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August, 2001

The story of Genesis shows how the Father anticipated and prepared for the life He then generated. The heavens and the earth, which would be the place where man would live, were first created and prepared for him. Then all living creatures and plants man would need for sustenance and for dominion were created. Then God created man. He showed man the anticipation and preparation of a Father when He showed him the creatures and the place he would dwell. He assured man of Divine Providence. "You are free to eat of any of trees except..."

Even after the fall this is reaffirmed when He clothed them and promised a redeemer. We have already seen how the providential life of the Jews prepared for the coming of the Son.

Each man therefore is to anticipate the life that God may author in him and prepare for it. He must prepare himself as the good son but he must also see to the temporal well-being that life requires. He must work to see that the world is a place suitable for life. He is not free to say, "I will not bring life into an evil world." He must say, "I will make the world suitable and when God chooses, I will be prepared to welcome life."

We see in Adam that he failed to anticipate and prepare for the life that God would bring forth in his love. In his sin, he did not consider the effects upon the life that God had commanded he and his wife to bring forth. It can be rightly said that the original sin was also a sin against the life of the children to come. Not only would they be deprived of paradise but they would also be deprived of original innocence.

We have seen in Christ that the preparation for fatherhood is being a good son. The good son is one who "loves as I have loved you." The good son is one who is prepared for the hour of love. That hour is the Lord's upon the cross. The mature man is one who is prepared to make the gift of self as "Christ loves the Church."

And so men must anticipate the possibility of life by following Christ and by developing their capacity to love. Their actions ought to consider that life and not provide a risk to the life as Adam did. It is in this light that the Church speaks of the harm against the life of the child that comes from extramarital sexual intercourse, contraception and most obviously abortion.

This road of preparation involves the keeping of the commandments and developing moral and religious virtues according to the Gospel just as the rich young man who came to Jesus. Just like a man who builds a house and prepares it to receive his bride, each young man must prepare himself for the gift of self for the bride that God may have for him.

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