Evangelium Vitae
Conclusion
102. At the end of this Encyclical, we naturally look again
to the Lord Jesus, "the Child born for us" (cf.
Is 9:6), that in him we may contemplate "the Life"
which "was made manifest" (1 Jn 1:2). In
the mystery of Christ's Birth the encounter of God with man
takes place and the earthly journey of the Son of God begins,
a journey which will culminate in the gift of his life on
the Cross. By his death Christ will conquer death and become
for all humanity the source of new life.
The one who accepted "Life" in the name of all
and for the sake of all was Mary, the Virgin Mother; she is
thus most closely and personally associated with the Gospel
of life. Mary's consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood
stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ
came to bestow on humanity (cf. Jn 10:10). Through
her acceptance and loving care for the life of the Incarnate
Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation to final
and eternal death.
For this reason, Mary, "like the Church of which she
is the type, is a mother of all who are reborn to life. She
is in fact the mother of the Life by which everyone lives,
and when she brought it forth from herself she in some way
brought to rebirth all those who were to live by that Life".138
As the Church contemplates Mary's motherhood, she discovers
the meaning of her own motherhood and the way in which she
is called to express it. At the same time, the Church's experience
of motherhood leads to a most profound understanding of Mary's
experience as the incomparable model of how life should
be welcomed and cared for.
"A great portent
appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun" (Rev
12:1): the motherhood of Mary and of the Church
103. The mutual relationship between the mystery of the Church
and Mary appears clearly in the "great portent"
described in the Book of Rev- elation: "A great portent
appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars"
(12:1). In this sign the Church recognizes an image of her
own mystery: present in history, she knows that she transcends
history, inasmuch as she constitutes on earth the "seed
and beginning" of the Kingdom of God.139
The Church sees this mystery fulfilled in complete and exemplary
fashion in Mary. She is the woman of glory in whom God's plan
could be carried out with supreme perfection.
The "woman clothed with the sun" - the Book of
Revelation tells us - "was with child" (12:2). The
Church is fully aware that she bears within herself the Saviour
of the world, Christ the Lord. She is aware that she is called
to offer Christ to the world, giving men and women new birth
into God's own life. But the Church cannot forget that her
mission was made possible by the motherhood of Mary, who conceived
and bore the One who is "God from God", "true
God from true God". Mary is truly the Mother of God,
the Theotokos, in whose motherhood the vocation to
motherhood bestowed by God on every woman is raised to its
highest level. Thus Mary becomes the model of the Church,
called to be the "new Eve", the mother of believers,
the mother of the "living" (cf. Gen 3:20).
The Church's spiritual motherhood is only achieved - the
Church knows this too - through the pangs and "the labour"
of childbirth (cf. Rev 12:2), that is to say, in constant
tension with the forces of evil which still roam the world
and affect human hearts, offering resistance to Christ: "In
him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light
shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome
it" (Jn 1:4-5).
Like the Church, Mary too had to live her motherhood amid
suffering: "This child is set ... for a sign that is
spoken against - and a sword will pierce through your own
soul also - that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed"
(Lk 2:34-35). The words which Simeon addresses to Mary
at the very beginning of the Saviour's earthly life sum up
and prefigure the rejection of Jesus, and with him of Mary,
a rejection which will reach its culmination on Calvary. "Standing
by the cross of Jesus" (Jn 19:25), Mary shares
in the gift which the Son makes of himself: she offers Jesus,
gives him over, and begets him to the end for our sake. The
"yes" spoken on the day of the Annunciation reaches
full maturity on the day of the Cross, when the time comes
for Mary to receive and beget as her children all those who
become disciples, pouring out upon them the saving love of
her Son: "When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple
whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother, 'Woman,
behold, your son!' " (Jn 19:26).
"And the dragon stood before
the woman ... that he might devour her child when she brought
it forth" (Rev 12:4): life menaced by the forces of evil
104. In the Book of Revelation, the "great portent"
of the "woman" (12:1) is accompanied by "another
portent which appeared in heaven": "a great red
dragon" (Rev 12:3), which represents Satan, the
personal power of evil, as well as all the powers of evil
at work in history and opposing the Church's mission.
Here too Mary sheds light on the Community of Believers.
The hostility of the powers of evil is, in fact, an insidious
opposition which, before affecting the disciples of Jesus,
is directed against his mother. To save the life of her Son
from those who fear him as a dangerous threat, Mary has to
flee with Joseph and the Child into Egypt (cf. Mt 2:13-15).
Mary thus helps the Church to realize that life is always
at the centre of a great struggle between good and evil,
between light and darkness. The dragon wishes to devour "the
child brought forth" (cf. Rev 12:4), a figure
of Christ, whom Mary brought forth "in the fullness of
time" (Gal 4:4) and whom the Church must unceasingly
offer to people in every age. But in a way that child is also
a figure of every person, every child, especially every helpless
baby whose life is threatened, because - as the Council reminds
us - "by his Incarnation the Son of God has united himself
in some fashion with every person".140
It is precisely in the "flesh" of every person that
Christ continues to reveal himself and to enter into fellowship
with us, so that rejection of human life, in whatever
form that rejection takes, is really a rejection of Christ.
This is the fascinating but also demanding truth which
Christ reveals to us and which his Church continues untiringly
to proclaim: "Whoever receives one such child in my name
receives me" (Mt 18:5); "Truly, I say to
you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren,
you did it to me" (Mt 25:40).
"Death shall be
no more" (Rev 21:4): the splendour of the Resurrection
105. The angel's Annunciation to Mary is framed by these
reassuring words: "Do not be afraid, Mary" and "with
God nothing will be impossible" (Lk 1:30, 37).
The whole of the Virgin Mother's life is in fact pervaded
by the certainty that God is near to her and that he accompanies
her with his providential care. The same is true of the Church,
which finds "a place prepared by God" (Rev 12:6)
in the desert, the place of trial but also of the manifestation
of God's love for his people (cf. Hos 2:16). Mary is
a living word of comfort for the Church in her struggle against
death. Showing us the Son, the Church assures us that in him
the forces of death have already been defeated: "Death
with life contended: combat strangely ended! Life's own Champion,
slain, yet lives to reign".141
The Lamb who was slain is alive, bearing the marks
of his Passion in the splendour of the Res- urrection. He
alone is master of all the events of history: he opens its
"seals" (cf. Rev 5:1-10) and proclaims, in
time and beyond, the power of life over death. In the
"new Jerusalem", that new world towards which human
history is travelling, "death shall be no more, neither
shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for
the former things have passed away" (Rev 21:4).
And as we, the pilgrim people, the people of life and for
life, make our way in confidence towards "a new heaven
and a new earth" (Rev 21:1), we look to her who
is for us "a sign of sure hope and solace".142
O Mary,
bright dawn of the new world,
Mother of the living,
to you do we entrust the cause of life
Look down, O Mother,
upon the vast numbers
of babies not allowed to be born,
of the poor whose lives are made difficult,
of men and women
who are victims of brutal violence,
of the elderly and the sick killed
by indifference or out of misguided mercy.
Grant that all who believe in your Son
may proclaim the Gospel of life
with honesty and love
to the people of our time.
Obtain for them the grace
to accept that Gospel
as a gift ever new,
the joy of celebrating it with gratitude
throughout their lives
and the courage to bear witness to it
resolutely, in order to build,
together with all people of good will,
the civilization of truth and love,
to the praise and glory of God,
the Creator and lover of life.
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter's, on 25 March, the Solemnity
of the Annunciation of the Lord, in the year 1995, the seventeenth
of my Pontificate.
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