October is a month where we celebrate two very important things: Our Lady of the Rosary and Respect Life Month.  Both of these go together so well because without our Blessed Mother giving her “fiat,” her “yes,” to God’s will, we would not have received the author of all life who then becomes the Bread of Life.  This is a perfect time of year for discussing Life issues and our responsibility as Catholic citizens of the United States to stand up for all our sisters and brothers who have no voice or who are losing their voice.
 
Before we get into any specific topic, I think it’s important that we discuss the basics of the Church’s mission and social doctrine. First and foremost, because the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is God’s dwelling place among the peoples of the world, we have a responsibility to preach and evangelize all people for the good of society.  God is love (1 John 4:8), which means the Catholic Church as the Mystical Body of Christ is the manifestation of God’s love to the whole world.  It is our responsibility to share that love with EVERYONE, so that the world can be a better place.  St. Irenaeus says, “the glory of God is man (humanity) fully alive.” God wants us to be happy and living our best life.
 
So, how do we come to know what our best life is? How do we know what it looks like for man (humanity) to be fully alive? We come to this knowledge through faith in what has been revealed.  A fancy theological phrase is Divine Revelation.  Jesus Christ, the God man, is Divine Revelation because God became incarnate in Jesus Christ.  From our Blessed Lord comes two main sources of revelation (how we continue to grow in knowledge and love of God): the Sacred Scriptures and our Tradition (notice the capital “T”).  There is a difference between Tradition and tradition.  Traditions (with the capital “T”) are things the Catholic Church has done since the time of Christ and the first Apostles that we continue to do today. Only using water for the celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism is an example of a Tradition.  Because it’s something Jesus and/or the first Apostles did, we will continue to do those things as they were revealed by God Himself: Jesus Christ.  
 
When we talk about other traditions (with the lower-case “t”), these are doctrines of the faith that continue to develop over time as we learn more about our faith and Revelation. It’s in our traditions that we find the moral teachings of the Church.  As society changes, so does our understanding of the human person.  For example, St. Paul didn’t see anything wrong with slavery, as long as you treated your slaves as we treat employees today.  St. Paul would have never guessed slavery would become the economic and oppressive phenomenon that it did (St. Paul also thought Jesus was returning in less than a year).  So, the Church teaching on slavery is a tradition that developed over time. 
 
When we talk about the tradition of the Church surrounding the Human Person today in 2019, the Church says this: the human person is made in the image and likeness of God; the human person is made up of body and soul; because of the human person being made in Gods own image and likeness, humans have an inherent dignity that can never be taken away or diminished; all human persons are equal; the human person has total freedom and is responsible for limiting that freedom to the natural law; the human person suffers from the tragedy of original sin (“concupiscence” – google it) and therefore requires salvation through Jesus Christ. 
 
While these traditions can continue to develop over time, this is what we have to work with as a foundation to any discussion on life issues.