The birth of Jesus shows us that God’s love is not an abstract idea. It is a relationship with a real person.
This was Pope Francis’ message as he reflected on the motherhood of Mary in a homily kicking off the New Year.
“God is tangible, he is human, he was born of a woman; he has a face and a name, and calls us to have a relationship with him,” the pope said.
We relate to God by seeing his face and saying his name – just as we relate to any human being.
And the love we see in the face of Jesus should inspire us to look with love on the faces of our neighbors.
The pope pointed to Mary as a model of how to love Jesus – and how to love others.
“May we learn to care for every child born of a woman, above all by protecting, like Mary, the precious gift of life: life in the womb, the lives of children, the lives of the suffering, the poor, the elderly, the lonely and the dying.”
For the pope, caring for “every child” begins with the child in the womb.
Too often the tangible humanity of unborn children is ignored.
An emphasis on dignity
But Pope Francis has repeatedly emphasized their concrete dignity.
In 2013 he said: “Every child who, rather than being born, is condemned unjustly to being aborted, bears the face of Jesus Christ.”
Like Jesus, unborn children in our society often experience the world’s rejection.
In 2022, legal abortion killed almost 40,000 children in the womb in North Carolina alone, a 23% increase from the year before.
This terrible attack on human life is often defended using abstract language that obscures the humanity of its victims.
Advocates for legal abortion prefer to speak of “terminating a pregnancy” rather than recognizing the life that is lost.
They speak of a need for “abortion care.” But for whom does abortion express “care?”
Not for the unborn child, a human being whose body is torn from the mother’s womb.
Not for the mother, whose life may be treated like an abstraction as well.
The loss of her child, which far too often comes amid personal tragedy and difficult circumstances, is sometimes celebrated by activists as an achievement for “autonomy” or “freedom.”
Recognizing humanity
Pope Francis’ reflections on the concreteness and humanity of the unborn child help us overcome these abstractions and recognize the humanity of the mother and child at risk of abortion.
In his Jan. 1 homily, he exhorted us to take action to defend human life in the womb.
“I ask for a firm commitment to respect the dignity of human life from conception to natural death,” he said, “so that each person may cherish his or her own life and all may look with hope to the future.”
Making a firm commitment isn’t just a matter of believing the right thing but of taking action to love and protect unborn children and their mothers.
It must be as tangible and concrete as the mothers and children to whom we commit ourselves.
What firm commitment will you make to protect human life – from the moment of conception – this year?
How to help protect children
- Sign up online to receive Respect Life Prayer and Action Alerts from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
- Call and write your elected representatives to urge them to vote to protect life.
- Start or get involved in the Walking With Moms in Need ministry at your parish.
- Spend one day a month peacefully praying at a local abortion facility with your parish group or organizations such as 40 Days for Life and Sidewalk Advocates for Life.
- Attend the March for Life in Washington on Jan. 24 or in Raleigh this May.
- Volunteer or support a local pregnancy support center such as Mira Via, Room at the Inn, or Birthright of Charlotte.
Father Peter Ascik is director of the Diocese of Charlotte’s Family Life Office and pastor of St. Mary Help of Christians Parish in Shelby.