28th Sunday A
St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh
15th October 2023
“Consistent Life Ethic”
My friends,
The late Cardinal Archbishop of Chicago Joseph Bernardin who died in 1996 of pancreatic cancer aged 68 is remembered especially for his promotion of a “Consistent Life Ethic”. He helped publicise the idea in a major lecture in 1983. At that time in the U.S. the great threats to society and to the world was nuclear war and abortion. The shared foundation of his teaching was that human life is sacred and so deserves the protection of the law. Very quickly he widened his teaching on life to include capital punishment, assisted suicide and euthanasia. The image of the “Seamless Garment” came to represent the protection of life “you can’t protect some life and not others”. It was a way of challenging those who were opposed to abortion but in favour of capital punishment.
I recall Cardinal Bernardin’s work of developing a “Consistent Ethic of Life” because what has unfolded in the U.S. quickly finds its way into our social milieu. I was also prompted by the recent programme on “End of Life” issues. There is currently a lobby group campaigning to introduce “Assisted Dying” into Irish law. Already we can observe the softening up process going on whereby those opposed to the idea will be “scapegoated” as lacking compassion, right wing and old-fashioned.
We were assured by senior politicians that the abortion regime, recently passed into law, would ensure that abortion would be rare and exceptional. Sadly, it is now routine – and because it is legal it is deemed to be morally acceptable. With “Assisted Dying” it looks like we are being led down the same path.
When it come to coping with the end of life – no one finds it easy – neither the aging person nor their family or carers. It tests our love, our faith and our sense of hope. It above all challenges us practically, emotionally and spiritually.
Into this difficult reality of facing death, we have wonderful resources to draw on – we have palliative care teams that understand this final journey and enable so many to make it with serenity.
When the one we love has died so often we’ve found consolation in the words of our 1st Reading from Isaiah and the Psalm ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’
“On this mountain he (the Lord) will remove
the mourning veil covering all peoples
And the shroud enwrapping all nations
He will destroy death forever” (Isaiah 25:7)
“The Lord is my Shepherd….
He guides me along the right path
He is true to his name
If I should walk in the valley of darkness
No evil would I fear” Psalm 22
Facing life is often challenging but facing and accepting our death certainly is. But like life we do not do so alone or without respect and love. To introduce “Assisted Dying” turns our “consistent life ethic” on its head. It is a road once taken leaves us bereft of life’s sacred quality, its beauty and joy despite, its sometimes sad and painful experience.
“There is nothing I cannot master with the help of the One who gives me strength” (Phil. 4:14)
