During Advent, it's easy to neglect the fact that Christ existed before his birth. We're so focused on his arrival in human society, that we forget that Christ adopted our human nature from the moment of conception. Christ did not incarnate into a non-human amorphous piece of tissue. It would have been beneath his dignity. He doesn't love tissue. Tissue is not made in God's image and likeness.
God became like us because he loved us; he became an unborn child because he loved the unborn child, like he loves Man at all the stages of his life. In fact, Christ has a special place in his heart for the unborn, as he does for all who are marginalized, weak, poor and vulnerable.
The liberal cannot fathom such a love for the unborn, because to him, he is not an equal. To him, the unborn child cannot live up to a man-made litmus test of "personhood". The child is a blob of tissue, a mere organism, a parasite. His worth is relative to his being able to demonstrate certain capabilities. He must have a heartbeat, or brainwaves, or feel pain, or have consciousness or self-awareness, or some other arbitrarily selected ability, in order to be deemed worthy.
But this is judging with human eyes. In God's mind, the human being's value is intrinsic and independent of any other consideration. From the moment a human being exists, God loves him. There is no performance test required. We may not be able to know who the unborn child is, but God does. God sees his virtues, talents, and future accomplishments. He is a <i>somebody</i> in light of his very existence.
And if God loves the unborn child, then we must too. Jesus Christ left us a new commandment: To love one another as he loved us. How do we love humans who are perfect strangers whom we virtually never see? The relationship of the average person to the Unborn Child will not be one of interaction or emotional warmth. Pragmatically speaking, it's impossible. But we must not confuse the affection for love. Love is first and foremost the choice to do what is Good. Affection perfects love, but is not absolutely necessary. The pro-lifer who impassively fights for unborn children has greater love for them than the liberal who coos at the beautiful babies in 3-D ultrasounds, but casts his vote for pro-aborts without a second thought.
As Christians, we cannot pretend to love fellow human beings, yet allow that their most fundamental rights be disregarded. The human person is God's greatest concern, God's greatest love; so much so that he became like one of us, suffered like us and died as we do for our sake. Of course the unborn are not the only people we should care about. The difference between caring about the unborn and caring about other groups of people is that the unborn are the least respected group in society. They are not even considered the lowest of the low; they're not considered <i>anything</i> at all. Jesus said that what people do to the least of his brethren, they do to him. Accordingly, when we let unborn children be killed and do nothing about it, it amounts to letting Jesus be killed. God loved us enough to step in and take on our afflictions. Are we ready to do the same for the least of Jesus' brethren?