When you go to the same Mass in the same parish year after year, you get to watch children and families grow up. Years ago, I met a very special family, who at that time had just one young son. When the boy was about 12, his mother seemed to be gaining weight. Turned out she was pregnant again! I will never forget the first time I saw them bring Baby Corey to Mass. All three of them — including the adolescent boy — lavished him with love, hugging and tickling him, and passing him back and forth. He was a beautiful baby. He had his mother's blue eyes and blond hair... and he had obvious Downs' features.

Corey is a blessing to me and my entire parish community. Because his family never saw him as anything but precious, because they knew that in God's eyes he was perfectly formed, he has grown up unconditionally loved. And that's just how Corey loves. When he takes his dollar up to the presider as part of the stewardship of children, he always gives the priest a huge hug (so much so that sometimes Father has to pry Corey loose so Mass can continue). He shakes people's hands on the way back to the pew. And you should see him at the Sign of Peace! Corey participates fully in the liturgy, singing loudly (about two words behind everyone else) in his exuberant voice. He is my inspiration because he sees the world as good and relates to people with unfiltered love. And he is here because his parents treasure his life and his worth.

As we approach the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion, let's focus on the sacredness of human life. That includes the life of the unborn. But it also means reverencing the life of all people because our respect for life is rooted in the belief that God created every person — including the murderer on death row, the terrorist, the mentally ill homeless man, and the terminally ill woman — in God's own image and likeness.

"So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)

In her song Apple of My Eye, Ana Da Costa sings:

For you are the apple of my eye
My child, I have called you by name.

God looks at each person, including you and me, as the apple of his eye. He calls each of us by name. Let us pray:

O God, thank you for creating me and loving me perfectly. Help me to see your divine image in every person I meet, and to look at humanity through your loving eyes. Give me the courage to defend human life wherever it is threatened. Amen.

Spirit Compass reflections are developed in partnership
with the Center for Ministry Development.