On Saturday evening, St Peter’s Basilica was the focal point for a global event, a
vigil of prayer for nascent life. The first of its kind and expressly wanted by Pope
Benedict XVI, the event involved the universal Church, with Catholics coming together
in prayer in their homes, parishes, religious communities and cathedrals across the
world.
In his homily, Pope Benedict said: “there are cultural tendencies that
seek to anesthetize consciences with misleading motivations. With regard to the embryo
in the womb, science itself highlights its autonomy capable of interaction with the
mother, the coordination of biological processes, the continuity of development, the
growing complexity of the organism. This is not an accumulation of biological material,
but a new living being, dynamic and wonderfully ordered, a new unique human being”.
He
also warned against the “darkening of consciences” towards the innate value of life,
affirming that the unborn child “has the right not to be treated as an object of possession
or something to manipulate at will, not to be reduced to a mere instrument for the
benefit of others and their interests. The human person is a good in and of himself
and his integral development should always be sought”.
We publish a draft Vatican
Radio translation of the Holy Father’s homily for First Vespers of the first Sunday
of Advent:
Dear brothers and sisters,
With this evening's celebration,
the Lord gives us the grace and joy of opening the new liturgical year beginning with
its first stage: Advent, the period that commemorates the coming of God among us.
Every beginning brings a special grace, because it is blessed by the Lord. In this
Advent period we will once again experience the closeness of the One who created the
world, who guides history and cared for us to the point of becoming a man. This great
and fascinating mystery of God with us, moreover of God who becomes one of us, is
what we celebrate in the coming weeks journeying towards holy Christmas. During the
season of Advent we feel the Church that takes us by the hand and - in the image
of the Blessed Virgin Mary - expresses her motherhood allowing us to experience the
joyful expectation of the coming of the Lord, who embraces us all in his love that
saves and consoles.
While our hearts reach out towards the annual celebration
of the birth of Christ, the Church's liturgy directs our gaze to the final goal: our
encounter with the Lord in the splendour of glory. This is why we, in every Eucharist,
"announce his death, proclaim his resurrection until he comes again" we hold vigil
in prayer. The liturgy does not cease to encourage and support us, putting on our
lips, in the days of Advent, the cry with which the whole Bible concludes, the last
page of the Revelation of Saint John: "Come, Lord Jesus "(22:20). Dear brothers
and sisters, our coming together this evening to begin the Advent journey is enriched
by another important reason: with the entire Church, we want to solemnly celebrate
a prayer vigil for unborn life. I wish to express my thanks to all who have taken
up this invitation and those who are specifically dedicated to welcoming and safeguarding
human life in different situations of fragility, especially in its early days and
in its early stages. The beginning of the liturgical year helps us to relive the expectation
of God made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, God who makes himself small, He
becomes a child, it speaks to us of the coming of a God who is near, who wanted to
experience the life of man, from the very beginning, to save it completely, fully.
And so the mystery of the Incarnation of the Lord and the beginning of human life
are intimately connected and in harmony with each other within the one saving plan
of God, the Lord of life of each and every one of us. The Incarnation reveals to us,
with intense light and in an amazing way, that every human life has an incomparable,
a most elevated dignity.
Man has an unmistakable originality compared to all
other living beings that inhabit the earth. He presents himself as a unique and singular
entity, endowed with intelligence and free will, as well as being composed of a material
reality. He lives simultaneously and inseparably in the spiritual dimension and the
corporal dimension. This is also suggested in the text of the First letter to the
Thessalonians which was just proclaimed: "May the God of peace himself - St. Paul
writes - make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be
preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ "(5:23). Therefore, we
are spirit, soul and body. We are part of this world, tied to the possibilities and
limits of our material condition, at the same time we are open to an infinite horizon,
able to converse with God and to welcome Him in us. We operate in earthly realities
and through them we can perceive the presence of God and seek Him, truth, goodness
and absolute beauty. We savour fragments of life and happiness and we long for total
fulfilment.
God loves us so deeply, totally, without distinction, He calls
us to friendship with him, He makes us part of a reality beyond all imagination, thought
and word; His own divine life. With emotion and gratitude we acknowledge the value
of the incomparable dignity of every human person and the great responsibility we
have toward all. " Christ, the final Adam, - says the Second Vatican Council - by
the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man
himself and makes his supreme calling clear.... by His incarnation the Son of God
has united Himself in some fashion with every man. "(Gaudium et Spes, 22).
Believing
in Jesus Christ also means having a new outlook on man, a look of trust and hope.
Moreover, experience itself and reason show that the human being is a subject capable
of discernment, self-conscious and free, unique and irreplaceable, the summit of all
earthly things, that must be recognized in his innate value and always accepted with
respect and love. He has the right not to be treated as an object of possession or
something to manipulate at will, not to be reduced to a mere instrument for the benefit
of others and their interests. The human person is a good in and of himself and his
integral development should always be sought. Love for all, if it is sincere, naturally
tends to become a preferential attention to the weakest and poorest. In this vein
we find the Church's concern for the unborn, the most fragile, the most threatened
by the selfishness of adults and the darkening of consciences. The Church continually
reiterates what was declared by the Second Vatican Council against abortion and all
violations of unborn life: "from the moment of its conception life must be guarded
with the greatest care " (ibid., n. 51).
There are cultural tendencies
that seek to anesthetize consciences with misleading motivations. With regard to the
embryo in the womb, science itself highlights its autonomy capable of interaction
with the mother, the coordination of biological processes, the continuity of development,
the growing complexity of the organism. This is not an accumulation of biological
material, but a new living being, dynamic and wonderfully ordered, a new unique human
being. So was Jesus in Mary's womb, so it was for all of us in our mother’s womb.
With the ancient Christian writer Tertullian we can say: " he who will be a man is
already one" (Apologeticum IX, 8), there is no reason not to consider him a person
from conception. Unfortunately, even after birth, the lives of children continue
to be exposed to abandonment, hunger, poverty, disease, abuse, violence or exploitation.
The many violations of their rights that are committed in the world sorely hurt the
conscience of every man of good will. Before the sad landscape of the injustices committed
against human life, before and after birth, I make mine Pope John Paul II’s passionate
appeal to the responsibility of each and every individual: " respect, protect, love
and serve life, every human life! Only in this direction will you find justice, development,
true freedom, peace and happiness!"(Encyclical Evangelium vitae, 5). I urge
the protagonists of politics, economic and social communications to do everything
in their power to promote a culture which respects human life, to provide favorable
conditions and support networks for the reception and development of life.
To
the Virgin Mary, who welcomed the Son of God made man with faith, with her maternal
womb, with loving care, with nurturing support and vibrant with love, we entrust our
commitment and prayer in favour of unborn life . We do in the liturgy - which is the
place where we live the truth and where truth lives with us - worshiping the divine
Eucharist, we contemplate Christ's body, that body who took flesh from Mary by the
Holy Spirit, and from her was born in Bethlehem for our salvation. Ave, verum Corpus,
natum de Maria Virgine!