This month we are observing a Forty Day Celebration of Life.  There are so many ways to think of this.  Often we think only of the beginning of life, and this is important, for without birth, it is pointless to speak of any of the other issues of life.  But there is so much more.
 
Fr. Myles Sheehan, SJ, MD, once said in a homily that one of his geriatric patients mentioned, regarding death,  "Oh, I never think about that" she said cheerily.  Exasperated, he said in his characteristic way, "Well why the heck not?  It's the only thing in life we are all sure of!  We have to think about it!"  Too many families never think or talk about death until there is a crisis and a member of the family is seriously or terminally ill.  One study showed that family members thought they knew what their loved one wanted, and when asked, the dying person gave an entirely different answer!  It is so important, yet so hard to have these conversations.
 
It is not just the elderly members of the family we need to discuss these issues with, either.  We must get together as a family and know what each other is thinking about end of life issues.  Young people can suddenly suffer from a debilitating accident or illness and hard decisions need to be made.  Family members need to know what each other wants and needs in these difficult situations, their doctors need to know, preferably in writing, and Church teachings need to be part of the decision making.  Each case is different, and no law can cover every individual case.  No rule or diagnosis can be applied with absolute certainty.  We do the best we can as human beings with faith and reason.  But the more knowledge we have, the better the decision we can make.
 
People who could recover should not die because their health insurance was cancelled in the middle of their treatment for a serious disease.  Perhaps they lost their job precisely because of their illness.  Perhaps the insurance company has an insidious practice of going after expensive patients precisely to cut them off.  This is profoundly immoral.  People have died who would have lived but for this kind of treatment on the part of insurance companies.  There are no "death panels," but there are the Ten Commandments, as Jesus tells the Rich Young Man in the Gospel for October 11, "You shall not kill."
 
Perhaps this month we can participate in as many as possible of the wonderful activities which our Respect Life and our Peace and Justice committees have arranged.  They have worked hard, and offered us a chance to think and pray about these important life issues.

 

We must consider the topic of Life: our own, our loved ones', children's, infants', the pre-born, death row inmates, and others.  It is too important to ignore. Life is, as Cardinal Bernardin put it, a seamless garment: one unbreakable line from beginning to end, and the operative principle is Love.
 
Kathleen Spears Hopkins