The following is dated August 13, 2001, and can be found on CNN’s web site:

"They didn’t want two babies. They wanted one baby and that’s it," Theresa Erickson, a San Diego attorney, said earlier this week. "When Helen said she wouldn’t reduce [that, by the way, is a euphemism for ABORTING one of the children], they said, ‘Well, we only wanted one. We don’t want to separate them, so you figure out what you’re going to do with the two babies.’"

And then we have this little item, dated August 15^th of this year, which can also be found on CNN.com:

The court ruled that the divorced man’s wish to have the frozen embryos implanted in another woman would make his ex-wife a mother against her will. The justices, however, ruled that the embryos could remain frozen if M.B. agreed to pay the storage cost.

"The storage cost"—that says it all, does it not?

In today’s first reading from Wisdom 9, wise King Solomon says these words: "The deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans. For the corruptible body burdens the soul, and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns. And scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out? Or who ever knew your counsel [O Lord], except you had given wisdom, and sent your holy spirit from on high?"

The message there is this: Without God’s grace and wisdom—which come from the Holy Spirit—man’s intellect is confused and darkened because of the residual effects of original sin. Thus, a person may be technologically and scientifically and academically brilliant, without God’s wisdom he is almost certain to abuse and misuse his immense knowledge—destroying others (and ultimately himself) in the process.

The sad fact of our age is that very few people are currently heeding "God’s wisdom," a wisdom which comes to the world primarily through the Magisterium (i.e., the teaching office) of the Church Jesus Christ founded, the Catholic Church!

The Church, for example, warned the world back in the 1960’s that artificial contraception would ultimately lead to the lowering of moral standards and disrespect for women, as well as sexual promiscuity and all the cultural ills that come with it. The world disregarded the message, and has reaped the tragic consequences.

The Church has also warned the world in recent years that reproductive technologies which replace the marital act are immoral—technologies like in vitro fertilization and surrogate motherhood (which were the subjects of those two CNN stories I shared with you a few moments ago). This teaching is explicitly given in paragraphs 2376 and 2377 of the New Catechism. And why does the Church oppose these technologies? Is it because the Church is anti-science? Not at all! The Church is 100% supportive of good science. It’s because these technologies involve the "objectification" of human beings! In other words, in these technologies human persons are treated as if they were simply objects—things—commodities to be bought, sold, used, abused and destroyed as we see fit. Or sometimes they’re just "put into storage." Remember the last line of that second article? That really did say it all. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that M.B.’s embryos could remain frozen if he agreed to pay "the storage cost." My brothers and sisters, let’s be clear about it: patio furniture, old wedding gowns and golf clubs can legitimately be put into storage. Human beings, on the other hand, are never, ever to be put into storage! Human beings are to be loved and cherished and nurtured.

Once again, the "wisdom" of God comes to the world through the Church on a crucial moral issue, and once again the world is not listening—and people are suffering (once again!) because of it, as those two CNN stories make clear!

Of course, one of the biggest reasons the "world" is not listening is that Catholics, by and large, are not listening! Let’s not forget, Catholics contracept and abort and engage in these illicit reproductive technologies as frequently (or almost as frequently) as non-Catholics do. Now in all fairness it must be noted that in some cases this is not entirely their fault—it’s also the fault of bishops and priests and deacons who aren’t teaching what they should be teaching, and it’s the fault of those Catholic doctors who are leading people into sin by referring for these procedures! Consequently, some Catholics may not be fully culpable for their wrong actions in these matters because they’re invincibly ignorant of the truth. But that’s not the case in this parish, is it?

Which brings us to the last line of the first reading, and the one which immediately follows it in the Biblical text. Without God’s wisdom, we live in confusion and darkness, says King Solomon; but whenever we do make the decision to listen and respond to his wisdom, things immediately change for the better—the light suddenly comes on! As Solomon puts it, "And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight, and men learned what was your pleasure, and were saved by Wisdom."