Ok, so I was wrong.
Here is what I am learning about life as a faithful Catholic - being a woman dependent upon Christ and The Church He founded does not mean I get my own way or that life is going to be easy. Rather, it virtually guarantees that I won't get my own way here on earth and that life is going to be one big battle after another..and like any battle, some I will win and some I will lose.
I really, really like the statement put out by the US Conference of Bishops regarding the Supreme Court decision. I also like the statement put out by our Catholic Bishops, which is:
“For nearly 100 years, the Bishops of the United States have been advocating for affordable, life-affirming health care for all,” said Bishop Gerald Wilkerson, president of the California Catholic Conference. “This nation needs affordable health care that ensures universal access but the Affordable Care Act (ACA) unfortunately, still does not address our concerns – that Federal funds not pay for abortions, that conscience rights be protected and that immigrants and their families be allowed to purchase insurance.”
The problems that Catholics have with the law is not the same as many conservatives. The Bishops declare quite honestly that they have been advocating for comprehensive health care reform for decades. What we don't want to do is pay for death - abortions, euthensia - or for artificial birth control or artificial conception. That is not something we, as Catholics, should be forced to provide others simply because they have a job with a Catholic Institution. Don't want to be denied those things? Cool, don't work for us.
Anyway, that part of the deal is far from decided and I totally trust that God has our back on the issue.
For me, and for others like me, what I want to proclaim is that I do not believe this is an end to my country or to life as we know it. I believe this is part of God's plan as much as the birth of a genius or the devastation of a continent. I firmly hold to the Truth that absolutely nothing happens in God's Universe by mistake. That being said, what am I to think when I am handed a political disappointment or any other hard knock in life?
Well, I am to thank God for the opportunity to walk my talk. I am to get on my knees and thank Him who thinks of me every moment, thus assuring my very existence, for another day on His earth as the steward of the body He created for me for the chance to be a Catholic Out Loud. I have to be willing to rejoice in all that God hands me, even when it hurts or stings a little, because ultimately I trust that what happens in His Universe has been allowed to happen for a reason.
I cannot wring my hands and weep and wail. Well, I can but I am going to look like a big lug of a goofball.
I am so grateful to be sober, to be alive, to have a baggy pair of size 8 jeans hanging off my middle aged butt and to have the biggest problem on my plate today be fighting traffic to get to my niece's second performance of Alice in Wonderland tonight.
She plays a flower.
The decision released yesterday by the Supreme Court on the Individual Mandate sent a clear message to the American People - if you do not like what your legislature has done, get a new legislature by going to the polls and voting people into office that you like. Personally, I believe there is much in the Affordable Health Care Act that can be salvaged. I am going to do my best to urge my representatives to do that which is helpful, kind and best for the common good of my country.
And then I am going to go watch Jillian be a flower.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Prayer to Our Lady
O most beautiful flower of Mounty Carmel,
Fruitful vine, Splendour of Heaven.
Blessed Mother of The Son of God
Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this, my necessity.
There are none who can withstand your power.
O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my Mother.
(make your request of Our Lady)
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee (three times).
Holy Mary, I place this cause in your hands (three times).
Thank you for your mercy towards me and mine.
Amen
1 comment:
Since I am not a constitutional scholar or attorney, my options how to interpret this legal algebra are limited. The only thing clear to me is that it has been booted back to the constituencies. I trust that God has my back as well, as long as I do the footwork. That part of freedom which is vigilance is what I interpret as my part. I must say that for myself, there is much uncertainty about what is good and what is not in a bill that is 2700 odd pages long, filled with references and links to existing laws, whose consequences intended or unintended may be safely called unknown, in fact, unknown unknowns. Some claim that the new regulations alone will require over four times as many pages. If this is not a many headed Hydra, I don’t know what is.
And finally, where might this have begun?
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (December 10th, 1948)
Article 25
1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
This was declared in 1948. The preamble of the declaration lists this as an inalienable right. But what government backs this right? The United Nations? So now it appears that it is a "right" protected or threatened by committee. I am not impressed. I read a book written back in 1975 titled “Doing Better and Feeling Worse, Health in the United States.” It is a collection of essays edited by John H. Knowles, M.D., commissioned by the Commission on Critical Choices for Americans, established by Nelson Rockefeller if you can believe that. In the second essay, Daniel Callahan (Health and Society: Some Ethical Imperatives) wrote that the most influential definition of health was penned by the World Health Organization as "Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." from the W.H.O. Constitution, 1948, and entered into force on April 7th, 1948. Callahan says this definition will impose a "limitless economic burden on society." Anyway, my point of bringing all this stuff up is that it is a utopian ideal, one that must be fulfilled by government, and one that may never be fulfilled because it s definition is so boundless that unless government is God, it will never happen, or if it does, it will be a government none of us really wants (use your imagination, no need to mention the “S” word here). So, I disagree that it is an unalienable right. But again, it is insurance we are speaking of here, a calculation of risk in a population. It only works if we all don't get cancer or get hit by a truck on the same day. Probability and statistics. What the debate is really about is not insurance, but "enforced charity" or redistribution of wealth. It cannot be called insurance if you force the carrier to provide for any contingency at any time. I believe that charitable donations will decrease as taxes increase, as they surely must if "universal health care" is to work. Consider the following proposition: What we are really doing is outsourcing our conscience via taxation in the belief that government can make better, more moral decisions than we can.
I trust in God, but not a philosophy of the ends justifies the means, which is what I am seeing here. I agree that there will be much time spent on my prayer bones, and in reconciliation, for I have much to answer for.
Robert
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