{"id":2032,"date":"2017-02-04T09:07:15","date_gmt":"2017-02-04T14:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2032"},"modified":"2017-02-04T09:07:15","modified_gmt":"2017-02-04T14:07:15","slug":"assisted-suicide-the-5th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/assisted-suicide-the-5th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Assisted Suicide & the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is our diocesan public policy weekend.\u00a0 This year\u2019s issue reflected below is speaking against a bill introduced in the NYS Legislative recently to allow assisted suicide. \u00a0For more on this issue, check out the USCCB “To Live Each Day With Dignity”<\/a> and the New York State Catholic Conference<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

5th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nIsaiah 58:7-10
\nPsalm 112:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
\n1 Corinthians 2:1-5
\nMatthew 5:13-16
\nFebruary 5, 2017<\/p>\n

Jesus tells his disciples, \u201cYou are the salt of the earth.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 The reason people put salt on their food is to make it taste better.\u00a0 We are to be like salt by working to help make the world a better place.<\/p>\n

Jesus tells his disciples, \u201cYou are the light of the world.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Many people live in difficult situations.\u00a0 There are people who don\u2019t have enough, if hardly any, food to eat.\u00a0 There are people who don\u2019t have clothing or shelter.\u00a0 For them, life may seem very dark.\u00a0 We help them see the light of Jesus when we come to their aid.<\/p>\n

Certainly helping people in their physical need is important but it is not just about their physical need.\u00a0 It is about treating them with dignity, about treating them with the respect they deserve created in the image of God.<\/p>\n

I feel I need to turn our attention to another group of people who might feel like they are living in darkness, the dying.<\/p>\n

The process of dying can be a difficult one that brings difficult decisions.\u00a0 Our psalm today speaks of fear of an evil report.\u00a0 In my own life, I think back eight years ago.\u00a0 My mother had been battling emphysema for almost ten years at that point.\u00a0 Then came the \u201cevil report<\/em>\u201d that she had lung cancer.\u00a0 They immediately tried to treat it but it was found too late.\u00a0 She died just five weeks after the lung cancer was identified.\u00a0 She spent the last ten days on a ventilator.<\/p>\n

Those were a very difficult five weeks.\u00a0 Even though the emphysema had been getting worse over the ten years, we still didn\u2019t want her to die.\u00a0 We wanted her to live.\u00a0 That made for a very difficult decision to remove the ventilator but it was the right decision.<\/p>\n

Our Church views the removal of the ventilator as putting it in God\u2019s hands as our loved one goes through the natural<\/strong> process of dying.<\/p>\n

What is not natural is \u201cassisted suicide.\u201d\u00a0 Our faith calls us to realize that we do not live forever and that we will all face death but it is not for us to dictate the time.\u00a0 Pulling treatment like a ventilator hands it over to God.\u00a0 Assisted suicide, generally through a pill, isn\u2019t putting it in God\u2019s hands.\u00a0 It\u2019s saying we don\u2019t want to live.<\/p>\n

Some describe it as death with dignity, meaning we go out on our own terms but I say we must remember the words in the Lord\u2019s Prayer, thy will be done<\/em>.\u00a0 It is not for us to decide the time.<\/p>\n

As to \u201cdignity,\u201d I can\u2019t get this.\u00a0 To me, supporting assisted suicide is like saying the person is no longer any good to us because they are ill.\u00a0 Where is the dignity in that?\u00a0 They are still good.\u00a0 They are still the person we love.<\/p>\n

People talk about wanting to avoid pain.\u00a0 The desire to avoid pain is natural but pain and suffering is also natural.\u00a0 Our Church teaching very much supports pain management in what is known as palliative care and hospice.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about keeping the person comfortable and treating them with dignity.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if you heard but a bill was recently introduced in our state legislature to make assisted suicide legal in New York.\u00a0 We knew this was probably going to happen so this was already selected as our diocesan public policy issue this year.<\/p>\n

You will find in the pews a letter which any adult can sign and complete your address information to let our governor and legislature know we do NOT<\/em><\/strong> support assisted suicide.\u00a0 Instead we ask them to promote measures to improve palliative care and hospice, supporting efforts like Laurel House, so the dying can receive compassion and pain management.<\/p>\n

I know there are people around who support assisted suicide to avoid pain.\u00a0 We must help minimize the pain felt by the dying but we can also remember the pain Jesus endured for us in his passion and turn our pain over to him in prayer for the good of others.<\/p>\n

I hope you read the insert<\/a> in last week\u2019s bulletin that talked about the flaws and concerns over this bill.\u00a0 We need to realize that in places where assisted suicide has become legal, there are statistics that are now beginning to show the general suicide rate increase in those regions.\u00a0 Life is being devalued.\u00a0 We need to show we value the people.\u00a0 This is treating them with dignity.<\/p>\n

We must also realize that while the proposed law requires a terminal diagnosis, such diagnoses are not always right.\u00a0 I have a friend is a religious sister.\u00a0 About three years ago, when she was around 89 years old, she was told she had four to six months to live.\u00a0 This month she will celebrate her 92nd<\/sup> birthday and if you visit the center where she lives, she is one of the healthiest looking sisters there.<\/p>\n

There is also the fear of people being pressured into choosing assisted suicide.\u00a0 There was a story a couple of months ago about a woman out west who was fighting with her insurance company to get them to pay for treatment for her illness.\u00a0 They denied coverage but told her they would pay for medicines for assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

Dying is not easy and we must treat the dying with dignity.\u00a0 We must show them that we still love them and want them to be with us.<\/p>\n

So, I hope you will sign the letter.\u00a0 As you leave today, there are boxes you can put your letter into and we will make sure they get to our governor and legislators.<\/p>\n

Life is a gift.\u00a0 It is a gift to be cherished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is our diocesan public policy weekend.\u00a0 This year\u2019s issue reflected below is speaking against a bill introduced in the NYS Legislative recently to allow assisted suicide. \u00a0For more on this issue, check out the USCCB “To Live Each Day With Dignity” and the New York State Catholic Conference. 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Assisted Suicide & the 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,10,7],"tags":[245,246],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-wM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2033,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions\/2033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}