Innocents and Repentance
 
      “I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.” (Luke 15:7)
      You know the story: Jesus says that a shepherd in charge of 100 sheep will leave 99 of them untended in order to go and find one that is lost, and then will rejoice with friends over the newly-found lost sheep.
We defend the life of the unborn because every human life has an inherent — or intrinsic — dignity rooted in its having been created in God’s image.  We declare the dignity of every human person and we extend this into the womb, reaching to the moment of conception.
There are critics of the Catholic advocacy for the unborn who say that the Church cares more about the unborn that about the born.  I don’t think this is the case at all, but I can see how it could seem that way sometimes, especially to those looking for inconsistencies in the way we live our faith.
I often hear the theme of innocence as a reason for the seeming preference for the unborn.  And born child has committed no sin, no crime, no offense of any kind, and has no means to defend itself.  We feel compelled to insist that the child have the chance to be born and to live.
Here is where this gets a little harder.  It’s easy to love the unborn child in someone else’s womb (or in a mother’s own womb of course), but when people grow up and get in our face with choices that are disagreeable or even offensive to us, loving them can be far more difficult.  We are sometimes even willing to diminish the dignity of a human person whose choices or behavior or life itself pose a threat or affront to us. 
What if a person commits a heinous crime?  What if there is scandalous public sin?  What if a lifestyle choice is abhorrent to us, especially on religious grounds?  Do any of these things diminish the dignity of a human person?  No, they do not.  Just as every unborn child is innocent and deserves to live a full life, so every sinner deserves the opportunity to repent.  Every lost sheep is sought out by the Good Shepherd, and there will be more joy in heaven over the sinner’s repentance than over those who have no need to repent.  (And who are these people, anyway?  Who doesn’t need to repent?  But that’s a different column...)
After this and last week’s introductory columns, we will start next week into the Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching.  This is how our bishops teach us to love our neighbor as ourselves, while, perhaps, our regard for the unborn can teach us to apply what we learn.