“It was you who created my inmost self, Who knit me together in my mother’s womb. For all these mysteries, I thank you. For the wonder of my being. For the wonder of all your works!” (Psalm 139:13-14)
This verse of psalm 139 provides answers to the perplexing questions that all of us ask at one time or another: “What is life?” and “Who made me?”
Most people, like the psalmist, answer that God is the author of human life, and of all life teeming around us. No human being, not even the greatest scientists with the most powerful microscopes, can explain the profound mysteries of life. We cannot even fully explain, for example, how a seed dies and then explodes into life. Neither can any human being “make” a seed, a flower, a tree, a plant, or any one miraculous part of a human body. Huge medical libraries throughout the world are filled with voluminous books which try to unravel the mysteries and wonders of each and every part of the human body, or of the diseases which assail and ravage it. The phenomena related to a single part of the body are so numerous that “specialists” are required to study for years and years just to understand, for instance, the functioning and diseases of the eye.
And so we have specialists of all kinds who devote their entire lives to becoming better psychiatrists, ophthalmologists, podiatrists, dentists, pediatricians, etc. In so doing, they have contributed to the health and betterment of mankind. I have purposely omitted obstetricians and gynecologists from this list because one can no longer generalize that these “specialists” are working for the health and betterment of mankind. On the contrary, like Kind Herod of old, some of them are “searching for the child to do away with him.” (Matt. 2:14)
When Jesus, Mary and Joseph escaped from a life-threatening situation by fleeing into Egypt, Herod “was furious” and decided to kill all male children two years and under. Likewise, to abort an unborn child is to disregard that author of that child’s life and all the marvels related to that life which began at conception. Medically and scientifically, it has been proven that within a few weeks of conception the baby’s heart, nervous system and brain function independently from the mother. The baby breathes, moves, sucks a thumb, and in general, is very active in the womb. So amazing is the development that the baby’s 14-day-old miniscule hands and feet have been marveled at in many photographs.
To abort an unborn baby is to destroy a human being who was created in the “image and likeness of God.” (Genesis 1:27) All life emanates from God, as Jesus told us so clearly when he said: “I am the Way and the Truth and the life.” (Johns 14:6) Divine origin and destiny are profound mysteries which the psalmist seems to have understood when he wrote the very beautiful words cited above.
Someone will be accountable for every loss of life. For example, Cain was accountable for his brother’s death and was asked: “Where is your brother? What have you done? Listen to the sound of your bother’s blood crying out to me from the ground.” (Genesis 4:9-12) In our day, the blood of millions of babies is crying out from the garbage bags in too many of our hospitals.
To abort a baby is to incur a heavy debt of accountability to God, but it is not necessarily to be on a road of “no return.” The conversion of St. Paul, for instance, is a fascinating story which illustrates God’s infinite, tender mercy. Even though Paul “entirely approved of the killing (of Stephen),” and even while he “was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord’s disciples,” he heard and listened to Jesus who said: “I am Jesus and you are persecuting me. Get up now and go into the city and you will be told what you have to do.” (Acts 8:1 and 9:1-9). And thus Saul became the great St. Paul, God’s “chosen instrument” who, in spite of his many crimes, became a powerful Christian preacher. In a somewhat similar manner, there are abortionists who have become pro-life proponents. To be or to become a pro-lifer is to realize that God has endowed all people, inside and outside the womb, with life that is precious, mysterious and sacred – with life that is a path to eternal life and a prelude to contemplating God forever.
“My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life; When can I enter and see the face of God?” (Psalm 42)
God is indeed the God of life, of new life in Christ, of abundant life, of resurrected life in Jesus, of eternal life. To respect life, to love life, to protect life, is to resemble God. In the final analysis, who is more like God than mothers who have a deep understanding for life and for the gift of life? Loving mothers are like Mary, the mother of Jesus, who agreed to bear a child with all that that entails: nurturing, caring, teaching, consoling little broken hearts, protecting, listening, encouraging, praising, being self-sacrificing, and, above all, loving unconditionally.
There is hope for mankind when, like the psalmist, all men and women come to marvel at the wonder of their being, at the wonder of their call to life from Life. And the best is yet to come, for this life is only a prelude to eternal life!
It was you who created my inmost self, Who knit me together in my mother’s womb.
For all these mysteries I thank you.
For the wonder of my being.
For the wonder of all your works!
