Origin of Species

Appreciating how humans are composite creatures

02/18/2019

Genesis 4:1-15, 25 The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the LORD.” Next she bore his brother Abel. Abel became a keeper of flocks, and Cain a tiller of the soil. In the course of time Cain brought an offering to the LORD from the fruit of the soil, while Abel, for his part, brought one of the best firstlings of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen. So the LORD said to Cain: “Why are you so resentful and crestfallen. If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.” Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.” When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Sooner or later all little children inquire about the “origin of species,” that is, they ask “where do people come from?” Most moms and dad try to evade the question by answering, “Well, honey, the stork delivers them,” kind of like a mail package from heaven. Instead of a mail-order bride, you have a mail-order baby. That is actually not such a bad answer because it seeks to preserve the majesty and mystery that is each human person.

In case you still think storks deliver babies, let me tell you where people come from. Every human person comes into existence at the miraculous moment of his or her conception. Through a loving act of sexual intimacy the human parents provide a body for the baby, and at the same instant God lovingly infuses an immortal soul for the baby. A human being, therefore, is a composite creature, both body and soul. The body is given by his or her parents and allows us to relate to other people – horizontally, you might say – but the soul is given by God so we can have a relationship with God – the vertical dimension of our existence. Every human creature by being a body is called to live horizontally by loving neighbor; but also has a soul and must live vertically by loving God.

Several years ago, I was visiting an 8th grade classroom and asked if the students had any questions before I left. One student asked, “Fr. John, since we’re experimenting with cloning human beings, will such a human have a soul?” By the way, that’s why Fr. Stephen visits the classrooms now so he can enjoy answering such questions. I had no idea what to say so I just made something up, kind of like I do in my sermons. I said, “Well, if that cloned human can kneel down and pray to God, then he would have a soul.” In other words, a soul is given by God so we can relate to God by prayer. The body is given by humans so we can relate to other humans. Notice the necessity of both the vertical and the horizontal dimensions because we are both body and soul.

Our first reading from Genesis 4 begins with a seemingly innocent line but which contains incredible insights. Genesis 4:1 reads: “The man had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, ‘I have produced a man with the help of the Lord’.” Can you catch how the passage points to the composite nature of man? The parents (Adam and Eve) provide the body but God gives the immortal soul. Eve puts it like this, “with the help of the Lord.” In other words, Cain was created to relate vertically with God and also horizontally with his little brother Abel. But Cain failed to offer the best of the flocks that he kept and therefore failed to love God. Then, resentful and jealous, he murdered his brother and failed to love his neighbor. I wonder if little Cain as a small child ever asked his parents, “Where do people come from?” That is not such a childish question. Why? Well, if you do not get the origin of the species right, you will not get the destiny of the species right either. We are created as composites of body and soul so we must live horizontally and vertically by loving our neighbor and God. Our origin and our destiny are closely connected.

A famous scientist who asked this same question was Charles Darwin. He wrote a book giving his answer in 1859 titled, On the Origin of Species. He argued that human beings were the product of natural selection – or you might say the “survival of the fittest” – and therefore we have bodies, but there was no need for a soul. Notice how he reduced human beings to one dimensional existence, the horizontal, without the vertical dimension to God. As a result, we have to worry about relating to each other, indeed, dominating each other like Cain killed Abel to prove the survival of the fittest. But we can ignore our relationship with God. We don’t have to pray.

I am convinced this is what lies at the root of the abortion controversy. As much as we want to protect and promote a woman’s rights and even her right to choose, that cannot ignore or supersede a baby’s right to life. But what makes that right to life easier to evade is if the human being in the womb is just a body without a soul. Then, the body would be little more than a blob, and able to be aborted. Noticed how when we lose our connection with God – we no longer speak of a soul infused at the moment of conception – we likewise lose our connection with each other. We can justify killing the baby in the womb, and imitate Cain, and the first fratricide. If you get the origin of the species wrong, you inevitably get the destiny of the species wrong, too.

Where do people come from? That is not such a childish question. Even the most brilliant adults can get the answer wrong.

Praised be Jesus Christ!