Nothing Left to Lose ? (2019-08-18, Sunday-20)

HML  • 2019 August 18 •  20^th Sunday

• Jeremiah38:4-6 • Psalm 40 • Hebrews 12:1-4 •  Luke 12:49-53  •           

Title:   Nothing Left to Lose?

[_01_]    When my grandfather was about 100 years old, he was alive, living in his own home with one son and another son nearby and as you might imagine required attention and attentiveness.

          If there is anything that can create “division” or difficulty in a family, it is the care of a loved one. It can create division and difficulty but is also an opportunity for love and charity.

          Jesus says in the Gospel this Sunday …”father against son”….”mother against daughter…”

          In the case of my age 90+ grandfather, it was sometimes a struggle between the elder and younger generation.

[_02_]     But this struggle also brought about important conversations in our family about forgiveness, mercy, coming to terms with our lives…

It was good death not just for my grandfather but for all of us.

[[ USCCB.ORG:  “From the perspective of Catholic thought, the process of dying should not be viewed as a useless experience. A death that allows us the time to come to terms with our lives and those with whom we have lived it—to thank and be thanked, to forgive and be forgiven—is a good death. It can allow us time to deepen our relationship with God.

The process of dying can be a graced experience, not only for the persons undergoing it, but also for the persons called to care for them. The Catholic tradition has long considered the practice of caring for the sick and dying a corporal work of mercy, like feeding the hungry and visiting the imprisoned. It expresses our solidarity with the most vulnerable in our midst, vividly revealing that neither their fundamental dignity nor our own depends upon worldly power or independence. The dignity of each of us rests in the fact that we are created in God's image and likeness.” ]]

[_03_]    My grandfather, however, did not always profess this faith that he was “dying well”…

          It took a family as a community to communicate this and engender this. He frequently focused on the fact that he was dying…His lament, complaint:

he could lament out loud… to, “I’m dying …”

          My father’s response to my grandfather: NO DAD,  YOU ARE LIVING. You are alive !

          We are called to tell the good news wherever we are in, in season and out of season.  We are alive.

[A3* à ]  [A3*]         My grandfather lived to be 101 and half. But, I think his life and our care for him, our experience of caring for him was more about the sanctity or sacredness of life than about the quality of life.

[** pause **]

          When we speak of the QUALITY OF LIFE or the QUALITIES OF OUR LIVES, we can sometimes lose sight of something else which is the SANCTITY OF LIFE or the inherent value of life.

 [_04_]   I bring this up because our Gospel value about the sanctity of life – the sanctity of life applies to a person with an illness – can cause us division.

          In the Gospel Jesus promises that the Gospel is going to cause division.

          Recently, a law was passed in New Jersey that is called the Medical Aid in Dying Act.

          And, the law is           

that it would seem is meant to bring peace, to bring consolation.

          To quote the old Kris Kristofferson song which surely must be on the lips and minds of so many people who die in excruciating pain… “freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”

          And, this is, I suggest, the gist of the “aid in dying law”. That this is our ultimate freedom or right or

          But, there is in fact something to lose…

n  Doctors, medical professionals are asked to “lose” their focus on the dignity of the patient.

n  The patient may “lose” his or her rights to stand up to insurance companies. Could an insurance company in the future take a more extreme view about whether somone is dying “fast enough”?

n  And, young people – who encounter the taking of life with outstanding frequency may “lose” the idea that their lives – every life has inherent value.

(source: Arlington Catholic Herald, 2018.10.03,  https://www.catholicherald.com/ Faith/Your_Faith/Straight_Answers/The_church_and_assisted_suicide/)

[_05_]    When my grandfather was about 99 years old, he went to the doctor.

          Or, rather, the doctor, the physician came to see him, made a house call to his home in the Bronx.

          My grandfather was not inclined for seeing doctors much during his life and was fortunate to be in good health. He was even getting by without hearing aids… which really was a stretch, because he could hardly hear anything.

          Nevertheless, he did not rely much on what you would call modern medicine or technology.

          So, this doctor comes to see him.  At the end of the visit, the doctor asked my uncle for a list of of my grandfather’s prescription medications.

          Normal question, right.

          The doctor almost forgot to ask – and my no one volunteered the information to the doctor, because at age 99, my grandfather was not taking any prescription medications of any kind.

          We all saw the humor and irony in this… recognizing that my grandfather was extremely blessed and perhaps because he was taking NO medication… that this was one of the reasons for his outstanding longevity, and “quality of life”

          What enabled my grandfather to live was not the medicine that he was not taking … but the love of his family.

          What enables any of us to love is the love of both neighbor and God.

          At times, my grandfather perhaps felt he had “nothing left to lose” … in his late 90’s he was frequently complaining and justifiably about his inability to sleep at regular hours, to walk, to have an appetite, to hear and to speak clearly but

          Also, shall we not keep in mind the idea and teaching that it is love that keeps us alive.

          Pope Benedict XVI summarized this good news as:

          “it is true that the day will come when everyone of us will die and …sadly…everyone who even knows us will also have died… [when we have nothing left to lose… in an earthly sense] … but it will only seem that our existence has come to an end.  God never forgets us and we all have being because he loves us and because he has thought of us creatively, so that we exist.  Our eternity is based on his love. Anyone whom God loves never ceases to be. In him, in his thinking and loving, it is not just a shadow of us that continues in being; rather, in him, and in his creative love, we ourselves totally and authentically are preserved and immortal…. ” (Benedict XVI, Dogma and Preaching, p. 359)

          That’s Gospel, the good news, the evangelist’s message.  It may cause us some division in the short run, but in the long run, it our hope of unity and heaven.  [_fin_]