What is the Catholic Church in favor of?

Too often the Church is better known in our culture for what it is against rather than what it is for.  I guess this is the consequence of being engulfed in a societal shift and our sometimes desperate attempts to hold on to what we have known to be good.  Unfortunately, in doing so we too often allow evil to set the agenda and the terms of the conversation.  So, I’d like to take an opportunity to re-set the terms of the conversation.

What does the Church Christ founded, and we who are members of the Body of Christ, stand for?  What does our belief in Christ mean?  What does He bring to the experience of being fully human?  We find the answer in the Gospel according to St. John, chapter 10, verse 10b: “I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Everything Jesus did, and does, is about healing us and bringing us to the fullness of life.  Why?  So that we might be with Him and the Father for all eternity through the power of the Holy Spirit.  And we are called to give witness to this truth of human existence.  We are called to give witness to its goodness and beauty.

We give witness to this truth, in particular, by cherishing, nurturing, and protecting human life.  At our best we do this quite naturally and beautifully.

When a woman is pregnant we are naturally attracted to her and to her growing child.  We want to be of help in nurturing, protecting, and caring for both her and her child.  It’s a beautiful thing.  It’s so beautiful that sometimes it gets a bit much for the mother.  People want to feel the baby growing inside of her; and the attention can get overwhelming. 

When the baby is born, it seems like everyone wants to hold him or her.  We make goofy faces and weird noises; and then we squeal with delight when the baby responds with a smile or giggle.  A nursing mother and child is a beauty to behold, and even dirty diapers bring strange expressions of delight.

It has been such a privilege to see a family delight in their child, even when things aren’t “perfect”.  My cousin has a child with a brain disorder wherein the hemispheres of the brain don’t have all the connectivity of a normal brain.  What is their response?  They love her all the more even as they strive to get her the help she needs to have her best life.  And I’ve seen this in so many families.

As we grow older we don’t stop needing the love, care, and protection of those around us, especially as we make our way through the “third” stage of life.  This can be particularly difficult when dementia or Alzheimer’s is involved.  And yet, that too can be very beautiful.  As one daughter stated at her father’s funeral: “I fell in love with each of the personalities he developed as he made his way through that difficult time.”

The Christian way of life is love; in season and out.  Period.