Did not he who made me in the womb make my servant? And did not one fashion us in the womb? (Job 31:15)
Fetus at 6 months
The Prophet Job recognizes that both servant and master have the same origin – God fashions each in their mother’s womb. One life is not more sacred than the other for every human being has a God-given sanctity – male and female, master or slave. Each human receives life from God. Each is created in God’s image and each breathes the spirit that God bestows on us. We receive wisdom from God as well as light and rain. We are to treat all human life as sacred even though some are strangers to us and some are enemies.
It is not God who devalues any human, but humans do decide that some others don’t deserve to live. We dehumanize certain others and in so doing expose our own inhumanity. We decide that some others shouldn’t live and justify this thought by seeing those others as less human than we are and thus not entitled to human rights. All of this applies to how we see the unborn baby in the mother’s womb.
“But there is something wrong with us. If we don’t want to believe that we are murdering our son or daughter when we have an abortion, we don’t believe that, and we then don’t see the evident fact that it’s a baby, a human being.
The Nazis wanted to kill the Jews, so they saw them as subhuman. The white slavers wanted to treat Blacks as subhuman, so they saw them as subhuman.
Then, the atheist, the aborter, the Nazi and the slaver give arguments to rationalize what they see. This is the way our psychological mechanisms usually work. ” (Peter Kreeft, CHRISTIANITY FOR MODERN PAGANS, pp 251-252)
The Orthodox Church in America’s leadership lends its support to the Annual March for Life in Washington, DC, each year. Methropolitan Tikhon also sends an annual message to all the faithful members of the OCA on the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday reminding us of the essential nature of defending human life in a time when the country’s supreme court has ruled that the unborn has no rights.
And while visibly protesting against abortion on demand shows our commitment to the sanctity of human life, as I noted in my post 2019 Sanctity of Human Life Sunday to be pro-life has to mean more than wanting laws that prohibit abortion. Pro-life means a commitment to helping and supporting families, including single moms, who struggle to raise their children. Pro-life should mean we commit ourselves also to being pro-family and pro-education and pro-health for these children whom God brings into existence. If we believe life is sacred then we should not ignore the fact that once some children come into the world they are thrust into poverty, into situations in which they might lack basic health care, food, housing, educational opportunities. Our pro-life attitude should not mean we prevent people from having abortions but then turn our backs against them when they need help in raising these children. Pro-life should never be reduced to supporting pro-life candidates but should include supporting pro-life policies and agencies who work with families in need. We can financially support such groups and personally volunteer to help them. One such Orthodox group we can support is Zoe for Life.
We are not just to pray pro-life, we are to minister to families in need, we are to work for and with these families as part of our liturgy and prayer.
What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. (James 2:14-17)
Today in the life of our church in America we are affirming our commitment to the Sanctity of Human Life. We do this each year on the 3rd Sunday in January as we remember that in our country in 1973, the Supreme Court ruled that having an abortion was a guaranteed right for Americans – a ruling that also said that the child still in the womb had no human rights. Our Orthodox Church has lamented and protested that decision, questioning whether anyone has a right to take the life of an unborn child.
For us as Orthodox Christians, being pro-life should not be limited to mean we vote for pro-life candidates, for I think that just reduces it to a political issue which is used by political parties for their own gains. The issue for us is a moral issue and we should not let political parties use us for their purposes. If we are to be pro-life we have to support those ideas and policies which support life. This means it is not sufficient to think about the issue only every November at the election. Being pro-life does not mean just trying to pass laws that prohibit abortion. Pro-life means that we lend our lives, our resources, our energy and homes to helping families have healthy children. Pro-life means we support mothers who choose to bring their babies into being and not only vote for laws that prohibit abortion but also vote for policies that are pro-family and pro-health and pro-children. We need to support education and health care policies that help even the poorest of families to have access to good schools and health care. These are moral issues to which we must always tend because we are pro-life. Give your support to families in need, not just to political candidates or parties.
Performing abortions is an ancient practice. And while our world has made much progress in proclaiming human rights and defending those who cannot defend themselves, the modern world has not been willing to extend those same rights and protections to the unborn child.
Writing in the 3rd Century, a Christian bishop we know as Methodius proclaimed that every baby conceived is crafted and blessed by God. Every baby conceived comes into existence as the result of the will of God. Methodius even defended the rights and life of illegitimate children. He wrote:
“… we have been taught by the divinely inspired Scriptures that all babies, even those from unlawful unions, are entrusted at birth to the keeping of guardian angels. Whereas if they came into existence contrary to the will and ordinance of that blessed nature of God, how could they be committed to angels to be brought up with great gentleness and indulgence?”
Methodius is defending the sanctity of human life, all life, all babies, even unwanted and illegitimate babies have life because God willed them into being and God appoints a guardian angel for each of them. If God appoints guardian angels even for illegitimate babies, then we as God’s people should also be willing to act as guardians for these same children. We should be encouraging families to stay together and to work together to raise their children. We should be helping them and supporting civil policies which give them support as well.
Bishop Methodius goes on to talk about those parents who decided to terminate the life of their children either by exposure or by abortion:
“And if they are to accuse their own parents, how could they summon them before the judgment seat of Christ with bold confidence and say: ‘Lord, You did not begrudge us this common light; but it was those who exposed us to die, they despised Thy commandment…’” (The Symposium: A Treatise on Chastity, pp 55-56)
Methodius’ stark words are that all these children whose lives were ended abruptly will ask for justice from God. The babies who died from exposure or abortion will on the Judgment Day remind God that He had brought them into being, but their parents chose to kill them. The imagery is very close to what we see in Revelation 6:9-11 –
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; they cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete…
Methodius’ image is a terrible one – for these children instead of praying for their parents, remind God what their parents did to them.
We ourselves might think of what St. Paul said in Colossians 3:4-11 –
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. …
What we are to put to death is not the children whom we don’t want, but rather our own sins. Instead of aborting children we don’t want we should be putting to death our passions and sinful nature.
St. Paul doesn’t even suggest that we put vile and violent sinners to death either, just our own passions.
We are called to remember that God values life so much that God wants there to be as much of it as is possible. In the beginning in Genesis 1:27-28 we hear these words:
So God created the human in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth …
The conceiving of children fulfills God’s plan. But of course we believe that those children are also supposed to be conceived and raised within nurturing families.
Jesus Christ said
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)
Life is a precious gift given to us by God so that we might have communion with God and share in God’s own abundant life.
Fetus at 6 months
Psalm 139 tells us that the unborn child in the mother’s womb is formed and known by God. Each baby is God’s handiwork even if accidentally conceived or unwantedly conceived.
Throughout the Bible God affirms His love for the poor, the downtrodden, the weak and oppressed. This is why we lend our voice to support life and to support the parents who are willing to sacrifice for the good of their children.
In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, our God says to us:
I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
The man called his wife’s name Zoe (Life), because she was the mother of all the living. (Genesis 3:20)
As we in America honor our mothers today, we remember that it is through women that we come into the world. Women have a unique role to play in the life of the world and are involved in God’s life-giving nature in a way that men cannot be. Even the life-giving incarnation of God, required a woman for our salvation. Males had no direct role in the incarnation itself, except to be in need of it for salvation. So motherhood itself is a necessary part of the salvation of every human being. Males cannot be saved without a woman, which is why all Christians should also honor, Mary, the Theotokos. As St Elizabeth shows in her own praise of Mary as “she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?“ (Luke 1:42-43) Elizabeth was overwhelmed that the Mother of the Lord should visit her.
However unique and great the role of motherhood is in the continuation of the human race and in the salvation of all humans, motherhood is not the only role women play in the life of the church. The ability to give birth is a unique role for women, but not the only role for women in the Church. Obviously the entire history of women monastics shows us that child birth is not essential for the salvation of women. There are many women who are saints in our Church, who were never mothers, nor even tried to be.
Women, including mothers, have the same path to salvation as men: through holiness. There are women Disciples of the Lord such as the Myrrhbearing Women. There are women who are proclaimed Equal to the Apostles (such Photini the Samaritan Woman and Helen the mother of Constanine). There are women who are titled Evangelizers (such as Nina of Georgia but also God chose women to serve as the first Evangelists – the Myrrhbearing Women carried the message to the male Apostles). In the Church calendar of saints there are women martyrs, confessors, ascetics, women prophets, deacons, teachers, rulers and monastics.
So while motherhood is a unique role for women in God’s creation and in the Church, it is not the only role for women. And few women are glorified as saints just for being mothers. The women saints of the Church are generally recognized for all the other roles they played in the life of the Church.
Mothers like all women can know the Lord. They can be saints and disciples because they can be imitators of Christ. Mothers give us life, but they can also be examples of how to love and live for eternal life. Giving birth is a natural thing, which may be why it is not always the way to holiness. We are a pro-life Church, and we honor our mothers because they show the sanctity of life in their pregnancies, in giving birth and in their rearing of children. Mothers reveal a unique relationship between themselves and the infants to whom they are giving life as well as to the life-givingness itself. Mothers are the human element in the birthing process. Mothers can be examples not only to their children, but to all women and men of how to follow Christ (Titus 2:3-4), to be His disciple, to experience His presence every day in the most mundane circumstances, in the most natural way. Jesus in fact says everyone who does the will of God becomes His mother (Mark 3:33-34). The holiness of motherhood lies in doing God’s will. And the children of believing mothers are considered to be holy (1 Corinthians 7:14) based on the mother’s faith.
Be blessed like Rebekah
In giving birth to us, in giving life to us, our mothers make it possible for us to experience God, to be in God’s presence. For this alone, we should thank and honor our mothers.
We humans were created in the image of God. One of the main implications of this for Christians is that we are created in the image of a Trinitarian God, a God who is three persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and the three share a communal love for each other. We humans were created as communal or relational beings, to live in love and harmony with each other, to share the common human life. To live in relationship to God, creation and one another is the Paradise God made for us. We were never created to be isolated, alienated individuals. We share a common nature, we share the same planet, we all have the same Creator.
But that Paradise was shattered because people did not value love and community, but wanted to assert their individual life as more important than anything else including more important than one’s relationship with others. In Gen 3:6 we get a glimpse into Eve’s mind – “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.”From her individual point of view, Eve could see nothing wrong with eating of the forbidden fruit. What she ignored was that her life was lived in relationship with God and Adam and creation. Her sin shattered the relationships which existed leading us to the broken, fallen world in which we find ourselves.
We humans were created by God to share in the divine love shared by the Father, and the son and the Holy Spirit. We were created to participate in the Divine Life and Love, but we humans chose to rather assert our individualism over and against all else that exists. And that is why the world we live in is not Paradise. By sin we break the mutual bonds of love which were meant to bind us together in life.
But the God who is Love shows us in the event of the Annunciation that Divine Love is still available to us, for God’s love is not only relational and communal – a love and life to be shared by all – but it is also incarnational. God became human, entering the human condition in Mary’s womb, revealing to us that we humans still have the capacity for loving as God loves.
Christianity is that putting on ourselves the divine love and life. Christianity is not something like clothes which we can put on and take off, but rather Christianity is about our human nature, who and what we are. It is about our participating in the divine life.
The Virgin Mary at the Annunciation is a human person who becomes infused with and inseparable from the Holiness of God. She is the model human person. And so she says to God: Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. (Luke 1:38)
Mary says to God, “not my will, but your will be done”. Mary is not interested in asserting her individualism, but rather is willing to embrace the divine love for humanity and do what is good and necessary for all the people of the world, indeed for all creation.
The Feast of the Annunciation – in which the Holy Spirit comes upon Mary tells us that sacred people or sacred places are a sign that holiness – that God Himself – can be experienced in life. We receive not only what is God’s, but we receive God into our own lives.
Icons, the Holy Communion, saints, the church building are the signs of God’s mysterious presence in our world and in our life. We are striving to make God’s presence personal to ourselves. Mary and all the saints tell us that we can share in the life of the Holy Trinity.
But to do so, we need to be willing to deny ourselves in order to love as God loves us.
A number of Church Fathers thought that the main human problem is not that we sin, for if sin had been our main problem, God had already appointed repentance for sin. The Law of the Old Covenant would have been good enough for dealing with sin. Humans could repent, perhaps offer the appropriate sacrifice and be done with the problem. For many Fathers, the real human problem was corruption – death, we had become mortal beings as a result of sin. This was something that repentance could not undo or fix. Repentance itself was not enough to overcome the corruption – the fact that we died as a result of sin. And they understood that it was not sin that we inherited, for sin was something committed by the will and not by our nature. Corruption, mortality had entered into human nature and now was passed on from one generation to the next.
It was that our nature had been corrupted which required salvation. That humanity had become corrupt, mortal, made God’s own incarnation necessary. God took on human flesh in order to heal it. And God took on death in the flesh in order to overcome death/corruption/mortality. The death of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, meant the defeat of death and the salvation of the human race.
In baptism, we humans die and rise with Christ, thus baptism was our way to participate in the salvation which Christ offered humanity. We “put on Christ” as St. Paul says – we put on Christ’s resurrected humanity so that we too can defeat death and rise from the dead.
This is also why we baptize infants. Baptism is not only for the remission of sins. We die with Christ in baptism in order to rise with Christ in the resurrection. Baptism is to overcome death and corruption. St. John Chrysostom said those who think baptism is just for the remission of sins misunderstand baptism. As we read in Acts 19:3-6, baptism only for the remission of sins was what John the Forerunner offered, but Jesus offered something more in baptism:
And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.
The baptism in Christ gives us salvation from corruption, it offers us eternal life. As Chrysostom notes, Infants have not sinned, they are sinless. We baptize them not because they have sinned but because they are subject to death and corruption. We baptize them so they too can rise to life after death. Even if they haven’t sinned, they will die, for they have inherited human corruption.
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:14-17)
It is our understanding of death, corruption, as being the real enemy of humanity that causes us to oppose abortion. Abortion is inflicting death and corruption on a human being who has not sinned – an innocent, sinless human whom we by abortion condemn to an unrighteous death.
Again, we can think about Chrysostom’s comment in which he says, our warfare doesn’t make the living dead, but makes the dead to live.
A human is a composite being consisting of soul, body and spirit. The body is also part of who I am, or who you are. The corruption of the body, death, is destroying “me” – you and I. God brought us from non-existence into being and death wants to return a human to non-existence by destroying the human body.
It is this thinking that leads us to oppose abortion, but also tells us why we should not use our body for sin. The body is part of who you are. If you sin, you unite yourself, your body to that which is ungodly, to death itself. We should never do that because our bodies were meant to be temples of the Holy Spirit.
If we Christians over focus on “sin” as being the main or only human problem, we can easily miss why we consider human life to be sacred. God is at work in us to save us from death and to give us life in abundance.
“Needless to say, it is a value that applies to our entire being; for our soul and body belong to our person, which they express and manifest each in their own way. Thus, since the body is a dimension of the person, it too possesses specific characteristics, a unique character, and likewise a value that is absolute. This is the basis for the respect we owe to our own body as well as to that of every other person. It also confers on the body a spiritual dimension and value, which means that it can no longer be seen as a purely physical substance nor be separated from the man or woman whose body it is. By the same token, the body shares in the spiritual development of the person as a whole.
In the eyes of the Fathers, then, the body is an integral part of the person, participating in its spiritual value from the moment of conception and beyond its life on earth. This, together with the fact that the soul and body are inseparable elements of the human composite, is the basis for asserting that it is possible for a person to reacquire– albeit according to another mode of existence–the same body that had been provisionally separated from the soul by death. It also justifies Christianity’s rejection of abortion, as well as the doctrine of metempsychosis or reincarnation. Indeed, abortion is considered by the Fathers to be an attack on the life of an actual person since, as seen, they consider the person to be inseparably present from the moment of conception–we humans not being able to exist as such other than as persons.” (Jean-Claude Larchet, THEOLOGY OF THE BODY, pp 23-24)
Christmas focuses on the incarnation of our God. And the incarnation is the most amazing act of God – for God sees in humanity something so sacred that God desires to be united to humanity. The Holy God wishes to share in human nature because God sees in humanity something lovely and holy and blessed. God chooses to share in human nature. This is the mystery of the God of love which results in the incarnation – results in the Nativity of Christ.
And in what manner was the almighty with her, Who in a little while came forth from her? He was as the craftsman, who coming on some suitable material, fashions to himself a beautiful vessel; so Christ, finding the holy body and soul of the Virgin, builds for Himself a living temple, and as He had willed, formed there a man from the Virgin; and, putting Him on, this day came forth; unashamed of the loveliness of our nature. For it was to Him no lowering to put on what he Himself had made. Let that handiwork be forever glorified, which became the cloak of its own Creator. For as in the first creation of flesh, man could not be made before the clay had come into His hand, so neither could this corruptible body be glorified, until it had first become the garment of its Maker.
As Chrysostom envisions Christmas, Christ Himself as Creator fashions the body in the Virgin’s womb that He Himself will take for Himself. God is able to see in humanity something so holy that God wishes to be united to the holiness of humanity. God chooses to share His natural holiness with the humans created in God’s image and likeness.
Chrysostom goes on:
What shall I say! And how shall I describe this Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infant’s bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness.
For this He assumed my body, that I may become capable of His Word; taking my flesh, He gives me His spirit; and so He bestowing and I receiving, He prepares for me the treasure of Life. He takes my flesh, to sanctify me; He gives me His Spirit that He may save me.” (St. John Chrysostom)
The mystery and the amazement continues. For God chooses to unite Himself to humanity while human nature is still subject to the power of sin and death. God doesn’t choose perfect and sinless human nature before the Fall, but accepts human nature as it is in the world. God enters into the human condition and does not create a special humanity and a special world free of sin, temptation, violence, evil, suffering, sorrow or death. God enters into the world that we experience with all of its suffering and sorrow and accepts our human nature. God enters into our lives and embraces the same life that we all share. God is not distant and transcendent, but near you where you are .
Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For it is clear that he did not come to help angels, but the descendants of Abraham. Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested. (Hebrews 2:14-18)
There is nothing as sacred as a human being. Even an imperfect human, a sinner, a flawed person, one beset with temptation. For God every human being is sacred – no matter who I am, no matter what I think about myself, or what others think about me. In God’s eyes, I am still sacred, holy. I am to be what God is. “Be holy for I am holy, ” says the Lord (1 Peter 1:16). This is why God became incarnate. God became human because God sees humans as having a holiness to which God wishes to unit Himself. God did not avoid the fallen, sinful world, but entered into and shared our life in this world.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)
According to the Scriptures, God created humans in God’s own image and likeness. In the Greek text, it says God made us as icons (Greek for image) of God. We are living icons – we breathe, we move, we see, we sense, we hear, we think, we create, we reproduce, we have dominion over other creatures.
“… then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7)
Though we are in God’s image and even are said by the Word of God to be “gods” (John 10:34 quoting Psalm 82:6), we are not idols. Psalm 115:3-8 describes exactly what an idol is:
Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; they make no sound in their throats. Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.
Idols show no sign of life, but are lifeless works of human hands. The ancient idol makers had no technology to add animation to their creations as today’s media animators could.
When one thinks about the description of an idol – mouths but cannot speak, ears but cannot hear, eyes but cannot see, feet but cannot walk and incapable of speaking – one realizes that in the New Testament, the result of sin and evil in the world is that humans have been reduced from icons of God to mere idols. Sickness and disease have turned us into idols. Those that make idols will become like them. So many of the Church Fathers thought idolatry was the main human sin that brought the downfall of humanity.
We can take a quick glance at a few Gospel passages to see how humans, as a result of sin, have become exactly like idols:
“Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear?” (Mark 8:18)
This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: ‘You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. (Matthew 13:13-17)
Though he had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in him; it was that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe. For Isaiah again said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.” Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him. (John 12:37-41)
“God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs for ever.” (Romans 11:8-10)
And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. (Matthew 11:4-5)
All the healing miracles of Christ – sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, voice to the dumb, walking to the lame – undo the effects of the fall. They turn us from being like idols into being in God’s image to restore us to being icons of God.
The Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” (John 9:15)
In Genesis 2 God takes the clay of the earth to form the first human, but doesn’t form a lifeless idol. Rather, God breathes into the clay and the human becomes a living soul. In John 9, Christ again takes the clay of the earth, which an idol-maker could form into the lifeless idol, and grants sight to the blind, restoring the image and likeness of God to the created human.
Today the Orthodox Church in America recognizes the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. I want to mention a quote from President Obama’s 11 January 2016 State of the Union speech. It’s not easy to find something from him to quote for this Sunday, but he said something which caught my ears:
So, my fellow Americans, whatever you may believe, whether you prefer one party or no party, our collective future depends on your willingness to uphold your obligations as a citizen. To vote. To speak out. To stand up for others, especially the weak, especially the vulnerable, knowing that each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us. To stay active in our public life so it reflects the goodness and decency and optimism that I see in the American people every single day.
The President called upon us to stand up especially for the weak and vulnerable, and to remember “that each of us is only here because somebody, somewhere, stood up for us.” That is exactly the sentiment we who are pro-life and who believe in the sanctity of human life are doing for the babies in their mother’s wombs. President Obama said we should speak up and vote. We do that, and we also pray.
Christ Blessing the Children
Here is the prayer that the Orthodox Church in America offers for the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. It is a prayer for all, including the unborn babies and also for all politicians, even those who don’t respect the sanctity of human life in the womb.
O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son, Who are in the bosom of the Father, True God, source of life and immortality, Light of Light, Who came into the world to enlighten it: You were pleased to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary for the salvation of our souls by the power of Your All-Holy Spirit. O Master, Who came that we might have life more abundantly, we ask You to enlighten the minds and hearts of those blinded to the truth that life begins at conception and that the unborn in the womb are already adorned with Your image and likeness; enable us to guard, cherish, and protect the lives of all those who are unable to care for themselves. For You are the Giver of Life, bringing each person from non-being into being, sealing each person with divine and infinite love. Be merciful, O Lord, to those who, through ignorance or willfulness, affront Your divine goodness and providence through the evil act of abortion. May they, and all of us, come to the life of Your Truth and glorify You, the Giver of Life, together with Your Father, and Your All-Holy and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Today in the life of our church in America we are affirming our commitment to the 
Writing in the 3rd Century, a Christian bishop we know as 
However unique and great the role of motherhood is in the continuation of the human race and in the salvation of all humans, motherhood is not the only role women play in the life of the church. The ability to give birth is a unique role for women, but not the only role for women in the Church. Obviously the entire history of women monastics shows us that child birth is not essential for the salvation of women. There are many women who are saints in our Church, who were never mothers, nor even tried to be.
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