A SIGNIFICANT SPARK

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. ” – Genesis 1 

In a recent 2021 Gallop Poll as regards abortion, the following results were released:

Americans’ overall stance on abortion has been stable in recent years, with the 48% calling themselves “pro-choice” and 46% “pro-life” similar to the close division on this measure observed most years since 2010. For the past decade, an average of 47% of Americans have identified as pro-choice and 47% as pro-life. As we see the leverage tilting in the pro-choice camp overall, the demographics of 18-34 year olds are at 53% pro-choice, college grads and those earning $100K+ at 62% pro-choice. Lower income, non-college grads, conservatives, moderates and the political parties they generally align with tend to pro-life at the same percentages or greater. Understandably, it could be concluded that the more down to earth one is, the more appreciative of life at any stage one is. Though it seems an uphill battle, it is still worth the fight.

In considering the above demographics we are led to believe that circumstances or status of one’s life condition are contributng factores into deciding whether new life is practical at any particular moment or not. Of the 60 million abortions performed in the United States since the legalization of abortion on those unique lives that never came to be, it is quite unlikely that the vast majority of abortions were incidents of rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother, as was the intial argument made by pro-choice advocates, but, rather, a matter of convenience. The natural course of consummate action results in life as intended by God. However, this concept is lost when the means to that end becomes the end. 

On the Catholic front, Pew Research found that Catholics around the world support the right to legal abortion and believe it can be a moral option. In the U.S., 56% of Catholics believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 68% believe that Roe v. Wade should not be overturned. Catholics who regularly attend Mass show higher levels of opposition to abortion. As a practicing Catholic, who has read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and reference it often, I found this statistic as troubling as when I discovered that there was a liberal/conservative split among the clergy and religious leaders in the Church. If we accept God as God then we should as faithful hold dear the passage from John 10:14-16: “I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father”. How then can unity be expected among the congregation if there is division among its leaders? This behavior reflects more a dismissal of, rather than a violation of our creed. But, grateful we are for Our Lord’s assurance that though evil may make its way into Holy Mother Church, it “Shall not prevail”.

Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision, which established a woman’s legal right to an abortion, was decided on January 22, 1973. The Court ruled so, in a 7-2 decision.

G.K. Chesterton tells us:

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.”

In the image above an ultra sound captures the moment of conception. The time lapse photo reveals a spark which then ignites a rapidly expanding bright flash.

The big Bang theory, which is presently the most popular theory of the origin of the universe, theorizes, as its name suggests, that the beginning of everything as we know it happened as an instantaneous violent explosion. It, interestingly, aligns with the opening Genesis passage.

The moment of conception can also be considered an instantaneous action. The flash of light that engulfs the egg is like a lightning strike. As lightning is suddenly upon us, so, too, is the beginning of human life. Fertilization is initiated by a spark between male and female counter-parts. As a flame can be started with a spark and continue to burn unless acted upon by the deprivation of fuel or oxygen; so, also, will embryo growth continue until that process results in a new-born child. Unless that process of life is halted by natural or unnatural means. For the show me the science crowd, contraception follows the Law of Inertia.

“Then the LORD GOD formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” – Genesis 2:7

The Shroud of Turin is believed to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. The image that appears on the shroud is of a crucified man having identical markings as those depicted in the Passion Story. Research of various disciplines has, with more certainty than not, intimated that the man in the cloth is Christ.

Dr. Paolo Di Lazzaro is an eminent researcher at the ENEA centre in Rome. This is a world leading research centre in nuclear fusion and laser technology. Dr. Di Lazzaro has demonstrated that the surface properties of the image with the specific changes in chemical structure which are found can be replicated by an extremely high intensity and short duration burst of coherent ultraviolet light. This also explains the ‘photographic negative’ properties of the image.

The image on the shroud is unique in that it has ‘distance-coded’ properties such that the image contains three-dimensional information. This suggests that unlike an ordinary photograph in which light is reflected from the subject, the light which formed this ‘photograph’ actually originated from within the subject. As is true in conception, life to the body of Christ is, too, restored in a flash.

Any woman who has gone through the rigors of labor can attest that giving birth is anything but passive. It, like the hidden function of conception, is violent to some extent. That flash of life grabs one’s attention in how life comes into being and it is significant. Whether in the creation of the universe, the function of conception or in the enigma of an empty tomb, a profound powerful impetus is required to bring it to reality. Human life, then, is other than a mundane occurence that can casually be cast into a dumpster or callously put up for sale as lab rats to the highest bidder for research. God so loved man and woman that He partnered with them in the greatest expression of His love; the procreation of life through marriage consummated. 

“What strikes me as truly extraordinary is the
implication that there is something low about
the objective [of sexual union] being the birth
of the child. . . . it is obvious that this great
natural miracle is the one creative, imaginative
and disinterested part of the whole business.
The creation of a new creature, not ourselves,
of a new conscious center, of a new and
independent focus of experience and
enjoyment, is an immeasurably more grand
and godlike act even than a real love affair
. . . . If creating another self is not noble, why
is pure self-indulgence nobler?” – G.K. Chesterton

This spark of life advances one’s defined wonder of birth from one stage to the next. Doubt transforms to ponder, then ponder gives way to amazement. To paraphrase Dr. Marc Siegel: “The fact that a chemical reaction causes this flash of light phenomenon at conception is not in opposition to God, but is, instead, a sign of God’s action.”

All life is of grand importance and should be relished as such. For anything that should so violently come to exist and thereafter violently fight to conserve its existence must be significant.

The unanswered mysteries of life are attempted by theory and faith. The former leaves open the door of uncertainty, while the latter convinces one that there is no need to look further.