25th Sunday after Pentecost (6th Sunday after Epiphany readings) 14.11.10 Euthanasia
The Gospel of the mustard seed: small beginnings for a great reality. The kingdom of God (or the Church) started out very small but has become very big.
A lot of actions small in themselves, but added together over time produce an effect beyond what you might expect. If the Church has grown this far despite all the sins etc, imagine what we could have become if we had trusted fully!
Most of the time we live in trust; we do not see the future, not even as far as tomorrow. Yet we believe that if we act according to the will of God we will see better times. One step at a time and eventually we will have walked a long way.
There is one particular example of this trustful stepping forward that I want to dwell on today, because of its current urgency to our state (South Australia) – euthanasia.
If we live in daily trust of God’s providence, asking for our daily bread, we should also die in trust of His providence. The matter of death can be a great anxiety for us as we occasionally think of our own death. When will it happen? How? How much pain will there be? What happens after death? And so on.
It is an even more mysterious matter than most of the things we encounter. All the more reason we should delve deeper into our faith and entrust ourselves into God’s hands. Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit!
As God has decreed when I should be born, so I leave it to Him to decide when (and all other details) I shall die. It is His decision far more than it is mine.
So we have always had (in the Church, and before that in the people of Israel) a sensitive reserve about the manner of death. Look at Job: how he endured the loss of everything but never presumed to take his own life, nor ask others to do it for him.
He trusted during the time of darkness and all was restored to him.
So all will be restored to those who die in the Lord’s keeping. Not necessarily the material restoration as Job experienced, but more likely the joy of eternal life, the next phase of the gift of life which we are preparing for here on earth.
But today many do seek refuge in death rather than in God. Euthanasia is just glorified murder and/or suicide. Almost everyone disapproves of these things, when so called. But somehow murder and suicide in the face of physical or emotional suffering is proposed as acceptable.
What is being attempted in the push towards euthanasia is a redefinition of murder. It is OK [they are saying] to murder sometimes - if the one to be murdered asks for it, or wishes it, or seems to be in intolerable suffering.
But murder (the taking of innocent life) is always wrong. If a thing is wrong in its essence it is always wrong. Good intentions cannot make it right.
The absolute value of each person must be defended at all times. We cannot kill people according to characteristics, such as race or colour. We all understand that. But neither can we murder people who are perceived to be unhappy. Not even if they ask us to kill them.
(Same sort of logic with suicide. You can't kill yourself because do not own yourself. You have a sacred value which you might discount or deny, but cannot remove.)
We encourage each other to take this nobler view of self (which is only the truth). And of other people in the same light. We are subjects not objects.
The value of a life is not in economic output; nor in ability; but simply being a human person makes one God’s property.
In short, euthanasia is either murder or suicide, and can never be justified. Instead we must simply put ourselves into God’s hands. He looks after everything else; He can also handle our deaths.
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