Witnessing Boldly To The Gospel Of Life Series

Monday of 33rd Week in Course

Gospel of Life

According to Mark and Luke, the incident just outside Jericho, on the road to Jerusalem, represents the first time someone identified Jesus as the Messiah and was not immediately silenced. The disciples had been scolded on many occasions by Jesus, admonished not to say His name and the word Messiah together. The reason, we are told, is that the popular expectation of the Messiah was that of a king who would raise a great army and destroy the Romans in the Holy Land, perhaps even take over the Roman empire. Jesus was decidedly not that kind of Messiah. He rejected violence and rule by force.

But here, on the road to Calvary, Jesus accepts the title “Son of David,” or Messiah. His first act as Messianic king was an act of mercy and compassion, an act that enhanced, perhaps even saved a man’s life. He delivered the man, otherwise known as Bar-Timaeus, from blindness. Since the man's name means "son of fear," he also delivered him from a life spent in fear, something we can understand better if we try to make our way blindfolded around even our familiar home.

It may not be a coincidence that the other great act of life-affirmation, of compassion, that we remember from Luke also occurred on that bleak and dusty Jericho road. It was the story of the Good Samaritan, in which two enemies were united when one, a Samaritan, saved the life of a Jew.

That we must defend and promote life, to show reverence and love for human life, is a task entrusted by God to every human. We share the divine image with God, and share in his own lordship over the world–be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and be its steward. We have dominion over the earth, which means a responsibility toward the environment in which we live, towards the creation which God has put at the service of man’s personal dignity, and life. This responsibility extends in space and time, and involves our preserving and promoting the natural environment for generations yet to come. The best word devised is stewardship. We may use, but we may not abuse, God’s creation. We may not dispose of things as we please. The message of God tells us that the natural moral law extends to all of creation. Our stewardship reaches its highest point in the giving of life through procreation in marriage. By doing this, we provide for new generations of stewards. By doing this, we share in the creative work of God. We must never think that protecting our environment means not giving God new generations of humans to raise up in love, as he commanded from the beginning.