
My friend Kate O’Hare recently wrote a post here at Catholic Vote discussing the question of cancer and euthanasia.
I am living with breast cancer right now, as I type. This evil movement to legalize medical murder is more pertinent to me now than ever before.
Euthanasia pushers tout medical murder as an act of “mercy,” when it is in fact the ultimate act of uncaring. I have cancer. I also am caring for my 90-year-old mother who has dementia.
I googled “undergoing cancer treatment while caring for elderly parent with dementia.” I did not get one hit. This particular combination of responsibilities doesn’t fit in “Ten Things to Do When You Have Cancer” blog posts. The only neat solutions to problems like these are evil solutions. Caregiving and dread disease are messy and complicated. They ask of a lot of us.
My situation seems ready-made for the purveyors of death and their murderous solutions for the burdens of life and love. My mother, in their bleak understanding of life, has “lived too long.” As for me, I’m good for a few rounds of treatment. But if that fails, I need to green light somebody to knock me stone dead and put the world out of my misery
Isn’t that the “compassionate” solution? My mother has, after all, outlived her usefulness. And I’m not such a spring chicken myself. Who knows how much money could be saved by tossing her aside and giving me the heave-ho if the first go-rounds with therapy fail? It would probably finance at least one of those bombs we drop on the Middle East. Why waste it on something like end of life care?
That, my friends, is the logic of our times. It is a ubiquitous philosophy of blood selfishness styled as kindness.
I’m not going to hop into the acid bath of trying to persuade the death dealers of our society to stop dealing death. I will not, at this time, argue with those who see themselves as “compassionate” because they want to kill the unborn, the elderly, disabled and sick among us. I’ve got enough on my plate right now. I don’t need to rub noses with evil incarnate by talking to them.
I want to talk to my Christian brothers and sisters. By Christian, I mean those of you who take Christ as your savior and actually try to follow Him.
If you are someone who knows the Truth; if you follow Him and accept His lordship over you and your life, then I have this to say: Do not be beguiled by the idiocy of lying liars who say that murder is compassion and caregiving is cruelty. What they are telling you is straight from the pit.
Compassion is getting up in the middle of the night and putting your wandering Mama back in bed. Trust in Christ is knowing that He will turn all things — including cancer — to good for those who believe in Him.
It may not — almost certainly will not be — good as the world defines it. Good, as followers of Christ know it, is eternity goodness. It is the light, shining in the darkness of hate and death. In this instance, it is life and love, standing against euthanasia.
Sickness can be, if you do it in Him, eternity work.
Kate O’Hare quoted Dylan Thomas’ famous line “Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” I would add another quote to that one: Take up your cross and follow me.
And do not be afraid. We are all going to die. I will die. You will die. If cancer is the way I die, then so be it. But between now and then, I am going to live. I trust Jesus, and that trust drives out fear. The only courage I have is from the Holy Spirit. I ask, He gives.
Do not yield to the serpents of our time urging us to bite the apple of death. Do not make your last act in this life the murder of your own self. Do not — ever — advocate for or help in any way the furtherance of this satanic philosophy of death.
Get up in the night and take your loved one back to bed. Change her diapers. Take her to doctor’s appointments and walk with her on her way home.
We should all rage against the dying of the light. And loving and caring and living every minute is how we should do it.