III. The Samaritan’s “heart that sees”: human life is a sacred and inviolable gift

Whatever their physical or psychological condition, human persons always retain their original dignity as created in the image of God. They can live and grow in the divine splendor because they are called to exist in “the image and glory of God” (1 Cor 11:7; 2 Cor 3:18) Their dignity lies in this vocation. God became man to save us, and he promises us salvation and calls us to communion with Him: here lies the ultimate foundation of human dignity.[14] It is proper for the Church to accompany with mercy the weakest in their journey of suffering, to preserve them the theologal life, and to guide them to salvation.[15] The Church of the Good Samaritan[16]regards “the service to the sick as an integral part of its mission”.[17] When understood in the perspective of communion and solidarity among human persons, the Church’s salvific mediation helps to surmount reductionist and individualistic tendencies.[18] “A heart that sees” is central to the program of the Good Samaritan. He “teaches that it is necessary to convert the gaze of the heart, because many times the beholder does not see. Why? Because compassion is lacking […] Without compassion, people who look do not get involved with what they observe, and they keep going; instead people who have a compassionate heart are touched and engaged, they stop and show care”.[19]This heart sees where love is needed and acts accordingly.[20]These eyes identify in weakness God’s call to appreciate that human life is the primary common good of society.[21]Human life is a highest good, and society is called to acknowledge this. Life is a sacred and inviolable gift[22]and every human person, created by God, has a transcendent vocation to a unique relationship with the One who gives life. “The invisible God out of the abundance of his love”[23] offers to each and every human person a plan of salvation that allows the affirmation that: “Life is always a good. This is an instinctive perception and a fact of experience, and man is called to grasp the profound reason why this is so”.[24]For this reason, the Church is always happy to collaborate with all people of good will, with believers of other confessions or religions as well as non-believers, who respect the dignity of human life, even in the last stages of suffering and death, and reject any action contrary to human life.[25] God the Creator offers life and its dignity to man as a precious gift to safeguard and nurture, and ultimately to be accountable to Him.

The Church affirms that the positive meaning of human life is something already knowable by right reason, and in the light of faith is confirmed and understood in its inalienable dignity.[26] This criterion is neither subjective nor arbitrary but is founded on a natural inviolable dignity. Life is the first good because it is the basis for the enjoyment of every other good including the transcendent vocation to share the trinitarian love of the living God to which every human being is called:[27] “The special love of the Creator for each human being ‘confers upon him or her an infinite dignity’.[28] The uninfringeable value of life is a fundamental principle of the natural moral law and an essential foundation of the legal order. Just as we cannot make another person our slave, even if they ask to be, so we cannot directly choose to take the life of another, even if they request it. Therefore, to end the life of a sick person who requests euthanasia is by no means to acknowledge and respect their autonomy, but on the contrary to disavow the value of both their freedom, now under the sway of suffering and illness, and of their life by excluding any further possibility of human relationship, of sensing the meaning of their existence, or of growth in the theologal life. Moreover, it is to take the place of God in deciding the moment of death. For this reason, “abortion, euthanasia and wilful self-destruction (…) poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator”.[29]

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