Out of Darkness, Light
by Bishop Joensen | March 18, 2024
This coming April 8, a considerable swath of the United States mainland will experience a total solar eclipse. It’s been nearly seven years since the last one occurred on American soil on August 21, 2017. I recall that day well: my then 14-year-old nephew Michael and 12-year-old niece Olivia and I road-tripped from central Iowa down to northeast Missouri, hoping to place ourselves squarely in the “path of totality.” That morning, finding Interstate 35 clogged with traffic south of Des Moines, we exited and took off on local roads, stopping to make brief visits at St. Patrick Parish, Irish Settlement, and St. Patrick Parish, Corning, on our way past Maryville, Missouri.
We kept scanning the skies, hoping to find a clear patch that would allow maximum viewing of the eclipse. To my nephew’s great disappointment, just as the magic moment arrived when the sky turned dark and the pasture in which we were parked became eerily quiet, the clouds returned and so even our special sunglasses were of no avail gaining a direct view of the occluded sun. I felt like I had let them down, even as I was grateful for the chance to share this unique experience with them.
Little did I realize it then, but the trip down-and-back afforded me a sample tour of territory that two years later would compose part of our Diocese to which I was called to serve as your bishop. My search for the play of darkness and light as a unique physical phenomenon unintentionally drew me into the region where darkness and light are spiritual antagonists that we must recognize and call by name. Though darkness may momentarily have its day, as people of faith in southwest Iowa, ultimately we must be discerning, protective, and intent on remaining in solidarity with one another so that we might repeatedly return to abide in the light. While “daylight savings time” is a human construct, there is only one Light who prevails over the darkness of sin and death, who saves us from ourselves and our supposed mastery over the forces of nature.
Only humans themselves can eclipse their own dignity, the God-given radiance that reveals and reflects our identity as daughters and sons created in God’s image. Only humans can obscure the perception of other persons as their equals. We alone among all creatures can sadly silence the stirrings of conscience that either confirms the connections we are to cultivate in Christ, or convicts us for the disruption of relations where the weak and the strong, the young and old, the racially and religiously diverse are set against one another.
The Passion
In the evangelist Mark’s Passion narrative that will be proclaimed this year on Palm Sunday, as Jesus is crucified and mocked by those surrounding him, we read: “At noon darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,” the time when Jesus cries out and breathes his last (Mark 15:33, 37). Even the heavens and earth are denied light as Jesus enters the ignominy of death. But strangely, in death, his true identity as Son of God is raised in relief for those with eyes to witness and hearts ready to be convicted for our part in this tawdry drama. The chiaroscuro of the crucifixion, the vivid interplay of light and dark, should be preparation for us to return to our senses and hasten with the women and apostles to the place where the body is sealed in darkness. The tomb becomes the portal of possibility for us to bask in the light on the first day of the week and every day, which means we recognize and treat one another as persons of incomparable dignity regardless of location, limitations, or lifespan.
IVF and life
In mid-February, in an 8-1 decision that was alternatively mocked and lauded in various quarters, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that human embryos who come to exist through vitro fertilization procedures (IVF), even if they are held in a state of cryopreservation, should be considered to be children. While I will not relate all the circumstances that led to this decision, Justice Jay Mitchell summarized the Court’s ruling: “The central question presented. . . which involve [sic] the death of embryos kept in a cryogenic nursery, is whether [Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor] Act contains an unwritten exception to that rule for extrauterine children. . . The answer to that question is no: the [Act] applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location. . . . Unborn children are ‘children’ . . . without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics.”
Critics of the ruling, who are inclined to view an early stage embryo as a “clump of cells” and not as a genetically distinct and whole human being, were particularly put off by the scriptural resonances of language employed by the majority justices: “We believe that each human being from the moment of conception, is made in the image of God.”
The case exposes again the many ethical and personal issues surrounding IVF practices. The heart-wrenching and holy desire of infertile couples to conceive is serviced by clinics competing in the marketplace based on posted success rates in helping these couples successfully “produce” a child. As Aaron Kheriaty, MD, notes, “Multiple cycles are frequently necessary to achieve pregnancy, and . . . because egg harvesting is an invasive and sometimes risky procedure, IVF cycles typically aim to create many embryos as possible—usually more than the couple intends to bring to birth.” It is not uncommon that in addition to the simple motive to become pregnant, couples are also understandably wary of implanting children with genetic abnormalities, and so pre-implantation screening prompts them and clinicians to discard these embryos.
The net result is that today, no one truly knows how many human embryos dwell in dark, cold storage tanks, though estimates for the U.S. range from 500,000 to millions. While some propose allowing other couples to adopt these embryos, to implant them and bring them to term, the fact is that only a tiny minority of these embryos will see the light of day.
As a young priest, I was privileged to accompany several couples dealing with infertility as they bore this cross and attempted multiple medical interventions to discover the root cause; they usually pursued hormonal and other interventions that would assist them and allow them to conceive a child through conjugal relations. We even formed a support group that met regularly, where they shared their experiences and practical wisdom gained, and prayed and socialized together. Some couples became pregnant; others eventually decided to “get off the treadmill” of severe treatment side effects and high costs, and opted for adoption.
Yet along the way, they remained faithful to one another and to the Church’s position that, as the 2008 Vatican Instruction Dignitas Personae states, “recognizes the legitimacy of the desire for a child and understands the suffering of couples with problems of fertility. Such a desire, however, should not override the dignity of every human life to the point of absolute supremacy. The desire for a child cannot justify the ‘production’ of offspring, just as the desire not to have a child cannot justify the abandonment of destruction of a children once he or she has been conceived.” The Instruction continues, “It needs to be recognized that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved.” Ultimately, as Dr. Kheriaty concludes, this injustice “should invite us to reevaluate the practice that created this insoluble quandary in the first place.”
Easter is coming
This year, Easter comes early. It so happens that the timing of Holy Week and the Easter Octave takes precedence over other liturgical celebrations, including the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. This event, when in response to the archangel Gabriel’s proposal on God’s behalf that Mary of Nazareth would become the Mother of Our Savior, her “fiat,” “let it be done,” resulted in the Son of God assuming our humanity by first becoming an embryo in the womb of his Mother. The Annunciation is to be celebrated the day after Divine Mercy Sunday on April 8—the day of this year’s total solar eclipse. As we are perhaps stirred by this event to behold a few fleeting moments of darkness, may we also be mindful of a God who willingly enters the natural darkness from which all human persons emerge.
Christ is conceived of Mary, is crucified and buried in a tomb in order that we might be drawn from the spiritual darkness we fashion for ourselves into his own wonderful light. His love is personal; he restores us to the dignity we had once forsaken. May he also restore us to a redeemed sense of how we are to treat one another, including how to translate our desires into a holy path where no one intentionally perishes so that another might live.