Lately, I have been asked to go and visit a newborn baby at Mater Dei Hospital’s NPICU. As it is my usual pastoral praxis, I asked the nurse in charge to pray with me as I blessed the baby. After the blessing other parents invited me to bless their own little angels. In a matter of few minutes the NPICU became a spectacle of God’s lifegiving blessings!

When I came out of the ward and started reflecting on this pastoral experience I soon realised the significance of Jesus’s words: “I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was thy gracious will” (Matt 11, 25-26). Babies are the privileged recipients of God’s incomprehensible designs because, from their very nature, they are the result of God’s unending love for humanity, as expressed in the mutual self-giving love between a man and a woman. Thus was the view of Pope John Paul II as stated in his General Audience address of December 1, 1999.

“Children, then, must be seen as the greatest expression of the communion between man and woman, or rather of their reciprocal receiving/giving which is fulfilled and transcended in a ‘third’, in the child himself. A child is a blessing from God. He transforms husband and wife into father and mother (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, n. 21). Both ‘come out of themselves’ and express themselves in a person, which, although the fruit of their love, goes beyond them” (§ 4).

Unfortunately, mainly due to hedonistic purposes, love is no longer being understood as a “coming out of oneself” but instead, is tragically being reversed to a “turning into oneself”. The concomitant ramification of such a horrifying twist of emphasis is the atrocious murder of unborn children, abortion.

The latter is essentially a curse since it insults God, the Giver of Life. In number 2271, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes”. Abortion is an abomination because it robs the world from being blessed by countless heavenly blessings, the newborn children. Abortion is intrinsically evil because it motivates people to hate and devour each other at the expense of innocent and defenceless human beings. Motivated by such solid teaching Blessed Mother Teresa was bold enough to affirm that “any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use violence to get what they want. That is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion”.

In or out of wedlock every babe is an infinite blessing. This is so since, as Pope Benedict XVI said, “the birth of a child must always be an event that brings joy; the embrace of a newborn baby usually inspires feelings of kindness and care, of emotion and tenderness”. If you are considering terminating your pregnancy, pause a little and remember that a new baby is like the beginning of all things, hope, a dream of possibilities.

After all, as Dorothy Nolte wrote: “Of all the joys that lighten suffering earth, what joy is welcomed like a newborn child?” Are you foolish and cruel enough of negating yourself and the world from such an incomprehensible blessing or truly heroic and loving by bravely accepting and sharing it with others?