Laws allowing professional assistance for terminally
ill patients to end their own lives, have been approved by the government of
the State of Victoria, in Australia, and has the potential to extend to the
legislation of other states at some point. But now another problem has risen
that affects the Christian Church as an institution in a more direct way. Civil
powers expect Christian ministers from all denominations to pastorally assists
on a regular manner, all those who are choosing to end their own lives and
provide them with Christian burial.
The issue is a very delicate one. People choosing to
end their lives are individuals under a high level of stress and pain, who apart
from enduring extreme physical suffering, face also with anguish, the
expectation of a long, tortuous agony before inevitably dying. These people who
under normal circumstances would condemn euthanasia, even though at some point make
the decision to end their own lives voluntarily, also long to have spiritual
reassurance of God’s forgiveness and an expectation of salvation after death.
To address this dilemma, some Christian churches
have allowed their ministers to provide that religious assistance to euthanasia
candidates, as a non-judgemental act of mercy. This care may vary according to
the beliefs and practices of different Christian institutions, but well would
include Confession, Extrema Unction and Viaticum (Anointing and Communion) for
the dying before ending their own lives, and Church burial afterwards, like any
other regular funeral. But is this correct?
From a secular point of view, this approach would be
without doubt the right thing to do. A merciful consoling hand to those poor
souls in suffering during their last days and minutes, and the dignity of a
socially acceptable burial. But there is one problem here, Christianity is a religious
belief system that is not necessarily always compatible with a secular view of
the world.
I am not going to argue here over the theological
grounds of our view on human life, but only explain the stand of the conservative
wing of Christianity on the subject.
For Christianity, every human life is sacred, which
starts at the moment of conception, and is protected, nourished and cherished
as a compound of spirit and matter, created by God and called to greatness and
life for all eternity. In Christianity, we believe that we are the administrators
of our own lives, but not the owners. As we did not give life to ourselves, we
cannot take it away at will either. The lifeforce that animates us, belongs
entirely to God alone, and no one has the right to end it, not even ourselves,
under any circumstance.
Christian ministers, as dedicated servants of God,
are primarily, before any other type of civil or secular considerations, obliged
before God, to sustain the principles, teachings and precepts established by
Jesus of Nazareth and his Apostles, and to help the community of believers to
live under those principles, teaching and precepts.
When a person chooses to end his or her own life,
for whatever reason, he or she is committing a grave sin equivalent to murder,
since the life force they are ending is not really theirs. Regardless of the
secular view, when a minister comes and provides words of reassurance and the
sacraments to those dying, they are really lying to them, giving them a false
sense of hope, we know they don’t have, and becoming participants of the crime.
Certainly, God alone is the ultimate Judge of everyone,
and His reasons are not discussible and His own prerogative. If God forgives
and accepts someone who kills himself, only God knows, but as far as the Church
is concerned, as administrators of the doctrine and sacraments of God, only
corresponds to do what any administrator will do, to follow the rules of the
house.
Christian ministers cannot possibly assist those who
have decided to commit suicide, by providing words of a false reassurance or
even commit the sacrilege of giving the sacrament to those sinning mortally
against God.
The best help a Pastor or a Priest can give a person who is about
to chose to end his or her own life, is to openly warn them that what they do
is eternal damnation, trying to encourage them to endure the suffering with the
patience of martyrdom, and that eternal life in Glory awaits them afterwards if
they remain faithful to God. Any other form of conciliatory approach is misleading
and a betrayal of the duties of a servant of the gospel of Christ.
With much pain in my heart, I must roundly condemn
that conciliatory approach to support the voluntary ending of life by anyone,
as being totally contrary to correct practice and understanding of the
Christian doctrine and ethics.
True believers of Christ, conditions are getting
more and more difficult for us, as time goes, and very soon, in a matter of
decades, we will witness the total abandonment of true religion, to be replaced
by a manmade fake form of Christianity, not at the service of God, but to the
service of man’s own whims and desires. I encourage Christian ministers and lay
people, to resists this control of secular power over the Christian Church, and
their desire to rule over spiritual things they do not understand, neither accept.
About these times spoke our beloved Apostle Paul:
“Therefore, take heed to yourselves and
to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to
shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know
this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing
the flock. Also, from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse
things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore, watch and
remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day
with tears.”
(Acts 20:28-31)
God bless you all.
Omar Flores.
Melbourne, 21st of June of 2019
Comments
Post a Comment