During Easter we are focused not only on Jesus’ resurrection, but also its implication for us, his followers. As Christians, we look forward to the “new life” that we are promised because of Jesus’ resurrection. This can take many forms. It can be the new life that we receive sacramentally in the restoration that comes through the sacrament of reconciliation. It can be the life of hope knowing that our own personal “Good Fridays” can be followed with “Easter Sundays.”

Our faith promises us so many different ways in which we can personally experience “new life.” In fact, even the season in which we celebrate Easter can be a reminder of God’s plan for “new life” as we witness creation coming back to life after the tomb-like experience of a long, cold winter.

This focus on new life can also remind us of the sacredness of all human life. Why celebrate “new life” if that life wasn’t of inestimable value to begin with? During this Easter season we can be reminded of the incredible gift that life is and the need that we all have to see as valuable that which God views as valuable enough to imprint His very own image and likeness on.

It is precisely because of the incredible worth and dignity of every human life, that the Church teaches what she does regarding its sanctity and protection. It is no secret that the Church teaches that the profound respect owed to every human life begins at conception. Why? Because that is when we begin.

It would be difficult to find another example when theology, philosophy and science all point to a basic truth so clearly as in the case of the beginning of human life. Theology tells us that God knew us even before He formed us in our mother’s womb. It tells us that God Himself creates our soul to be united with our body — as soon as our body exists.

Philosophy tells us that as human beings we exist as this unity of body and soul — that while our bodies are physical and therefore have physical powers such as growth, our souls comprise our spiritual component animating our bodies, likewise with unique powers such as our rational intellect and free will. The capacities of our body and soul will develop over time, but those capacities are present from the first moment. Whether or not those capacities ever manifest themselves depends on having what they need to manifest themselves. The unity of a human body (no matter what size) and human soul makes us to be what we are: a human being.

Science tells us that the body — even though unformed and only a couple of cells — exists as our body from that moment on. It will grow and develop but will not become something else when we are born.

Furthermore, it tells us that at the moment of conception we have our full set of chromosomes which makes us neither our father or mother. In that moment science confirms that an entirely “new life” begins — the life that exists in that moment will look different as the years go by, but it will always be that same life. We are genetically the same at conception as we are on the day we breathe our last. All the while, science reminds us that our complete set of chromosomes belong to someone — not to something and not existing as random genetic material.

The Church’s teaching on beginning-of-life issues flows from the basic understanding of the value of all human life, which itself flows from where our life comes from and whose image it is created in. Philosophy and science support what our faith tells us is true.

In this season of new life, may we come to a deeper appreciation for all who receive that gift: those already born, and those yet to be.