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CHAPTER 
"MISALIGNMENT THEORY
AND THE VALUE OF LIFE"
Love is Life
All human life has its basic value and dignity for "God created man in the
image of himself.... male and female He created them" [Genesis 1:27]. Added
dignity and value to human life are given by God becoming man in Jesus
Christ, for His mission of salvation in the service of life. As "Word of
Life" [1 John 1:1], "Light of life" [John 8:12] and "Living Bread of Life"
[ John 6:35; 56-66] Jesus Christ came "so that we might have life and have
it in its fullness [John 10:10]. He sent us the Holy Spirit who "gives
life"[2 Cor. 36]. At the climax of His life, Christ, in the fulfillment of
the Father's will, gave himself up to death "but by rising from the dead.
He destroyed death and restored life" [Euch. Prayer IV]. Through His
Passion, Death and Resurrection, Christ has become for us the "resurrection
and the life" [John 11:25].
The basic value behind this service to life is
that God alone is the ultimate Lord and Master of Life. Since life comes
from and is sustained by God, it belongs to Him. We are then the stewards
to life, called by our faith to respect and care for our own lives, and the
lives of others. Our faith response, therefore, to life is not just to
refrain from killing , but of promoting, protecting and enhancing the
"quality of life." God, the Lord of Life, has entrusted to man the noble
mission of safeguarding life and men must carry it out in the manner worthy
of themselves. Life must be protected with utmost care from the moment of
conception.[Gaudium et Spes, 57].
The Gospel of Life
The Gospel of Life is the heart of Jesus' message . Lovingly received day
after day by the Church, it is to be preached with dauntless fidelity as
"Good News" to the people of every age and culture.
At the dawn of
salvation, it is the birth of a child which is proclaimed as joyful news
[cf. Luke 2:10-11]. The source of this joy is the Birth of Jesus, the
Savior [cf. John 16:21]. When He presents the heart of His redemptive
mission, Jesus says: "I came that they have life, and I have it abundantly"
[John 10:10]. In truth, He is referring to that "new" and "eternal" life
which consists in communion with the Father, to which every person is
freely called in the son by the power of the Sanctifying spirit. It is
precisely this "life" that all the aspects and stages of human life achieve
their full significance .
Man is called to a fullness of life which far
exceeds the dimension of his earthly existence, because it consists in
sharing the very life of God.
The Church knows that this Gospel of life,
which she has received from her Lord has a profound and persuasive echo in
the heart of every person- believer or non-believer alike-because it
marvelously fulfills all the heart's expectation while infinitely
surpassing them. Even in the midst of difficulties and uncertainties, every
person sincerely open to truth and goodness can, by light of reason and the
hidden action of grace, come to recognize in the natural law written in the
heart , the sacred value of human life from its beginning until its end,
and can affirm the right of every human being to have the primary good
respected to the highest degree. Upon recognition of this right, every
human community and the political community itself are founded.
In a
special way, believers in Christ must defend and promote this right, aware
as they are of the wonderful truth recalled by the Second Vatican Council:
"By his incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with
every human being" [Gaudium Spes, 22] This saving event reveals to humanity
not only the boundless love of God who "loved the whole world he gave his
only son" [John 3:16] but also the incompatible value of every human
person.
The Church, faithfully contemplating the mystery of redemption,
acknowledges this value with ever new wonder [Cf John Paul II, Encyclical
Letter Redemptor Hominis [4 March 1970]. She feels called to proclaim to
the people of all times this Gospel, the source of invincible hope and try
it for every period of history. Gospel of God's love for man, the Gospel of
the dignity of the person and the Gospel of life are a single and
indivisible gospel." [cf. John 1:8-9' John Paul II Reconconciliatio et.
Paenitencia, 132].
Life is Good
Life is always good. This is an instinctive perception and a fact of
experience, and man is called to grasp the profound reason why this is
so.
Why is life good? This question is found everywhere in the bible; and
from the very pages it receives a powerful and amazing answer. The life
which God gives man is quite different from the life of all other living
creatures, inasmuch as, man, although formed from the dust of the earth [Cf
Gen. 2:7; 3:19; Job 34:15; Ps. 03:14; 104:20] is a manifestation of God in
the world, a sign of His presence, a trade of His glory [Cf. Gen. 2:26-27;
Ps. 8:6]. This is what St Irenaeus of Lyons wanted to emphasize in his
celebrated definition: "Man, living man, is the glory of God" [Gora De
vivies honor Adfesus haerres IV 20, 7; Schg. 100/2 648-649]. Man has been
given a sublime dignity based on the intimate bond which unites him to his
Creator: In man there shines forth a reflecting of God himself as
reflective in the Book of Genesis [Gen. 1:28; Gen. 2:25].
In the biblical
narrative the difference between man and other creatures is shown above all
by the fact that only the creation of man is presented as the result of a
special decision on the part of God, a deliberation to establish a
particular and specific beyond with the Creator: "Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness" [Gen. 1:26]. The life which God offers to man is
a gift by which God shares something of himself with his creature. The Book
of Sirach too recognizes that God, in creating human beings, "endowed them
with strength like his own, and made them in his own image" [Sirach 17:3].
The biblical author sees as part of the image not only man's dominion over
the world but also those spiritual faculties which are distinctively human,
such as reason, discernment between good and evil, and free will. "He
filled them with knowledge and understanding, and showed them good and
evil." [Sir. 17:7]. The ability to attain truth and freedom are human
prerogatives inasmuch as man is created in the image of his Creator, God
who is true and just [Dt. 32:4]. Man alone among all visible creatures is
"capable of knowing and loving his Creator" [Gaudium et Spes, 12]. The life
which God bestows upon man is much more than mere existence in time. It is
a drive towards fullness of life, it is the seed of existence which
transcend the very limits of time:"For God created man for incorruption and
made him in the image of his own eternity" [Wis. 2:23].
What is man that
you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him?", the
Psalmist wonders [Ps.8:4]. Compared to the immensity of the universe, man
is very small and yet this very contrast reveals his greatness: "You have
made him little less than a God and crown him with glory and honor"
[Ps.8:5]. The glory of God shines on face of man. In man the Creator finds
his rest. He rested then in the depths of man, He rested in man's mind and
in his thought, after all he had created man endowed with reason, capable
of imitating him of emulating his virtue, of hungering for heavenly
graces.
Unfortunately, God's marvelous plan was marred by appearance of
sins. They changed the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served
the creature rather than the Creator [Rom. 1:25]. As a result man not only
deforms the image of God in his own person but tempted to offense against
it in others as well, replacing relationship of communion by attitudes of
distrust, indifference, hostility and even murderous hatred.
In the life
of man, God's image shines forth anew and is again revealed in all its
fullness at the coming of the Son of God. In human flesh, Christ is the
image of the invisible God [Col. 1:15]. He "reflects the glory of God and
bears the very stamp of his nature" [Hebrew 1:3]. He is perfect image of
the Father.
The plan of life given to the first Adam finds at last its
fulfillment in Christ. Whereas the disobedience of Adam had ruined and
marred God's plan for human life and introduced death into the world, the
redemptive obedience of Christ is the source of grace poured out upon the
human race, opening wide to everyone the fates of the kingdom of life [Cf.
Rom. 5:12-21]. As the Apostle Paul states: "The first Adam became a living
being, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit" [1 Cor. 15:45].
All who
commit themselves to following Christ are given the fullness of life: the
divine image is restored, renewed and brought to perfection of them. God's
plan for human beings is this, that they should be "conformed to the image
of his son" [Rom. 8:29]. Only thus, in the splendor of his image, can man
be freed from the slavery of idolatry, rebuilt lost fellowship and
rediscover his true identity. "Who ever lives and believes in me shall
never
die" [John 11: 25].
This is gift of eternal life.
Unless one is
born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God [John 3:3]. To give this life
is the real object of Jesus' mission : He is the one who comes down from
heaven and gives life to the world" [John 5:3]. Thus, can He truly say: "He
who follows me... will have the light of life "[John 8:12]. Eternal life is
therefore the life of God himself and the same life of the Children of God:
and so we are. Beloved, we are God's children now, it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is "[John 1:2].
Death is essential part of
life. What is death? This will be discussed in the incoming topic of this
website.
PRAISE THE LORD!.
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