Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life): Table of Contents

Introduction

• The incomparable worth of the human person
• New threats to human life
• In communion with all the Bishops of the world

Chapter 1
"The voice of your brother's blood cries to me from the ground." Present-day threats to human life. "Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him" (Gen 4:8): the roots of violence against life

• "What have you done?" (Gn 4:10)
  The eclipse of the value of life
• "Am I my brother's keeper?" (Gn 4:9)
  A perverse idea of freedom
• "And from your face I shall be hidden" (Gn 4:14)
  The eclipse of the sense of God and of man
• "You have come to the sprinkled blood" (Hb 12:22,24)
  Signs of hope and invitation to commitment

Chapter 2
"I came that they may have life." The Christian message concerning life. "The life was made manifest, and we saw it" (1 Jn 1:2): with our gaze fixed on Christ "the Word of life."

• "The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation" (Ex 15:2)
  Life is always a good
• "Called... to be conformed to the image of his Son" (Rom 8:28-29)
  God's glory shines on the face of man
• "From man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting" (Gen 9:5)
  Reverence and love for every human life
• "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28)
  Man's responsibility for life
• "For you formed my inmost being" (Ps 139:13)
  The dignity of the unborn child
• "I kept my faith even when I said, 'I am greatly afflicted'" (Ps 116:10)
  Life in old age and at times of suffering
• "All who hold her fast will live" (Bar 4:1)
  From the law of Sinai to the gift of the Spirit
• "They shall look on him whom they have pierced" (Jn 19:37)
  The Gospel of life is brought to fulfilment on the tree of the Cross

Chapter 3
"You shall not kill." God's holy law. "If you would enter life, keep the commandments" (Mt 19:17): Gospel and commandment

• "From man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life" (Gen 9:5)
  Human life is sacred and inviolable
• "Your eyes beheld my unformed substance" (Ps 139:16)
  The unspeakable crime of abortion
• "It is I who bring both death and life" (Dt 32:39)
  The tragedy of euthanasia
• "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29)
  Civil law and the moral law
• "You shall love your neighbour as yourself" (Lk 10:27)
  Promote life

Chapter 4
"You did it to me." For a new culture of human life. "You are God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light" (1 Pet 2:9): a people of life and for life.

• "That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you" (1 Jn 1:3)
  Proclaiming the Gospel of life
• "I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made" (Ps 139:14)
  Celebrating the Gospel of life
• "What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works?" (Jas 2:14)
  Serving the Gospel of life
• "Your children will be like olive shoots around your table" (Ps 128:3)
  The family as the "sanctuary of life"
• "Walk as children of light" (Eph 5:8)
  Bringing about a transformation of culture
• "We are writing this that our joy may be complete" (1 Jn 1:4)
  The Gospel of life is for the whole of human society

Conclusion

• "A great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun" (Rev 12:1)
  The motherhood of Mary and of the Church
• "And the dragon stood before the woman ... that he might devour her child when she brought it forth" (Rev 12:4)
  Life menaced by the forces of evil
• "Death shall be no more" (Rev 21:4)
  The splendour of the Resurrection

Endnotes