Tag: MAiD

Shades of Foreboding for 2023???

“The one who wants to win the world for Christ, must have the courage to come in conflict with it.”1

St. Titus Brandsma

Backdrop to Today’s Blog Post:

A favourite gift from this past Christmas was a small paperback volume (under 200 pages!) titled, Saint Edith Stein: A Spiritual Portrait, from Pauline Books & Media by Dianne Marie Traflet. It traces the spiritual growth of this Jewish daughter, born on the Jewish Day of Atonement in 1891, in Breslau, Germany. She was the last of 11 children, and by her teens had already rejected her family’s spiritual heritage and embraced atheism.

A brilliant, renowned scholar and philosopher of her day, she subsequently embraced the Christian faith, becoming a Roman Catholic, and a nun. Stein died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1942. Her crime? Being Jewish, of course.2 Sincerely converting to Catholicism, and entering the religious life, could not protect her from the wicked plans of evil men to eliminate the Chosen People of God.

Among other victims of the Nazi concentration camps, who have achieved the status of sainthood, are the Polish priest, St. Maximillian Kolbe, and a Dutch priest, Fr. Titus Brandsma, who was elevated to sainthood on May 15, 2022. As a Carmelite Friar, he was in good company. It is the Order of St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Therese of Lisieux, and, yes, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross…otherwise known as St. Edith Stein.

Franciscan Media says of St. Titus Brandsma,

During his brief time at Dachau Fr. Brandsma was well-known for his kindness and spiritual support of other prisoners. His death on July 26, 1942 was a result of the Reich’s program of medical experimentation on prisoners. He gave a wooden rosary to the nurse who administered the fatal injection; she later became Catholic and testified to his holiness.3

It also adds the comment, in regard to St. Titus, “Conscience often creates martyrs. That was the case for Titus Brandsma. Many people ‘go along to get along,’ not realizing that by doing so they are destroying themselves internally.”

Reflecting on the lives, and the times, of these two particular Saints, triggered the thoughts that follow. It gives me pause to wonder, as we enter this new year, if we need to look more closely at what’s happening today, and how our times compare to theirs. How do you see it?

Thoughts on entering 2023…January 1, 2023

TODAY…the beginning of a New Year, on the cusp of things we know not of, or can barely imagine, might befall us, in our modern, civilized, Western culture. I foresee it will be so like what was to befall Europe, unbeknownst to anyone but those in the highest echelons of power and authority, who knew already what they purposed and planned, as the world careened into pre-WWII in Germany, which would engulf it, and its neighboring nations. All were about to be caught up in the maelstrom of madness proliferated in the minds of men with evil intent, focused on the annihilation of the Lord’s Chosen ones…to continue and further the hatred against them, which began when the Lord called Abraham, and set apart his seed to be a holy people, consecrated in covenant relationship to the One True God, for all eternity.

Hatred of Jews, hatred of Jesus Christ, hatred of all those called to be uniquely separated and consecrated to the Living God, in the Name of His Only Begotten Son, still awaits us, as men with the same evil intent of those who plotted the destruction of Jews, through the millennia, are once again in the ascendency. With the same evil intent, they now plot the destruction of Christ and His Church, to establish their godless purposes to, themselves, ‘be like gods,’ in their own hearts and minds…to reign over and supplant godly men and women who believe that God is God, and there is no other. (Dt. 4:39; Is.46:9)

While we who believe know their efforts are doomed to fail, the chaos and strife they will engender is about to engulf people of all stations and status, of belief and unbelief, of all stripes. All, together, will be caught up in conflict that sets families at odds, drives division between friends and neighbors, rips asunder communities, parishes, countries, and nations. None will remain untouched or unscathed. Such will be the lot of those alive today as they watch civilization teeter on the edge of anarchy and destruction that they, falsely, believed could never happen, in their day and age, ever again.

The lessons of the past, from more than 75 years ago, have not been well learned, nor taken to heart, as they might have been. To displace God is to displace civility, genuine respect and regard, care and concern, for one another. Those things that form the foundation of ‘taking care of your fellow-man,’ to quote my un-saintly, deceased father who passed to his reward more than two decades ago. He was a man who sought peace among people and nations that could not be found in his atheism or communism, because that peace is only available in the personal surrender of hearts and lives to live for, and embrace, the reality of ‘knowing the One True God, and Jesus Christ, whom (he) has sent.’ (Jn. 17:3)

This was the ‘Truth’ that Edith Stein discovered that gave her the grace to face incarceration in a Nazi concentration camp, and the gas chambers, with equanimity. The same was true for Fr. Titus Brandsma who died from a lethal injection, as part of the human experimentation on the living practiced by Nazi medical personnel. As Canadians, with the legalization of Medical Aid in Dying, we might want to pause and wonder where it is leading when medical professionals become acclimatized to the thought of putting patients to death and normalize the death dealing in their own hearts and minds. Will healthcare continue to be life-saving, or is it destined to become more death-dealing, based on the beliefs of the current political leaders who form our government?  

Only in serving the Living God, bending the knee, and bowing the head, declaring that Jesus Christ is Lord, will the peace the world seeks come to reign in the hearts of men and of nations.

I close with an observation by St. Titus Brandsma,

Among the many questions which I ask myself, none occupies me more than the riddle, that the evolving human being, proud and spirited in his progress, turns away from God in such great number.

It is disconcerting that in our time of such great progress in various areas, we face, like an infectious disease, an insidiously spreading violation and denial of God.

Why is the image of God so obscured that so many are no longer moved by it? Is the failure only on their side? Or is there something asked of us to make it shine brightly again over the world and might we hope that a study of the concept of God will at least alleviate this greatest of all needs?….

Despite the great progress in many areas, the human mind must be terribly dazzled that it no longer has the capacity to see God. This obstruction of vision, however, is not a total blindness. And without ignoring that this defective vision results from an ailing mentality which has clouded the eye, I ask myself if the object to be viewed is placed sufficiently in the light and whether we should not try to illuminate and place it so that even, through this ailing defective vision, it will be seen again?5

I think, that in today’s modern world, the ideas espoused above, still hold true as much as they did back in the day when St. Titus first voiced his concern. Are we the ones called to try to illuminate the Gospel truths so that they will be seen again…at the risk of our freedom…or our very lives?

Footnotes:

1 https://olmlaycarmelites.org/quote/titus-brandsma

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Stein

3 https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-titus-brandsma/

4 Ibid.

5 https://carmelitesph.org/triduum-titus-brandsma-day-2/

Two Deaths…

“Grandma, it’s all right. You can go now“

My eldest Swedish Canadian cousin died at home on Christmas Day in 2018. Our families had grown up together in rural SK until she married at 18. The day after their wedding, she and her new husband, along with her entire family, moved to Vancouver Island, BC primarily to deal with her serious health issues, stemming from asthma.

The health challenges would plague her all her life.

She was 83 and her entire family kept vigil with her at her bedside through her final days and hours. She and her husband of 65 yrs. were residents of a senior’s supported living condo in Victoria, B.C.

After struggling with a myriad of health challenges for a prolonged period of years, she finally elected to stop any further treatments earlier in December and was referred to palliative care. Her personal physician continued to journey with her, including spending several hours with her at her home on December 24 – a testament to the quality of the person this patient was and what she meant to her primary healthcare provider.

Early on Christmas morning, waking in her own bed, surrounded by her nine daughters, granddaughters, and great granddaughters, she opened her eyes and asked for her husband. He was called into the bedroom from the adjacent living room, where he and his 6 sons-in-law and grandsons had been spread around the small space slumbering, as best they could.

The 65th Christmas

He leaned across the bed to his wife, and she looked up at him and said, “We’ve had 65 Christmases together.”

She lingered through the day, not fully aware of her surroundings or those with her. In mid-afternoon most of the family adjourned to the daughter’s home, a short way away, where the traditional turkey had been prepared, to share in festive turkey sandwiches.

When they returned, the two granddaughters who were nurses, who had remained behind, called the husband in to see her again. As they left the bedside, he climbed up on the bed beside her and took her into his arms.

He whispered to her, “Grandma, it’s all right. You can go now.”

Within seconds, her breathing stopped, and she quietly slipped into eternity.

A different kind of death

A friend in my Ladies Bible Study shared the experience of a friend of hers who had journeyed with a lady who chose Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD), within about the same time frame as the death of my cousin. Medical Aid in Dying is the term utilized by the Government of Canada in its legislation to avoid use of the terms ‘physician assisted suicide’ and euthanasia. [Any doctor today would tell you that every licensed doctor has been providing ‘medical aid in dying’ since time immemorial.]

The person in question was invited by friend of hers who was terminally ill to be present during the procedure to medically end her life. While the first person was very reluctant to participate because she did not support, nor believe in, the use of physician assisted suicide, because she valued the friendship, and the trust placed in her to be asked to journey with her friend through this end of life experience, she reluctantly agreed to be present for the medical procedure that would terminate the life of her friend.  

The night before the medical appointment to end her life by lethal injection, i.e. proceed with the ‘medical aid in dying’ procedure, the lady who was terminally ill held a family dinner that had the whole family gathered as if in celebration of a very festive occasion. There was great food, good company, laughter, dancing and singing. The patient herself presided at the piano and led the company of children, grandchildren, and close friends in a sing-along into the wee hours of the morning.

Everyone said their good nights and goodbyes as if they were just completing a stellar social occasion.

The next morning, the friend returned to be with the patient who had her appointment with death. She reported that the woman had dressed to the hilt in her best dress outfit, complete with her usual string of pearls.

The patient laid down on her bed in her bedroom, then paused, and asked the Chaplain who was present to say a prayer. She then extended her arm to the medical practitioner in the room, said, “Let’s get this done,” and received the fatal, lethal injections in her extended arm.

The friend of the patient who was a witness to the whole procedure, from the social gathering to her friend taking her last breath, was traumatized. She commented later that, it was “…like putting a dog down.” She vowed she would never participate in a physician-assisted-suicide again and, to this day, still has nightmares around witnessing the procedure.

The Difference

I have shared these scenarios with care workers training for visiting in institutions. They immediately “get” the difference between these two deaths. Do you?

Government Dependence…a coming Holocaust?

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is building-architecture-historical-tower.jpg

In a few weeks under the COVID-19 crisis, governments have changed Canada and the United States in ways that socialism has been trying to do for over 150 years.

One of my major concerns is that we have, within a few short weeks, become more government dependent as a nation than at any other time in the history of our democracy. We could never have ever imagined something like this happening so fast. Almost every sector of our economy has become dependent on government financial aid, including individuals who have opted to give up paid jobs because they can receive more on government aid than by working.

What has been advocated to be introduced, and implemented, since the advent of socialism 150-200 yrs ago, has in the course of a few short weeks, become ‘common’ in both Canada and the US. I believe this will not bode well for coming out of this pandemic crisis and the economic recovery. We have mortgaged, not only the future of our grandchildren to the hilt with the massive debt load, but I think it will prove to have been a ‘mortgaging’ of our very souls, as well.

The demand for limited resources to be stretched to provide guaranteed income support for all Canadians will have a deleterious impact on our Canadian economy and the ability for government to finance it, and recover, and deal with massive, overwhelming debt.

Saving Health Care Resources by Moving MAiD from Voluntary to Mandatory

The expectation on the part of the many to maintain the dependence on government support will require excessive draws on limited government financial resources. [And, I foresee that resulting in the decision for cuts to healthcare that will make it expedient to move Medical Aid in Dying — Doctor assisted suicide — from the realm of being voluntary to being mandatory.]

The inability for government to meet all the demands for ongoing financial support could well end in social chaos and violence, with everyone demanding the same level of access to all resources, even if it means wresting them out of my neighbors hands with force.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is birkenau-auschwitz-concentration-camp-53442.jpeg

This “Unprecedented Time” – Not Unprecedented

History has shown that this is typical of such a scenario…think Nazi Germany in the 1930’s….the economic conditions, prepared the German people to accept government control and social engineering at an unprecedented level, in ways that afterwards left people shaking their heads, saying, “How could this have happened in such a civilized, educated, sophisticated society?”  [Remember, that the killing that eventually moved into the holocaust, and the loss of 6 million lives, began with euthanizing the most vulnerable, the ‘undesirables’ — those who were not productive to the economy, but rather a drain on limited, depression economy resources.

Biblical Quotes and Inspirational Thoughts to Put Steel in Our Souls

That being said, here are some scriptures, and comments, that I think are relevant for us today as we negotiate this unprecedented time and the challenges to our individual and personal spiritual walks. I believe these speak to how we must live our personal lives given these current times, and in order to be ready for what lies ahead.

From Revelation 3, quoted in the Catholic Office of Readings recently, to two of the churches:

To the church of Philadelphia: Rev. 3: 8, 10-11, 12a
“‘I know your deeds; that is why I have left an open door which no one can close. I know that your strength is limited; yet you have held fast to my word and have not denied my name….Because you have kept my plea to stand fast, I will keep you safe in the time of trial which is coming on the whole world, to test all men on earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast to what you have lest someone rob you of your crown.

‘I will make the victor a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall never leave it.'”

To the church of Laodicea: Rev. 3: 15-16, 17,19, 20-21a

“‘I know your deeds; I know you are neither hot nor cold….But, because  you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spew you out of my mouth|! You keep saying, “I am rich and secure and want for nothing.” Little do you realize how wretched you are, how pitiable and poor, how blind and naked….
“‘Whoever is dear to me I reprove and chastise.. Be earnest about it, therefor. Repent.
“‘Here I stand, knocking at the door. If anyone hears me calling and opens the door, I will enter his house and have supper with him, and he with me. I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne…..'”

And, from Oswald Chambers, known best as the author of “My Utmost for His Highest”, writing in “Devotions for a Deeper Life”:

“If you think that your obedience, your repentance, or your morality is going to get you nearer to Jesus Christ, you are making a mistake. Intimacy with Christ comes only by abandoning yourself to Him.
“Your crying out to God will not save you. Surrendering your possessions will not save you. You may give God everything you like and still be damned. God never asked you to give him anything but your will.
“The only barrier to your salvation is yourself….Yet all depends on whether you submit  your will to Him.
“Some people are more concerned about being in earnest than about being in God’s will.”

And, finally, from “A Daily Catholic Moment: 10 Minutes Alone with God”:

Rom.12:2 – Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (ESV)

“The key to living in the here and now is awareness of what we are doing and acceptance of what is going on beyond the surface appearances. This daily discipline is difficult and takes practice. It requires that we be sensitive to what we are experiencing, accept the person before us without judgment, savor and enjoy what surrounds us, and deal with interruptions and change of plans with grace and peace. When we live fully in the here and now, we reverence the holiness of each action of our daily routine. Why? Because we are convinced that this moment is God’s ambassador that reveals the divine will for us in the here and now. Generously accepting the present moment, we can then gratefully bow to receive its blessings.”    Sr. Bridget Haase, OSU  

Devotional Thought (addended to her comments): Is there anything keeping me from living in the here and now, today?

May He keep us in peace, in the ‘here and now’ of our day, which, really, is preparation for whatever tomorrow brings to us.

On the 12th Day of Christmas…

Sunday, January 6, 2019

“On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…”

Well, in fact, it doesn’t matter what the ‘true love’ of the writer of those lyrics gave, because something far more substantial is being celebrated on this 12th Day of Christmas which makes that gift pale in comparison.

Today is really the celebration of what the ‘True Love’ of our lives gave to us, to the world. That Babe, born at Bethlehem, and placed in a manger, came as the incarnate God, the ‘Word made flesh’ to dwell among us, to be Emmanuel, God with us. And, as Simeon declares, this ‘True Love’ came as God’s salvation, both for the ‘glory of Israel’ and, simultaneously, as a ‘light to the nations,’ God’s light not only to the Jews, but to the whole world, the Gentiles, the pagans who did not know the revelation of ‘One true God’ as the Jews did.

Today, this 12th Day, we commemorate the arrival of the Magi, wise men from the east, representing the ‘nations,’ the Gentile world beyond the Jewish sphere, to witness that the Living God was including them in the salvation he had prepared for all peoples. They came bearing gifts – rich gifts for a babe born to peasant, Jewish parents – gold, frankincense and myrrh, representative of kingship, deity and death – a harbinger that this King’s reign was not confined to an earthly kingdom, that he was true God and true man, and that he would suffer and die for the world he had deigned to enter as a helpless infant.

As we consider these representatives of the nations, these wise men who also represent us, kneeling to offer gifts to this heavenly King, we, too, are called to consider what we, ourselves, might offer to this royal deity. At today’s Mass, our priest encouraged us to bring the ‘gold’ of our love, the ‘frankincense’ of our prayers, and the ‘myrrh’ of our own sufferings, and present them to Jesus, recognizing him as our Savior and Lord, and ‘soon coming King.’

This Jesus promised to return to take us to be with Him in His Father’s house, which has many rooms (Jn. 14: 2). He invites us, who believe there is a God, to believe also in Him, and identifies himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the one who alone leads us to the Father and his eternal dwelling place.

From a young age, I spent a lifetime, well into my adult years, afraid of death – which scripture says is the last fear to be conquered. I knew intuitively that death meant darkness, absence of contact with any other living being, and total conscious knowledge. So, I embarked on a search to determine if God was real and if life after death held more promise than what I faced in the bleak awareness that death was a frightening prospect.

Hidden in a dresser drawer was a relic from my Mom’s Catholic childhood, with a prayer that concluded, “Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” I latched onto that because I was sure I needed prayer for the hour of my demise. It was perhaps one of the influences that eventually led to my embracing Catholicism as a young adult in my mid-20’s. What came entirely unexpected, a surprise to me, on receiving the communion bread for the 1st time as a Catholic, I had the awesome experience of knowing I was on the outside and had ‘stepped’ to the inside. I knew I had been received into a heavenly kingdom, that was eternal and irrevocable. And, it ended the fear of what I might face when I drew my last breath on earth. The darkness was infused with light, there was contact with a living God who was substantial and real, and I would consciously ‘know’ and be known for an eternity with him.

The irony is not lost on me that having harbored the inordinate fear of death from childhood on, I should end up being immersed as a Hospital Chaplain, in end of life ministry, dealing with dying and death – and counting it a privilege to journey with others through this final stage of life. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the last breath here is the first breath there. I also saw that the God who has put eternity in our hearts makes himself known during those final end stages, be that days or hours, and those who never knew him can find he is there waiting for them.

My experience is one of the reasons I am so opposed to the current popularized physician assisted death, termed in Canada’s legislation “Medical Aid in Dying” (MAiD). People are robbing themselves of the opportunity to make their peace with the God who loves them and wants to welcome them into his Kingdom of light. Things that can only be addressed in those last days/hours cannot be settled in advance of the end stages. Death is not powerless, and the natural process of dying is a sacred, holy, privileged time for the person, and those journeying with them, that is not be short-circuited to alleviate the fear of suffering.

There is much to be learned and accomplished by completing the journey naturally for all concerned. Death is too final to miss out on the lessons it has to offer in the end of life journey, being supported and cared for those around. It is also a legacy and prepares the way for those who will follow. Dying too soon misses out on some very sacred moments that are not to be taken so lightly as to ignore the significance and meaning for the person who is dying and those who surround them with their love.

The God who came as that Babe in a manger, awaits each one of us, to shine light on our final journey and receive us into an eternal kingdom, with all those who have gone before us. Believing in Jesus, as the only begotten Son of the Father, is our entry ticket to that life.

Accept and Believe.