Christmas is the ultimate pro-life celebration

The P.E.I. Right to Life Association stands for the protection and dignity of all human life from conception through to natural death. This means that every life is valuable and worthy of dignity throughout all stages of growth and development. We live out and uphold this dignity in exercising our call to love one another. This is where the Christmas message and the pro-life mission statement meet in perfection.

The celebration of Christmas is that time of year when we are reminded of the call to love one another. Whether or not you can give a statement of faith to the Christian message of salvation, the hands-down practical truth of this celebration is one of life, it is a story of choosing life and love in all circumstances. The Christmas story is a universal one and continues to radiate great attractiveness.

I challenge you to consider what is actually being celebrated in this holiday season. It is a story from over 2,000 years ago of teenage girl, unexpectedly pregnant and facing certain death. We have a young fiancé who is not the father. We have poverty, estrangement from family and friends. We also have a story of a vulnerable young immigrant family, far away from home, escaping persecution by moving to a foreign country. All these elements are true today for so many people because they are universal. What makes the Christmas story so compelling is the heroic response to these human circumstances.

In response to the unexpected pregnancy, our young mother chooses life and seeks support in wiser women. She reflects upon what she has learned and knows. Instead of abandoning her, the young fiancé commits himself to her and chooses adoption of the child. They face the early years alone in a foreign country and reliant on a labourer’s wage. Yet despite these difficult circumstances, they chose life.

At every step in this miraculous story, we see an unfolding of goodness and choice for life and love in the midst of uncertainty.

At the heart of the Christmas story is hope. It is the hope or expectation that love that will surpass all obstacles. It is the same hope and expectation that we, too, have when facing life challenges. It is what makes the Christmas story universal.

It is also what is at the core of our pro-life mission statement: Every single human person desires love and is worthy of life.

The P.E.I. Right to Life Association offers a path for those whose lives are shadowed by a crisis, we offer hope for life so that every person may rightly expect, and experience hope and love. This is the message of Christmas, it also the message we pass on to you.

Merry Christmas and may your lives be filled with abundant hope, love and life.