In ancient Rome when a baby was born it would be placed at the feet of the father or who the mother wanted the father to be. The man would look over the baby and if he wanted it he would pick it up. That baby would forever be his. If the father did not want the baby it would be abandoned. Most of the time the baby would be left in a conspicuous place so that someone would find it and give it a home. Babies were left on the door steps of the rich or left by farms in hope the farm owner would take the baby in and eventually make it a farm hand.
It was not uncommon that someone would rescue the abandoned babies. Many times these babies would die due to exposure. Babies who were born with defects would often be thrown out with the trash. When the Christians came to Rome they found this practice barbaric. They began to actively seek out these abandoned babies to give them a chance at life. They established orphanages to care for them.
In many ways this world has come full circle on those times. Instead of the father it is now the mother who determines a baby’s worth. If a mother wants the new life growing inside her it is fully protected by the law from the earliest stages. If the mother does not want the life she is free to have it killed and removed from within her. Some places in the United States have gone as far as to allow that baby to be killed even as late as post birth. Instead of going straight to the compost heap we now pick over the corpses of these murder human beings to harvest any part that we can use for another purpose. What remains is then disposed of with less concern than throwing out an empty plastic water bottle.
The blood of these innocents scream out to God for revenge. Justice is drawing near.
Dignity is the thumbprint of God on the human soul. God is the author of life and therefore the only one with authority to take life. Every great evil that has happened throughout human history began when dignity was ignored and a group of people were viewed as less than human.
Today, this dignity is being ignored at both ends of human life. We live in an age where it is thought to be merciful, compassionate, and responsible to end the lives of the unwanted unborn and to grant death with dignity to the sick and elderly.
As Christians we are called to recognize the dignity God has given to every human being and to know that the authority to take life belongs to God alone. Defend the dignity of every human person from conception to natural death.
