LATEST CATHOLIC WAR AGAINST THE CULTURE OF DEATH – ASSISTED SUICIDE/DYING BILL IN THE UK. RALLYING BEHIND THE BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE
Entire Creation is groaning as with birth pangs… sufferings produce character… Romans 8.
Hard cases can make bad laws: The Culture of Death Agenda again, ideological colonization again, lingering, rampaging, who knows!
Oh, the sickening, sinking tinge and stench of egoism, rhetoric, politics, atheism, culture of death – now abortions, now euthanasia, now Brexit, now assisted dying…. God help us! Sin speaks to the sinner in the depth of his heart, there is no fear of God. Psalm 36.
The problem of lack of faith, of Man’s Search for Meaning, of To be or not to be, of the fundamental and ultimate reason to live or to die, the enigma of unbearable pain or unavoidable suffering. God help us. Where can I run from your law/love/presence… Psalm 139.
We heard it before with pro-choice campaigns, but ask those who must live through the trauma of one or multiple abortions or the regret of mistaken transgender – whether as promised, it’s really pain-free, peaceful, immediate and best option? In his riches man lacks wisdom, he is like the beasts that are destroyed… psalm 48.
Who will help us speak loudest and clearest to convene the world about God, about sin, righteousness, judgement; about wrong and thus overthrow the prince of this world? John 16:8. None but the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
Who will help teach or prepare the world, the hard hearted about unavoidable suffering and inevitable death? About the murkiness of democracy or (disability) rights! Stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, walk in it… Jeremiah 6:16.
Who will clarify with psychospiritual insights how what is right in the morning of life can and does turn out to be wrong in the evening; and how these rob on intrinsic evil, immutable truths and natural law…?
Who will convince us and prove that assisted suicide is no manipulation or diabolic agenda and consequently no guilt, no blame, no regret, no better alternative?
Who will convince lawmakers that the act, the circumstances and the consequences like any others can, will or may not lessen the culpability and therefore judgement after this life?
Indeed if it is only about polls and opinions, about emotions and sentiments, and never about God, to hell with the arguments and the acts of pro-choice or assisted suicide. Perhaps Flannery O’Connor should chastise again as she unapologetically once lashed out: if the Eucharist is only a symbol, to hell with it!
Who can teach us the true value of suffering like St Paul, or the protection of the vulnerable like St John Paul II; or compassion not the disposable culture like Pope Francis, sharing pain, accompanying the suffering and journeying through life together in solidarity and synodality like the Church.
We need Good News, The Culture of Life and Love every day and nothing less, especially in suffering and terminal circumstances.
Romans 5:3-5: Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Time to vote, time to speak out, time to advocate and defend life from natural conception to natural death.
Emmanuel Mbeh MHM, November 2024
