Laudato Si Sunday Reflection: Wearing God's glasses on the Third Sunday of Advent

Today's reflection is brought to you by
Isaiah 35: 1-6a, 10.

O God,
the prophet Isaiah explains
that your Master Plan
for our earth
is better
than anything
we humans can ever envision or create.

He says you will make the wild lands glad
and the deserts rejoice,
and your glory and majesty
will cover everything.

He insists you will strengthen the weak
and encourage the frightened,
and tell us all
Be strong, do not fear!

He promises you will come and save us.

He tells us you will open the eyes of the blind,
unstop the ears of the deaf,
make the lame and the mute
dance and sing for joy --
and unending joy
will belong to us all.

When will you come,
O God,
and make it so?

Ahh,
but you have already come!

And all these things Isaiah tells us you will do
are also what we must do in your name!

You come again
each time we speak and act
for justice,
peace,
truth,
goodness
and beauty.

As we wait for you,
empower us to act as you would
in every situation.

Let us see the world as you see it,
and love all of creation
the way you love it.

+Amen

* * * * * * *

This week's paragraphs of Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home (130-136, which can be accessed by clicking here) almost make me wish we hadn't progressed in technology for changing biology in particular as far as we have. Paragraph 30 quotes section 2417 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church when it notes, "While human intervention on plants and animals is permissible when it pertains to the necessities of human life... experimentation on animals is morally acceptable only "if it remains within reasonable limits [and] contributes to care for or saving human lives"" (paragraph 130).

Pope Francis and his writing team also underline the words of St. Pope John Paul on the 1990 World Day of Peace when he said that it is part of our vocation as human beings to "participate responsibly in God's creative action" while paying close attention to how human interference affects the all-important links between ecosystems and their species. Human experimentation involves considerable risks, as many sci-fi movies and novels (like the ones my husband reads) have had fun pointing out in rather horrific ways. This is exactly why we must constantly "rethink the goals, effects, overall context and ethical limits" of the biological experimentation that technology affords us (paragraph 131).

Paragraph 132 is where I really wish we could wear God's glasses. It is all very well and good to say that we need to be careful and to experiment on nature only in such a way as "to favour its development in its own line, that of creation, as intended by God," as St. Pope John Paul told the World Medical Association in 1983. The problem is that no one can really envision what God intends, as we can't begin to know the mind of God. 

Does God really want us to play with human DNA to the point that we thereby rid the world of Trisomy 21 and the gorgeous and loving people who have Down Syndrome? Is our experimentation using animals really something that God appreciates even if it saves people from medical problems? If God had really wanted us to have corn that has built in pesticide to kill corn weevils (not to mention other insect life as "collateral damage"), wouldn't God have come up with it?

Paragraphs 133 and 134 try to address the issues of genetic modification, but it seems a pretty wishy-washy effort that only manages to warn us against corporations who are running small producers into the ground through control of genetically modified seed and fertilizers that have been patented by said corporations. But the infertile seeds mentioned at the end of paragraph 134 already exist; surely the Pope and friends are aware of that and could have used stronger words!

The ethical implications of biological technology and genetic modification are topics about which a lot of the world's population is oblivious, and I suppose a papal encyclical isn't going to be the thing to wake us all up and impress upon us the need to call our scientists and the corporations involved to accounts. There are many activists who try to make us aware; unfortunately they don't have Pope Francis's star power, and even his fame isn't enough. 

The best the Pope can do, it seems, is to say that "Discussions are needed in which all those directly or indirectly affected... can make known their problems and concerns, and have access to adequate and reliable information in order to make decisions for the common good, present and future" (paragraph 135). It seems that no one is able to definitively state what is right and what is wrong when it comes to genetic modification because we are unable to see what the future holds. And we still don't know how to communicate with animals well enough to find out what they really think.

There's mention of the common good, at least. As we complete the reading of this chapter about the human roots of the ecological crises we are facing on so many different fronts, Pope Francis and friends remind us that "the inalienable worth of a human being transcends his or her degree of development," pointing out the importance of protecting human life in all its ages and stages (paragraph 136). Would that we could feel that way about all life on earth – that environmentalists and medical ethicists and scientists could all see through the same lens, through God's glasses, to what is the common good for all life.

But no one has actually found God's glasses yet, so the best we can do is be vigilant – to see where human activity is overstepping its bounds and refuse to support those projects, even to protest if necessary, while encouraging more positive choices. My husband and I know that supporting the development of alternate forms of energy rather than fossil fuel pipelines is better for our earth, so we've put up solar panels, and encourage friends and family to buy green power whenever possible. We're always looking for the healthiest options for our planet. It takes work, and I'll admit that we're not always successful.

While I don’t much like the biological manipulation of anything, preferring to trust that things will unfold as they should in God's loving hands, I'm also pretty aware that "when technology disregards the great ethical principals, it ends up considering any practice whatsoever as licit... [and] will not easily be able to limit its own power" (paragraph 136).

But facing facts, if it wasn't for biological manipulation, I wouldn't be here. For ten years, I lived thanks to pork and beef insulin. Now I take five injections of synthetic, human-made insulin each day. And I have to thank God that Banting and Best and other scientists have figured out medications that keep me and others alive, that medicine has evolved to the point that it has perhaps saved my dad from his particular cancers, that we human beings have developed ways to live in cold climates like mine, and that we can transport the things we need from one place to another, to name just a few of the ways technology has made life better. I bet we could come up with thousands more.

Life must be lived with a sense of balance if we are to truly create a common good that works for all of creation. Sometimes that work involves incredible contradictions. So for this week, perhaps we can reflect on how human creativity and manipulation of our planet and its resources has made the good things in our lives possible. What do we most appreciate that we have received through the work of human hands? What are the positive technological options that we can support to enable life on earth for future generations? And have we thanked God enough for those things lately? 

Wearing God's glasses, seeing the way God does, requires a combination of vigilance, action in support of positive options, a lot of prayer, and abundant gratitude for all that is. It's a tall order, but there's nothing lost in trying!

I'll close with my little Advent reflection in our parish bulletin for this week:

Instead of store-bought presents, consider:

-charitable gifts – a donation to a local charity that may be of interest to the recipient (eg. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Ronald McDonald House, Hope Mission, etc.) or that benefits brothers and sisters in the developing world through fair trade (Ten Thousand Villages) or social/ecological justice (Caritas Canada).

-food gifts – a basket of all the ingredients for a simple but delicious meal to make the cook’s life easier.

-the gift of a family story – a treasured tale, written and illustrated, perhaps with a few photos.

Help us to care for our planet, the poor, and those near to us this Christmas.

+Amen.