Homily

I read a fine article in First Things recently written by Wesley Smith. He writes about two people and the praise they receive from the press and the media as they prepare for their deaths. The first person is Michael Landon, the popular star of the TV shows, "Bonanza," "Little House on the Prairie," and "Highway to Heaven." Michael publically announced on the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, in May of 1992, that he had pancreatic cancer and probably not long to live. He granted several interviews after that, telling Life magazine, "If I'm gonna die, death's gonna have to do a lot of fighting to get me."

When he died a few months later, many obituaries praised his courage. The obituary in PEOPLE Magazine entitled "Goodbye Little Joe," spoke of Langdon's devotion to his children and how, as a friend said, he passed his strength along to them. As the end approached Langdon was described as extraordinarily calm. Another friend said of his last hours, "It was like going off a diving board. He knew it was coming and he was brave to the last."

Then there is another person facing death, Brittany Maynard. Brittany is a young married woman, aged 29, who has terminal brain cancer, and not many months to live. She has moved from California to Portland so that she can legally take her own life. She has given herself over to a PR campaign advocating for legalized suicide, run by "Compassion and Choices" (formerly known as the Hemlock Society.) This group applauds Maynard's courage in telling her story and praises her attempts to alert the American people about "death with dignity," calling her "selfless and heroic."

Now the author of this article writes how strange it is that the reporting about this young woman's decision to die is very similar to the reporting about Landon's courage 23 years ago. PEOPLE Magazine, which formerly praised Langdon for fighting to the end, now praises Maynard for doing the exact opposite. Here's what they wrote: "For the past 29 years, Brittany Maynard has lived a fearless life—running half-marathons, traveling through Southeast Asia for a year and even climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. So it's no surprise she is facing her death the same way. On Monday, Maynard will launch an online video campaign with the non-profit Compassion and Choices," an end of life choice advocacy organization, to fight for expanding Death with Dignity laws nationwide."

She has been an international celebrity with stories in Time, New York Times, L. A. Times, USA Today, CNN, PBS, ABC, CBS and on and on and on. Smith writes that if she followed Michael Langdon's path none of these stories would have been written and Rosie O'Donnell would never have applauded her on TV. So, Smith says, if assisted suicide is now considered "courageous," and killing yourself is "death with dignity," doesn't that imply that people like Michael Langdon who choose to fight for their lives are undignified and perhaps less courageous?

I bring this up because it represents one of many, many areas in our society where what was once thought to be a genuine value has been dropped in favor of its complete opposite. Twenty-three years ago a man who fought against death and used his remaining time to be with his family was considered courageous. Today, Brittany Maynard plans to kill herself and uses her time to campaign against laws that forbid suicide and she is considered courageous. Just in 23 years! Which position is true? They can't both be true. They can't both be seen as guidelines or examples of how people ought to live, in the face of death.

It seems to me that we live in an age where truth has lost its importance as a guide to life. Truth has become the victim of sentimentality, personal circumstances, and an ever-expanding claim of the right of people to do whatever they want to do under the sacred freedom of being able to make "choices." Truth does not stand much of a chance. The pro-suicide group used to call itself the "Hemlock Society," which pointed to the truth of its goals. Now it calls itself, "Compassion and Choices." How could you possible go against that? It used to call itself, "Poison," and now it calls itself, "Puppies and Butterflies." Where's the truth?

Twenty-three years ago, almost everyone believed that marriage was supposed to be a solemn union between a man and a woman for the purpose of love and the raising of a family. They thought that was true, but in so many, many cases, they did not live by that truth. So today we end up with more and more people who no longer believe it is true, and marriage in many states no longer requires a man and a woman.

Of course, I can go on and on giving examples, but my real point is about how we want to live. Do we want to live according to what is good, true and even holy? Or shall we follow what is good for today, true for me and not wholly satisfying? Can "Poison" really become "Puppies and Butterflies?" What do we think will become of us, if, like modern day Pontius Pilates, we continue to ask, "Truth. What does that mean?" And so many people fall away from the Church not because they are searching for the truth but because they don't find the truth to be very useful to the way they want to live. What matters most is what you think is good. And that's good enough.

Christ our Lord became a man in order to bring us to the truth and to save us from lies and deception. The truth of our Faith is solid, enriching, and unchangeable, because truth cannot change and because Christ cannot lie. As you may know there is an Extraordinary Synod on the Family taking place in Rome and the secular media is waiting to see what doctrines will be changed so that the Church will match up with the current values of Western society. But they will be disappointed once again because the truth of Christ cannot be changed. If I thought that were possible, I would not be up here speaking to you today. I'd be an Episcopalian minister. Those guys don't mind changing doctrine every year or two and there's a lot more money to be made. The only difference between me and TV evangelist Joel Osteen is that he will only tell his people what they want to hear (and about 6 million dollars). But you, and me, we must stick to the truth of Christ, the Gospel Truth, even though we are tempted, even though we may fail at times, even though we may not always understand it completely, even though we may struggle to live in it because of our personal weaknesses, let us never abandon the truth and trade it in for lies, deceptions and ignorance. To live according to Christ's teachings is to be at the very heart of compassion and mercy and we should never apologize for standing there. Quite the opposite; we should be so grateful we've been called. And in that gratitude, let's not only be happy that we have the knowledge of His truth, let's also be willing to share that truth with whoever will listen—share it in peace and in gladness.