Leon Suprenant
From the Jan/Feb 2006 Issue of Lay Witness Magazine
For I don’t know how long, I’ve had a bumper sticker on my car that says, “God is pro-life.” I usually don’t go in for bumper stickers, and in fact this is the only one I have. I guess when I picked it up at a conference I thought that it would provide an important sound bite to all who would see it. After all, we pro-lifers rightly understand that God is on “our side” in the culture wars. So, I figured that this message would challenge those who maintain
some belief in God yet support the killing of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.
However, I’m the one who most frequently sees this bumper sticker, and I’m finding that it’s challenging me to go deeper. What does it really mean to say, “God is pro-life”? How do we understand this phrase without reducing God to the level of partisan activist?
The Higher Life
What comes to mind when we think about the gift of human life? I’ve found that we frequently equivocate when we talk about our life, as there are two distinct concepts at work here.
First, there is human life in the most basic sense—as God’s special creation. He views this creation as “very good” (Gen. 1:31), so much so that even when we fell from grace, He not only came looking for us, but He became one like us, assuming our human nature.
However, “life” also refers to God’s own divine life, which He communicates to us through His Church. As the glossary of theCatechism of the Catholic Church explains: “Beyond its ordinary meaning of human life, Jesus used ‘life’ to signify a share in His own divine Trinitarian existence, which becomes possible for those who respond to His invitation to turn away from sin and open their hearts to God’s abiding love.”
When it comes to baptized Christians, then, both the human and divine sense of “life” come into play. Jesus Christ identified Himself as the “life” (Jn. 14:6), and He came to give us life in abundance (Jn. 10:10). He embraced and redeemed our own human nature and enabled us to share in divine life, so that with St. Paul we can say, “To live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21).
So, it’s fundamentally more accurate to say that God is “pro-life,” and not merely “anti-abortion.” He not only wants to end the killing but also to enhance our living in Him. We are most fully alive when we are united to the God-man. Any attack on human life, then, necessarily involves a rejection of the God who is life.
Culture of Spiritual Death
Today, all Christians—and indeed all people of good will—have the urgent, “non-negotiable” mandate to defend human life against attacks that are unprecedented in human history. Our peaceful, resolute commitment to overturn abominable laws favoring abortion, euthanasia, and other lethal sins against the Fifth Commandment surely is pleasing to the Lord.
Every human life is an extraordinary gift from God. Therefore, a person’s dignity and worth, let alone the fundamental right to exist, cannot be subject to another’s “choice” or whim. This fundamental right to live trumps any argument that seeks to justify the direct killing of another human being.
However, human life is a relative good in relation to divine life. That’s why the Church esteems the martyrs, who surrendered their lives in this world so as to preserve their lives in the next.
Our Lord says, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt. 10:28). Despite the many threats to human life today, from abortionists to terrorists, Our Lord tells us not to fear them. Rather, we should fear Satan, the father of lies and prince of this world, who can lead us into hell.
We should also have a healthy fear of God, whose justice is terrible to those who reject His limitless mercy. The worst sins, from our standpoint, are not those of the “culture of death” crowd, but our own sins. After all, only our own sins are capable of separating us from the love of God poured into hearts through Jesus Christ.
Contemporary assaults on human life have gone hand-in-hand with the emergence of a “culture of spiritual death” in our midst. We have spiritual “contraception” and “abortion,” in that children’s spiritual life is snuffed out before it begins, because they are never brought to Jesus. We have spiritual “infanticide,” in which children are baptized but not instructed in the faith. Instead, they are exposed to corrosive forces such as classroom sex education, the pervasive secularism around us, and other influences that poison their faith. We have spiritual “euthanasia” when Jesus is withheld from the sick and dying.
That’s why we as Catholics United for the Faith have always sought to foster a culture of spiritual life. As the Church has always taught, the only effective antidote to these spiritual assaults is holiness—uniting ourselves to Christ and letting the Holy Spirit work through us. That’s the clarion call of Vatican II to each and every Catholic, without exception. And in a special way, that’s the call to Christian families, which as “domestic churches” are
necessary building blocks of the “civilization of life and love” that must vanquish the culture of death— spiritual and otherwise.
Faith Matters
We rightly resist the label “anti-abortion” in favor of the more accurate and inclusive label “pro-life.” Similarly, when it comes to spiritual dangers, we don’t define ourselves as “anti-infidelity” so much as “pro-faith.” As Catholics “united for the faith,” we do not define ourselves in relation to those who lack faith, but in relation to Jesus Christ and to the priceless treasures of His Church. In this regard, one of the most striking (and
underappreciated) sections of the Catechism is no. 2087: “Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the ‘obedience of faith’ as our first obligation. He shows that ‘ignorance of God’ is the principle and explanation of all moral deviations. Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear witness to him.”
We see here the link between ignorance of God and the many moral evils we face in the world today. As Pope John Paul II said, “When the sense of God is lost,” we lose the sense of man’s God-given dignity, which leads to “the systematic violation of the moral law” (Evangelium Vitae, no. 21). Or, even more starkly, as Ivan, a character in Dostoevsky’s classic novel The Brothers Karamazov says, “If there is no God, then everything is permitted.”
We can talk about practicing the faith and practical things we can do to grow in faith, but practicing and practical atheism is all around us, and everything seemingly is permitted. Many people act as though there is no such thing as mortal sin, because they don’t really believe there is such a thing.
Many people don’t really believe chastity is possible, let alone good and necessary. Many people don’t believe sodomy is a sin that cries out to heaven or that the Sacrament of Marriage is an indissoluble union.
The list could go on for pages, but the point is simply this: If we want to address the myriad evils that oppress us, we must, as individuals, families, and as nations, return to God.
I’m speaking here about the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” not the god of Sanger, Kinsey, and NARAL. I’m speaking here of a God who is truth, and who sets free, not a god who deceives us and enslaves us to our passions.
And I’m talking about a God who gives life in abundance, not a god of death.
Yes, God is pro-life. Now, what is our response?
Leon Suprenant is president of Catholics United for the Faith and publisher of Lay Witness. His book credits include the best-selling Catholic for a Reason series (coedited with Scott Hahn). He is also a frequent columnist for CatholicExchange.com. Suprenant frequently appears on television and radio programs as a commentator on Catholic issues.
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