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JANUARY 1, 2009
A lion or a child?
Is it a person or a product, a child or a cluster of tissue? The answer one gives when defining human life in the womb has far reaching implications. In our time it can make the difference between life and death. The mystery of Christmas shines light on this controversy.
Through the Prophet Isaiah, God tells us (9:1-4): “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light… for a child is born to us, a son is given us.” This is how God reveals the dignity of every human being; and how He redeems us all — through a child, His only Son. It is no wonder that we celebrate Christmas with such jubilant joy.
Why not $100,000,000,000,000?
If God truly desires to help the world today why does He not just give us a hundred trillion dollars? Then, we could recover from an economy in deep recession, we could put people back to work, we could avoid bankruptcy for Detroit’s automakers, we could restore consumer confidence — the list could go on and on. This is really just another version of the age-old question of why God, Who is all-loving, does not just fix what is wrong with the world. But instead of a hundred trillion dollars or intervening in creation in some extraordinary way, God gives us a little child. For some people this action of God seems woefully inadequate.
St. Paul writes (1 Cor 1:19-25): “For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the learning of the learned I will set aside.’ Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? …For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”
Ages past, like our own age, overlooked the value of a little child. Ours is not the first to legitimize abortion and countenance the murder of little children. King Herod is one in a long line of political leaders who sought to shore up their power by slaughtering the most innocent of their time.
New ways of killing today
In our own time, in contrast to earlier ages, however, the ways and means of killing the youngest members of our human race have multiplied through medical and technological advances. Today, it may happen in a test tube or a Petri dish. It is may be described with obfuscating terms such as “embryo reduction” or “therapeutic cloning.” But, in the final analysis, the end result is the same: the killing of a completely innocent human being in the earlier stages of his or her life.
For good reason, Pope Benedict XVI recently approved a new instruction on key bioethical questions of our day. It is called Dignitas Personae, “The Dignity of the Person.” This document offers solid anthropological, theological and ethical principles for deciding moral dilemmas about nascent human life. It also applies these principles to new procedures involving the manipulation of embryos including in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and cloning. As the Instruction leads us through the consideration of rather complex moral problems, its constant orientation is the dignity of every person and marriage as the proper place for human life to begin.
Two fundamental principles
Two principles, in particular, provide the foundation for addressing bioethical questions about unborn human life; the first one is as follows (#4): “The body of a human being, from the very first stages of its existence, can never be reduced merely to a group of cells… The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life.”
The second ethical principle relates to marriage (#6): “The origin of human life has its authentic context in marriage and in the family, where it is generated through an act which expresses the reciprocal love between a man and a woman. Procreation which is truly responsible vis-à-vis the child to be born ‘must be the fruit of marriage’.”
When we keep these two principles before us, it is not difficult to distinguish the tremendous difference that exists between a person and a product, a child and a cluster of tissue. There is also a world of difference between beginning life in a Petri dish and being conceived from an act of conjugal love between husband and wife.
In Old Testament times, when God’s Chosen People looked for the coming of the Messiah, there were many who expected a “Lion of Judah,” or a warrior like Judas Maccabeus, or a king of an earthly realm. Less often was attention paid to God’s prophecy found in Isaiah (9:4), “For a child is born to us, a son is given us.” The all-powerful God could have come in power and majesty; at the Last Judgment He will indeed return in this way. But, in His divine wisdom that confounds human wisdom, He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and born near the tiny town of Bethlehem. Instead of coming as a warrior or lion, the Son of God came as “an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” What an amazing way to reveal God’s truth and love!
At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the Savior who entered the world as a vulnerable child. Christ’s birth of a woman shows us that the dignity of a person’s life is not based upon the stage of their development. Every child, no matter how small, has equal dignity. The Chosen People expected a lion; they received a defenseless child. They thought the Messiah would deliver them in battle; He delivered them into eternal life.
Copyright 2009 The Catholic Sun.
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