When Is the Chosen Hour?
The pope tells us that that god does not choose the hour of death:
At the chilly open-air service outside the sanctuary reputed for its curative spring water, some faithful lay on gurneys, tucked into quilts and comforters. A few breathed with oxygen tanks. The 81-year-old pontiff administered the sacrament of the sick to 10 people, most in wheelchairs, gently anointing their foreheads and palms with oil.
While several European countries permit euthanasia, the Vatican vehemently maintains that life must continue to its natural end. The pope said in his homily that the ill should pray to find “the grace to accept, without fear or bitterness, to leave this world at the hour chosen by God.”
This may be an old argument to some of you: god either chooses the hour or s/he/it doesn’t. We are all part of the natural world and if we crawl off to die in the woods, put a pistol to our head and pull the trigger, breath too much carbon monoxide, decline resuscitation, and so on, it is either god’s will or god just isn’t involved.
Oh yea, on the same account it would appear that the pope thinks all medical intervention should be eliminated.
He wouldn’t want us to interfere with god’s will, right?
