them from evil and harm.
To understand how to protect and defend human life, it is essential that we understand who we are at the core of our being. God created us in his image and likeness, created us to be in a loving relationship with him. We are called to communion with God, to divine intimacy.
We grow in this relationship through prayer, reflection on the Sacred Scriptures, participation in the sacraments and our interaction with other people.
Our self-knowledge as persons created in God’s image and likeness and our awareness that we are loved by God elicit a response from us — a response of love that draws us closer to God and inspires us to share our love with others, especially those most in need. This is what it means to be a disciple of Christ. As disciples, we are called to evangelize and create a culture of witness, and we evangelize most effectively when we live a life of faith and charity. God’s love for us is the true source of our dignity, our identity and our worth. God’s love will never change, and nothing can reduce our dignity nor diminish our worth.
We are called to build a culture of life. That is our mission as disciples. Pope Francis, in his “State of the World” address to international ambassadors at the Vatican on Jan. 13, 2014, pointed to the great challenges that our world faces in protecting human dignity. He spoke of the evils of “the throwaway culture.”
Pope Francis said, “Unfortunately, what is thrown away is not only food and dispensable objects, but often human beings themselves, who are discarded as ‘unnecessary.’ For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day; children being used as soldiers, abused and killed in armed conflicts; and children being bought and sold in that terrible modern slavery, which is human trafficking, which is a crime against humanity.”
To build a culture of life requires a conversion of heart, a new way of looking at life and our brothers and sisters, based on God’s love for us, and a profound commitment to the dignity of every human being. Changing the culture requires conversion that begins in our own hearts, including a willingness to be instructed by Jesus, the source of love and joy.
When we encounter Jesus Christ, experience his love and enter more deeply into relationship with him, we become more aware of our own worth and dignity, and that of others. A culture of life is one that proclaims God’s love and plan for every human being.
