November 26, 2023 - "Remembering the Faithful Departed"

On Sunday, November 12, the Gospel passage that was proclaimed was Matthew 25:1-13.  The end of the passage had these sobering word:  “Therefore, stay awake, for you know neither the day nor the hour.”  November is a month when we remember the faithful departed and a time of year when we are reminded that one day we will die.  Benjamin Franklin once quipped, “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” I thought that it would be good today in light of this to quote from a statement issued several years ago by the Roman Catholic Bishops of Maryland: “Comfort and Consolation Q & A: Questions to Consider Now and at the Hour of Our Death.” Today I want to quote from the preface of that important document.
 
Questions to Consider Now and at the Hour of Our Death.
Illness and death—whether our own or that of a loved one—are issues many of us avoid thinking and talking about until they are immediately confronting us.  And yet, they touch every life.  Too often we are unprepared for the questions that arise, and find ourselves making difficult decisions in the midst of a crisis, without the benefit of time and reflection.  The purpose of this brochure [that is, “Comfort and Consolation Q & A: Questions to Consider Now and at the Hour of Our Death”] is to encourage Catholics to take that time now, before facing a crisis, so that when illness and death inevitably come, we can face them with the comfort and peace of understanding our faith, and knowing our Church is there to embrace us in our hour of need.
 
Continual advances in medical technology bring many blessings, but also pose complex ethical questions. When is it appropriate to take measures to prolong life? When is it appropriate to let death take its natural course? Every circumstance—and every individual is unique, and we cannot know in advance what the right course of action will be in all cases. But the Church can help us prepare by offering moral principles to guide our decision, or the decisions of those who may need to act on our behalf.
 
Church teaching is clear that no one should suffer needlessly during a prolonged illness or at the end of life.  All patients deserve proper pain management and palliative care.  But there are certain choices that can never be morally acceptable, most notably practices such as euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide, that involve deliberately administering or providing the means to end a patient’s life. Such actions, even when motivated by a desire to end suffering are a direct affront to one of the basic tenets of our faith—that the gift of life comes from God, and that no one can, in any circumstance, claim the right to destroy directly an innocent human being (Evangelium vitae, 53).
 
We’ll talk more about this over the next couple of weeks.
 
Until next time,
Fr. John