In The Gospel of Life, Pope St. John Paul II writes, “[T]he deepest element of God’s commandment to protect human life is the requirement to show reverence and love for every person and the life of every person” (EG, 41).

By “every person,” the Holy Father especially named those who may be hardest to revere and love. He reminded us of the most vulnerable at the heart of Jesus’ ministry on earth, those whom the culture abandoned: the leper, the sinner, the stranger. Today, these include the unborn, undocumented immigrants or refugees fleeing persecution, the homeless asleep on the street.

But what does it mean to show reverence and love for another person? It’s more than just an intellectual exercise or political posture. It’s deeply relational. “A stranger is no longer a stranger,” Pope St. John Paul II explains, “for the person who must become a neighbor to someone in need, to the point of accepting responsibility for his life.”

To truly comprehend what we’re being called to do, we should consider those times when our reverence and love were at their purest and freest from constraint. I think back on the time my daughter was in the NICU.

Born premature and with complications, my wife and I spent weeks by her bedside. We kept vigil and prayed she would get well. In those harrowing first weeks of life outside the womb, our baby was unceasingly surrounded by as much reverence and love as we could muster.

Indeed, those were intense feelings for a life very close to us. I cannot imagine having the same magnitude of concern for a great many people. But God can deliver such affection and infinitely more for the life of every person, regardless of age, condition or amount of sin on the soul. Our temptation, therefore, is to believe only God can accomplish so much,

so that we excuse our natural tendencies to care only for our own. To follow in His footsteps, however, Jesus commands just the opposite: to love even our enemies, to the degree that he directs us to “be perfect, just as the heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt.5:43-48). How do we respond?

Individually, we may not be capable of internalizing so much need in the world so fervently and without prejudice, but we can do a pretty good job when we band together as the Church. God gifted each one of us with His own love to project back into the world. When we offer it together before Christ as an organized community of faith, Jesus can multiply it so reverence and love can satisfy more needs than we ever imagined. Together, with the Holy Spirit, we can be a loving presence and advocate for those who aren’t adequately cared for by others.

In the archdiocesan Department of Life, Human Dignity and Charity, we have many opportunities to connect our love to others in need. Through Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio and Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley, supporters serve and empower tens of thousands of people each year through family programs, food assistance, senior care, immigrant and refugee support and more. Through the Respect Life Office, we advance our protection of the unborn, advocate for policies that show reverence for all life and increase participation of those with disabilities in the life of the Church. Through the Catholic Social Action Office, we tackle the root causes of poverty, promote global solidarity, address racism, protect God’s creation and engage in faithful citizenship. Join the effort by going to ccswoh.org, cssmv.org and catholicaoc.org. May God bless our communal offerings to proclaim this Gospel of Life.

Tony Stieritz serves as CEO of Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio and Director of the Archdiocesan Department of Life, Human Dignity and Charity.

This article appeared in the October edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here.