Not Giving Up...

Not Giving Up...

 This weekend, November 1st to be exact, a women by the name of Brittany Maynard will end her life "on her terms" because she has stage 4 tumor in her brain. She is 29 years old and it is a very sad story. She was given 6 months to live and she decided instead of allow the disease to take her life, she wants to decide when she dies and has chosen November 1st as the day. 

    I was not going to add my personal opinion on this and just ask for prayers for her to change her mind but I came across this video today about a man who was diagnosed with cancer and was told to start planning his funeral. Please watch the video below and my comments will follow right under the video. 

    I know this is not a normal situation and this does not happen often but it does happen. Brittany says she is not committing suicide but aiding her dying. Some states allow this and it is called Death with Dignity Act. Since it has been in affect since 1997 in Oregon 1,173 people got the prescription for the drugs and 752 people have used them.  Here we have a man who faced death and decided to help and live his life. He prayed and yes it seems his prayers have been answered. So, why him and not others or not her? I can not answer that. No one here on earth can. It is not fair to others who's prayers are not answered the way they want. I know and speak from experience when it comes to unanswered prayers and losing people who you love to illness and disease, while others seem to get miracles. There are no answers. 

   Yet, there is something I do know, and that is, if we do not give God the time and give God the chance and rather take it into our own hands then we are playing god. We limit the chance of that miracle. We decide that if God does not act in the time we want then it is not worth waiting and He lost His chance. Who really looses that chance? It is us that looses that chance, not God. We are saying to God "You can not do anything".. "I do not believe You can change this"... Is that the God we know? A God that does not perform miracles? That is not the God I know nor is it the God the Catholic Church speaks of either. 

   Some people do not like the Catholic Church's stance of "death" and when life ends or starts but it is what God has ordered. From conception to natural death. The church does not want suffering or pain and fully supports palliative care. What the church does not support is us, humans, deciding when we want life to start and when we feel a life is not worth living or to painful. 

   This is not an easy topic and many people feel very strong on this issue. I hope and pray that Brittany changes her mind this week and decides to live. I ask that we all keep her and her family in prayer. As we watched in the video, prayers do get answered and miracles can happen. Also on a side note tomorrow (October 28) is the feast day of St. Jude the patron saint of desperate cases. Please offer a prayer to St. Jude for her. 

Until tomorrow, God Bless, and may people come to know the sanctity of life. 

Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles

Lectionary: 666

Reading 1

EPH 2:19-22

Brothers and sisters:

You are no longer strangers and sojourners,

but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones

and members of the household of God, 

built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,

with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.

Through him the whole structure is held together

and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord;

in him you also are being built together

into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 19:2-3, 4-5

R. (5a) Their message goes out through all the earth.

The heavens declare the glory of God,

and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

Day pours out the word to day,

and night to night imparts knowledge.

R. Their message goes out through all the earth.

Not a word nor a discourse

whose voice is not heard;

Through all the earth their voice resounds,

and to the ends of the world, their message.

R. Their message goes out through all the earth.

Gospel

LK 6:12-16

Jesus went up to the mountain to pray,

and he spent the night in prayer to God.

When day came, he called his disciples to himself,

and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles:

Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew,

James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew,

Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus,

Simon who was called a Zealot,

and Judas the son of James,

and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.