Fr. Rodlin’s corner

To be born or not to be born--Imagine that before you were born, you were given a choice: Would you like to enter this world, or would you rather never be born? There is only one condition—you are not allowed to know what kind of life awaits you. You do not know your family, your country, your health, your opportunities, or how long you will live. You are simply told that life will contain joy and sorrow, love and loss, success, and disappointment. There will be beautiful moments you wish will last forever and painful moments you will wish never happened. Knowing all of this, would you still choose to be born?

I believe I would say yes. Not because life is easy, but because life itself is an extraordinary gift. To be alive is to have the possibility of seeing a sunrise, hearing music, laughing with friends, loving a family, learning something new, helping another person, forgiving, and being forgiven, and discovering that even after disappointment we can begin again. We cannot experience any of these things unless we first receive the gift of life.

This is why we should be careful about how we measure the value of a human life. Our culture can easily associate value with health, success, independence, beauty, wealth, or productivity. Yet human dignity cannot depend on any of these things. A newborn child has accomplished nothing, yet that child’s life is priceless. A person who is sick, elderly, poor, disabled, forgotten, or dependent upon others does not become less valuable. Christian faith reminds us that human dignity is not something we earn through achievement. It belongs to us because we are created in the image and likeness of God.

Once we understand life in this way, another truth follows naturally: a gift this precious deserves to be protected at all stages and costs. Preserving life means more than simply keeping people alive. It means helping human life flourish. It means feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, protecting the vulnerable, accompanying the lonely, comforting those who suffer, rejecting violence, working for peace, and giving hope to those who have begun to believe that their lives no longer matter. Respect for life becomes not simply an idea we defend, but a way we treat the person standing before us.

For Christians, however, there is an even deeper reason life is sacred. This earthly life is not the whole story. Jesus says, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The life we receive here is the beginning of a journey toward God. We were created not merely to occupy this earth for a few decades, but to know God, to love one another, to serve, and to share eternal life with Him. Death is real, and separation is painful, but through Christ, death does not have the final word. The life God begins in us is destined for eternity.

That eternal perspective does not make our present life less important; it makes it even more meaningful. Our days are limited, and therefore they matter. Every encounter gives us an opportunity to love. Every wound offers the possibility of forgiveness. Every talent can become an act of service. Every new morning gives us another chance to leave this world a little better than we found it. We may not control how long we live, but we can decide how deeply and generously we live.

Then, the greatest question is no longer whether we would have chosen to be born. We are already here. We have already received the gift. The question now is what we will do with it. In a sense, every morning life places the question before us again: Do you choose life today? May our answer be yes— not merely by staying alive, but by living in such a way that our own life becomes a reason for someone else to be grateful that they were born.