Our People

Day of the Unborn Child

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

By Most Rev. Julian Porteous
Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney
25/3/2006

A number of years ago I had the opportunity to visit and say Mass at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth. It was a special moment for me personally as the simple and yet most profound realization came upon me: here in this place the incarnation took place.  

The angel declared, “You are to conceive and bear a son”. Mary responded in complete surrender and trust, “let what you have said be done to me”. Her yes, her fiat, effected the conception of the Son of God in her womb. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her and the power of the Most High covered her. There, at that moment, God embraced and entered the human condition.

We celebrate the birth of the Christ child at Christmas with great joy and celebration, and rightly so. Yet, it was in Nazareth nine months previously that God became man. The conception is the moment when human life begins.

Each individual is a singular work of God. The human person has a quality that marks a difference to all other works of creation. We possess a human soul. That soul marks the distinctive quality of the human person, and more particularly defines the inner spiritual principle that each person possesses.

The Catholic Catechism teaches that the human soul is created immediately by God and not produced by the parents [1]. This soul is immortal.

Thus from the moment of conception a human person with an eternal soul is brought into being, is created. What before did not exist, now exists and will exist for eternity. This understanding of the nature of the human person gives rise to an appreciation of the sacredness of each and every human life. It also testifies to the dignity of each person and the respect that is due to each person.

This Day of the Unborn, commemorated on the Feast of the Annunciation, causes us to appreciate the wonderful ways of God in the creation of the human person and in God’s mercy to embrace fully the human condition – in all things but sin – for the sake of redeeming humanity.

Today we consider the miracle of every human life.

• We recognize the dignity of every human person.
• We particularly focus upon the child in the womb.
• We pray that the Lord will protect each child in the womb.
• We pray that all mothers will carry their child with love and be protected at the time of birth.
• We pray that our nation will come to a new place of respect for the sacredness of life and seek protection for the unborn.

[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 366.