A couple months ago our pastor brought up a controversial, and some would say uncomfortable, topic during his homily. And I use it here as part of my reflection on today’s readings at the risk of alienating some of you. I hope your response does not mimic that of the Pharisees at the end of the Gospel as they moved to stone Jesus for his remarks.
The topic for that homily was In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). This is the process by which unfertilized eggs are collected from a woman then combined with sperm to achieve fertilization outside of the uterus. At this point several fertilized eggs are implanted into the woman’s uterus to be carried to term. The procedure can be used for women who cannot conceive due to problems associated with sperm reaching the egg in the oviduct to achieve fertilization at the point of ovulation. It can also be used when sperm count is low or there are other problems with sperm motility or viability.
One concern about IVF, from a Catholic perspective, is that the procedure often results in several embryos implanting and developing, necessitating the need to selectively abort one or more in order to increase the health and survival of the remaining embryo(s). Some of the embryos may also be frozen for possible future use. This brings up additional moral questions if the couple’s needs change, and no longer desire to make use of these embryos.
I am sure at this point some of you are wondering what this all has to do with today’s readings. When God had first made his covenant with Abraham, the Lord promised to give him and Sarah a son (Genesis Chapter 15). Through that son Abraham would become a “Father of many nations”. What he needed to do was to trust that God would do this.
At the time of today’s reading, when God entered into the covenant of circumcision with Abraham, he already has a son. Ishmael. At this point in the story Ismael is already 13 years old. He is the product of Abraham lying with Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid (Genesis Chapter 16). Both Abraham and Sarah felt that God had forgotten the promise made all those years before as evidenced in Sarah’s words, “The LORD has kept me from bearing children….”. Neither Abraham or Sarah trusted that God would keep his word and decided to take things into their own hands. They could not accept that God would act in God’s time and not their own. After the birth of Isaac, Sarah convinced Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael into the desert so as to not interfere with Isaac becoming the true heir.
In a couple’s decision to use IVF, they too are losing trust in “God’s Time” and God’s plan. Rather than trusting God’s plan, the decision is made to manipulate nature to create life through alternate means. Now I know many of you reading this have children and grandchildren that would not have come into being without the use of IVF. Regardless of how they came into existence, they are God’s children and should be loved without question. Earlier in Chapter 17, before today’s portion, Abraham pleads with God for Ishmael’s welfare. Even though he has to send him away, Abraham loves Ishmael as much as he loves Isaac but Ismael’s birth has complicated his agreement with God.
From another view, contrast Abraham’s choice to side with his own wishes to create an heir with his reaction to first being asked by God to leave his home and family in Haran to journey to Canaan (Genesis Chapter 12). Without question he followed the Lord’s call with a “Yes” almost as swift as Mary’s “Yes” when told by an angel that she would conceive the Son of God. What is important to remember here is that Abraham’s Father was a pagan. His job was to create statues honoring the gods. This was Abraham’s model. Monotheism was not a part of Abraham’s immediate world but somehow the Spirit of God had been in him so that the seed of God’s word fell onto the fertile soil of Abraham’s heart. The result of that trust was that Abraham became so wealthy, he had to part company with his nephew Lot because their herds had grown too large to manage as one (Genesis Chapter 13).
I am not saying that waiting for and being open to God’s plan will necessarily lead to material wealth. But doesn’t it inevitably seem that when we are patient and are led by our conscious, God’s word directing our thoughts, that things just seem to go well? How often when we decide what WE want, and make these decisions based on our own desires, that things seem to go astray.
While I started this reflection using In Vitro Fertilization as an example of ignoring God’s Time, I think the concept also applies to many day to day episodes in our lives. My lack of patience is a perfect example of this. Patience has never been a virtue for me. My motto is never put off until tomorrow what you could have done yesterday. It has led to some minor and some not so minor events over the years.
My wife Elise and I, along with our two daughters, spent this past Christmas at my brother’s home in NJ. My eldest daughter got into a disagreement with my sister-in-law, she lost her cool and threatened to leave the house. My first instinct was to confront her and have it out, even though that little voice in my head said to wait, let it go and allow things to develop. I listened to my own voice because there was no way she was going to leave the house after having “offended us”. It was not pretty. She left anyway, was still angry (and even more so) and we haven’t spoken in 3 months.
May we all learn to live in the way of the master watchmaker. Let us all learn to live in God’s Time.
Today’s Readings:
