Wheat & Weeds

For God gave me sound knowledge of existing things, that I might know the organization of the universe and the force of the elements; the beginning and end and midpoint of times, the changes of the sun’s course and the variations of the seasons. Cycles of years, positions of the stars, natures of animals, tempers of wild beast, powers of the winds and thoughts of men, uses of plants and the virtues of roots—such as are hidden I learned, and such as are plain; for Wisdom, the artificer of all, taught me. (Wisdom 7:17-22)

Parable of the Weeds

Jesus proposed to them another parable: “The kingdom of God may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds through his wheat, and then made off. When the crop began to mature and yield grain, the weeds made their appearance as well.

“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

“‘I see an enemy’s hand in this,’ he answered.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

“‘No,’ he replied, ‘because pull up the weeds and you might take the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until harvest; then at harvest time, I will order the harvesters: First collect the weeds and bundle them up to burn; then gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Mt 13: 24-30)

Recently, while sharing breakfast with three former students, one working on her graduate degree asked our small group what we thought of genetically engineering future generations?

“You mean designing kids?” another questioned, “Using CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) I assume?”

While they exchanged comments with one another, the parable of the weeds emerged from my fertile neural network. I’d always been steered to believe the wheat and weeds represented the ‘good’ and the ‘sinister.’ But at that moment, I thought of the field as my mind. (Lots of weeds growing there!) Thoughts of charity and forgiveness oppose those to ignore or withhold them. Theories, education, discoveries nourish wheat and weeds, the drafts of my reasoning. Acquisitions of new knowledge and understanding support growth both benevolent and detrimental. For example, humanity’s understanding of the atom led to applications in medical instrumentation and energy as well as nuclear weapons.

The human genome consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes. These are composed of six billion DNA base pairs, a complex recipe of biological identity. With the development of CRISPR, it is conceivable we could edit, manipulate, down to a specific base pair.

“Let’s design a kid with perfect vision, a body geared to be the fastest human alive, the strongest, bluest of eyes, head full of hair, great voice.” His excitement swelled as his list tapered.

The grad student continued adding, “Free of breast cancer, no Alzheimer’s, good blood pressure, no heart disease, free of ALS!”

Within our conversation, we unraveled the genetic entanglement to three topics targeting the ethical use of CRISPR. The first, defined somatic cell and germline cell editing. Somatic cell gene editing uses any cells in the body other than egg or sperm cells. Germline editing uses the reproductive cells. Any manipulations of the genomes of the somatic cells are not heritable, while those made to eggs and sperm would be passed down to future generations.

Consider cystic fibrosis caused by a mutation where just three of the base pairs responsible for the synthesis of the amino acid phenylalanine are missing. Without those pairs, individuals suffer from fibrosis and cysts in the pancreas and sticky mucous filling the lungs making breathing impossible in advanced stages. There is no known cure. Though presently not possible, researchers may find a way to correct those depletions thus curing CF. However, the patient might still bear children with CF if the children inherit their parents’ mutated genes because it was not the genome of the parents’ germ cells that was edited.

The second topic compared therapeutic and non-therapeutic gene editing. Therapeutic edits treat disease through delay of onset or in prevention. Non-therapeutic edits enhance or promote and individual’s traits for advantage or opportunity. Children may be designed to be more muscular, smarter, more attractive, faster, taller, giving them advantage over non-designed children.

The third spawns the greatest number of disagreements between secular and faith-based ethicists about the essence of human dignity. An MIT educated molecular biologist, priest, and professor of biology and theology, Fr. Nicanor Autstriaco, OP, distinguished the two points of view. “Secular ethicists tend to believe that human dignity is only extrinsic, and can therefore be diminished or lost through pain, suffering, or disability. If human dignity can be lost, it follows that we should be able to modify ourselves in ways that we believe would either advance or preserve our dignity. This conception of dignity is the ethical justification given by those who believe that we should be free to design our children so that our species becomes stronger, smarter, more attractive, and therefore more dignified.

“In contrast, faith-based ethicists believe that human beings have dignity that can never be diminished or lost. The Judeo-Christian tradition holds that humans have intrinsic dignity, based on the belief that we are made in the image and likeness of God. This dignity thus cannot be lost, from conception until death, no matter the apparent indignities a person suffers.”

“How would you feel if you found out you’d been designed by your parents?” I inquired of the others.

“I’d wonder if my parents loved me or the design.” She theorized, “What if my design created a child they had not considered? So many biological functions are polygenetic, individual traits or characteristics depend upon the interplay of many genes for a single function. Perhaps their modifications would interfere with other functions my parents had not considered or were not know to researchers at the time.”

The student sitting across from her added, “I have a hard-enough time living up to my parents’ expectations. If modifications were made, I’d never meet their expectations. Everything would be unreasonable. I’d never feel good about myself. I’d resent it.”

“Maybe I’d rather have been designed a premier athlete rather than a scholar!”

“Perhaps we could design you to where you’d never be aware,” she countered, laughing. “Or we could design both characteristics into you!”

“You’re allowing genetics too much influence,” he offered further, “without considering the influences of our environment triggering many interdependent genetic expressions.”

If Fr. Austriaco had joined our breakfast club, he’d comment the debate is not about CRISPR. “Rather, it is a debate over how we should understand ourselves and our relationships to others. Designing a child makes [the child’s] sense of self subject to the whims and fancies of another, and undermines [his/her] conviction that [he/she] is irreplaceably and individually unique, a gift to be cherished and loved by others.”

What would you like to add to the conversation? Our children, young people wrestle with these and many other complex new technologies. They’re inviting these conversations! How will they sort the wheat from the weeds?

Wisdom reminds us of God’s gifts of wonder, reason, and discovery. God created us to be far, far greater than the sum of our parts. May your harvest be fruitful!

Time to LEAD, Not to LEAVE

No doubt the scandal within the church has touched our lives, once again wreaking havoc and casting uncertainty into our systems of belief and trust.    The evil one scatters - that is what he seeks.  The events we have recently been made aware of can advance that goal. We individually can give it - give him - that power.

Or, if we choose, we can view this time as a call to gather, recommitting to a true faith in Christ and to endure.

I encourage you to watch one priests' response...

Why do I drink so much?

I myself, as well as a majority of my friends have at one point or another asked this question. It often stems from alcohol causing some kind of problem in their life, health or relationships. So they jump on the wagon and cut back on the late nights, but eventually, find their way back to their old ways. An easy answer would be to point towards the addictive nature of alcohol. The effects it has on the chemicals of the brain create a physical craving that can be hard to ignore. Although there are very real situations with chemical addiction  that plague our society, in many situations, I believe there is more to the story.

Today’s modern man often creates a barrier of protection when in social situations. A recent study looked at men and women and their social engagements both before and after consuming alcohol. For the women, in both situations, they were comfortable sharing and being vulnerable to each other. Men however, appeared to use alcohol to help them remove this armor they wear, before they could utilize the same outlet. Today’s man has the pressure of being strong, providing for their family, and acting as a role model to their employees and children. This shortcoming of not regularly sharing their insecurities or anxieties can be isolating and lonely for men. Often they find themselves trying to portray to the world that they are a man who has it all figured out, when deep down they know that they don’t.

As the frustration and exhaustion builds, so does the need to escape - to step outside of themselves and their responsibilities even for a moment. I think too often we say boys will be boys, rather than looking at the root cause of human behavior.

When studying drug addiction, scientists put a rat in a cage with two water bottles. One was laced with heroin and cocaine, and the other, only water. The rat consistently drank only the drugged water until he died of an overdose. The experiment proved the power of chemical addiction. However, a psychologist named Bruce Alexander noticed that the rat was in a cage by himself. So he built a rat park, with lots of balls, tunnels, and other rats to play and have sex with. It was basically rat heaven.

When the same two water bottles were introduced to rat park, the drug laced water was rarely used and no rats overdosed.

He looked at this phenomenon as it related to the war of Vietnam. Several soldiers were using heroin regularly while coping with the conditions of war, and American politicians were concerned that we would have an epidemic of drug addicts returning after the war was over. However 95% of heroin users quit instantly when they came home. Why? They were back at their rat heaven, with friends, family, and no one trying to kill them.

So it’s not just the chemicals, it’s your cage. When we are happy and healthy, we will bond with the people we love in our lives. When we are traumatized, isolated or beaten down by the stress of everyday life, we search for something to give us some sense of relief. It might be incessantly checking your email on your phone, pornography, gambling, watching sports, drinking…whatever.

It’s also important to recognize that isolation is on the rise. The number of close friends people claim to have has decreased every decade since the 50s. Our houses are getting larger, but our family sizes are getting smaller. We seem to be getting ahead, but feel more alone than ever. This is where unhealthy relationships with vices are born.

The solution to addiction is not sobriety. The solution to addiction is connection.

The greatest connection you can have is with God. If you know that you are loved, and you truly believe that no matter what, God will provide for you, the weight you carry will lessen, as will your desire to escape isolation. So before you simply hop on the wagon again, start with strengthening your relationship with God and spending time in community with others.

Man has often misunderstood the blessing of alcohol. Like so many gifts from God, Satan can take what is beautiful and pure and twist it into something that separates rather than unifies. Jesus himself was accused of drinking too much in Matthew 11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ Jesus chose creating wine in Cana as his first miracle. He chose this same drink as the vehicle to come to us in the Eucharist at every mass. We have a God who came down to earth to show us the proper intent of this unique gift, as well as many others.

So for all of us men who I am blessed with the bonds of your friendship as well as the longing for release from our daily battles, I raise my glass to you. Let us drink to celebrate the joy God himself has provided us, and remember that we are never alone. Then let’s pay the tab and head home, bringing to those we love and fight for, a man with a pure and lightened heart.

I pray that one day, we will realize that the temporarily release from ourselves and this world is simply our cheap substitute for what is stamped into our hearts, a longing for heaven and connection with God.

A Sacrifice for Family

As a father of five children all under the teenage dream years, I understand well the pull for time in countless directions in and out of each and every day. In no specific order, I have a career requiring a large investment of my time, I have a wife who I try to keep on a pedestal with my every decision, I have friends and social events where time spent are not only beneficial for my own personal health and sanity, but also possibly benefit my career. There are extracurricular events that require planning and a serious commitment of time. I don't need to explain any of the aforementioned to a parent to paint the picture that time is stretched thin and more valuable than one can imagine. If I had more of it, how would I spend it?

I'll begin by stating after my faith and relationship with my creator, my wife is my #1 (I guess that technically makes her my #2, huh?). Without a thriving and flourishing relationship with my wife, the rest of my entire life would suffer, especially the relationships with my children. So with that statement made, my children are my next priority before anything else. Memories from any fatherly relationship during my childhood are few and far-in-between. Not to fault my dad in any way as he did what he had to do. However, I promised myself that I'd be a better father than my own dad was to me.

There are quite a few things I could mention that prevent me from sacrificing for my own children. Among some of them are not having enough time, being tired, that ballgame on the TV that I really want to watch with a beer, my friends inviting me out to get a drink up the road, a bad day in the office, or a lack of spare cash. I am certain any father could relate to those and come up with their own list of temptations keeping them from investing time in their children.

This video above may crack open a few hardened hearts. The young girl figured out the sacrifices made by her father. Most of our children may never in their lives see things as depicted in this production, but isn't it our job to make the sacrifice regardless? When you are faced with a decision this week, remember the dad who falls asleep on the couch every night. Remember how much he sacrifices and ask yourself, “What will prevent me from sacrificing for my kids?” I hope the answer is nothing.