Twenty Seventh Sunday of the Year ANNUAL DAY FOR LIFE

Day for Life

I wish to pay tribute to the many unsung heroes and heroines in this parish and elsewhere who out of duty and sacrifice and love give so much of themselves in caring for a sick elderly or terminally ill parent or relative.

I can think of many people in this parish who have given of themselves to an ageing parent, as it is often hugely challenging and heartbreaking as parents become more dependent on them. I know people who put their lives and careers on hold, brothers and sisters who take turns to be with a parent living alone for a weekend or overnight travelling a good distance to take their turn. Sometimes it is left rightly or wrongly to one member of the family. We think of people who feed, change and clean a parent. It is not always easy, and yet I see many people who have sacrificed their comfort and convenience. Many people 'just get on with it' without drawing attention to themselves.  If asked about the burden, they often recall the sacrifices their parents made for them in their upbringing. They will never make any headlines, but they are the heroes of today and every age.

There are different stages to the last days of a parent or relative, when they become more housebound and dependent, to the heart rending decision to the realisation that home care is no longer feasible or possible, to the awful guilt and sense of loss and grieving that accompanies the choice of a nursing home, to the costs and visits, to the awful final fateful day when the loved one begins terminal decline.

As we honour the many people who devote their lives as well to the. sick and the Dying, the many home helps, the doctors and nurses in our midst, we also know that it is difficult to make the decision to give the best care and treatment to the dying.

This is what this years annual day for life is about. The dignity of every human person especially the most vulnerable as well as the acceptance of the reality of natural death is the theme chosen by the Bishops' letter for your perusal.

This is a particularly fraught time. We must be aware that often a difficult decision must be made in the last days of a person's life.

There is an important medical and ethical distinction between the direct intervention that shortens a persons life by a deliberate act, which is always morally wrong, and the decision to alleviate pain that indirectly brings about a shortening of the person's life. The latter is an act that is morally justifiable, and not a direct act of the will to hasten death. This shortening of life is an indirect unintended though foreseeable consequence of palliative care.

Sadly in some countries however the decline in regard for life, and the viewing of a person only in terms of their social usefulness, and the development of false compassion in the face of seeming useless 'quality of life' has lead to the passing of immoral and unjust laws which violate people's right to proper care that will lead to a natural death. Peoples lives are cut short, and sometimes at their own written request. Even worse is the development of so- called suicide clinics. What has happened inevitably that there is a slippery slope. We must be aware that the so called euthanasia debate is not far away from the media's crosshairs.

We must be defenders of life at all stages, and especially to the weak and vulnerable who are so often Without a voice. We must inform ourselves and the letter issued by the bishops today is a good place to start.

 But your experience of caring for the sick in your own family, as much as it was it is an ordeal, can be a valuable, definitive and crucial testimony in the defending of the dignity and right to life the end. Your voice in the media in the defence of the natural human rights of the dying will be very important in the months and years ahead. There will be emotional testimonies advocating the so-called 'right to die.' Watch out for and understand what is really meant behind such appeals as 'being too much of a burden', 'I can't take it any more', 'I can't allow my family to see me like this', I am in the way' and so on. Do not be taken in by misinformation, false argument and what amounts to emotional blackmail to enact unjust legislation. It may not be an issue for the next election but watch for the rumblings in the next government.  While we empathise and sympathise with protracted illness, so called hard-cases make bad laws. Often people in distress are not in pain but are lonely and crying out for love and companionship. Pope St John Paul II who was no stranger to declining health and mobility and function with Parkinson's disease spoke out against the culture of death, and that as Christians we are called to proclaim the 'Gospel of Life'. We must bí ollamh.

I wish to conclude with the words of Mother Teresa who spent her life in hospices for the dying. She said we must always remember those five words of the Lord Jesus in respect for others' dignity in many situations demanding our caring response which she quoted often - those words are :'you did it to me.'