The passion of Terri Schaivo
This is Holy Week.
The story of our Lord's Passion strikes us with additional power this year as we continue to observe that of Terri Schaivo, who has been found by thirty-three physicians- ten of them neurologists- not to be in a persistent vegetative state, and for whom the only evidence of a desire to be starved to death is the testimony of an allegedly abusive and openly adulterous husband who at first insisted that she wanted to be kept alive, and then changed his story.
The U.S. Supreme Court has once again refused to hear the case, and Florida Governor Jeb Bush has failed in his attempt to personally replace Michael Schaivo as Terri's guardian.
The story we meditate upon this week includes another legalized lynching. We find this hour, in which the forces of evil seem to be on the verge of triumph, echoing Christ's agony in the Garden on the very night when the Church liturgically remembers it.
The polls show that two-thirds of the American people support Michael Schaivo's desire to kill his wife, and believe that the President and Congress should not have intervened. We can take comfort from the fact that they base this opinion on faulty reporting and outright lies repeated again and again by the media. But like the disciples on that first Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we may still be tempted by that news to despair.
The story of the Lord's Passion ends in resurrection- as will Terri's. Christ reminds us that He has overcome the world, and bids us be of good cheer.
On this night two thousand years later, Easter may yet come early through another miracle, this time a legal one. Or Terri may have to be entrusted to the arms of He Who overcame death on her behalf. But it's worth remembering, as the hour of the Prince of Darkness again seems to have come, that her Lord and ours has defeated him, and that she, and we, are in the keeping of the Victor of the great struggle we commemorate this week.
This is a sick and crazy world we live in these days. But Jesus Christ has overcome the world.
The story of our Lord's Passion strikes us with additional power this year as we continue to observe that of Terri Schaivo, who has been found by thirty-three physicians- ten of them neurologists- not to be in a persistent vegetative state, and for whom the only evidence of a desire to be starved to death is the testimony of an allegedly abusive and openly adulterous husband who at first insisted that she wanted to be kept alive, and then changed his story.
The U.S. Supreme Court has once again refused to hear the case, and Florida Governor Jeb Bush has failed in his attempt to personally replace Michael Schaivo as Terri's guardian.
The story we meditate upon this week includes another legalized lynching. We find this hour, in which the forces of evil seem to be on the verge of triumph, echoing Christ's agony in the Garden on the very night when the Church liturgically remembers it.
The polls show that two-thirds of the American people support Michael Schaivo's desire to kill his wife, and believe that the President and Congress should not have intervened. We can take comfort from the fact that they base this opinion on faulty reporting and outright lies repeated again and again by the media. But like the disciples on that first Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we may still be tempted by that news to despair.
The story of the Lord's Passion ends in resurrection- as will Terri's. Christ reminds us that He has overcome the world, and bids us be of good cheer.
On this night two thousand years later, Easter may yet come early through another miracle, this time a legal one. Or Terri may have to be entrusted to the arms of He Who overcame death on her behalf. But it's worth remembering, as the hour of the Prince of Darkness again seems to have come, that her Lord and ours has defeated him, and that she, and we, are in the keeping of the Victor of the great struggle we commemorate this week.
This is a sick and crazy world we live in these days. But Jesus Christ has overcome the world.
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