All Human Life is Sacred: God’s Most Precious Gift
By Fr. Marion Charboneau, OSB
The following words of wisdom on God’s love for us at every stage of life come from one of the longest-serving members of our monastic community. He invites you to prayerfully reflect on the inherent dignity of every human being.
This article was originally published in our October 2024 Kansas Monks newsletter. Read the whole newsletter at www.kansasmonks.org/newsletter/october2024.
We are embodied persons. Our bodies and our persons go together. We are not pure spirits like the angels. When we die, our soul is separated from our bodies, but this is only a temporary, unnatural state. At the Second Coming we shall be reunited with our bodies, now in a glorified state, like Jesus after the Resurrection. We are bodied spirits, and spiritual bodies. Thus we want to give our bodies all the care and respect that they deserve. Our bodies share in the great dignity of our persons. We are not to violate this God-given dignity.
I am 82, and have lived through the various stages of life. With a little reflection, we realize that God has a definite plan for us as we move across the trajectory of life. Each stage of life is precious, and to be appreciated.
In God’s plan, parents use their fertility to share life with their children. Parents are co-creators with God. They provide the body, and God provides the immoral soul. If people appreciated this fact of life, then they would never abort an unborn child—a fully human person. Because parents treasure their children as God’s greatest gift to them, they are willing to do anything, anything, that the child needs.
Our bodily condition is precarious. There are always infirmities, sickness and unforeseen accidents that go with the early years of our lives. Parents show their love by attending to the bodily needs, the physical care, of their children. Children know if they are being loved.
As we advance through life we pass through an adolescent growth spurt and puberty, when our sexuality is awakened. This is all part of God’s plan for us. Our task is to meet the challenges of every stage of life, and to be open to good guidance and moral teachings.
In middle age we enjoy the full powers of the body: strong energy, keen senses, and a maturity of mind. These are our most productive years, when we assume responsibilities and use the talents that God gave us to advance the good and resist the evil. For most people it is a vocation to marriage and family life. God gives us our best energy when we most need it to raise a family and to support it with our labors.
In our autumn years, our energy levels drop, and the body begins to wear out. Sickness, tragedy, and various hardships make their appearance. The elderly now must rely upon their children for assistance.
Every stage of life is graced and important. Each stage has its challenges to meet, tasks to accomplish, and goods to pursue. We are to treasure every stage of our lives, even when there is suffering involved. Some suffering is inevitable and unavoidable. Euthanasia is an offense against our dignity. Only Gd can determine when our lives begin and when it is completed. As long as we have life, we are called to continue to grow in our love for God, in our relationship with Him, and in our love for one another.
Life is God’s gift to us. We are called to live each stage of life in the great pursuit of loving God and loving our neighbor. When this life is well lived, and God calls us over the threshold of death, then we begin the full completion of God’s plan for us, and enter into the boundless love, joy and beauty of eternal life with God, the saints, and angels.
“None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:7-9).
About Fr. Matthew Habiger, OSB
Fr. Matthew, O.S.B., in an occurrence unmatched in history, was ordained a priest alongside his twin brother and their widowed father in the same ordination mass.