One dark and cold winter night

The following post appeared as my column for Canada`s Western Catholic Reporter, on 3 November 2008 under the title, `Our suffering opens us to God`s light`. See -(http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/markpickup/2008/markpickup110308.shtml)

_____________________

My wife LaRee and I just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary. Over those years, we have experienced great joys and great sorrows. Like many other couples, love has triumphed. When human love was susceptible to failure, divine love carried us.

One winter night in the early years of my multiple sclerosis, the physical, emotional, spiritual agony of yet another vicious attack reached its apex and threatened to tear down all we held dear — or so we thought.

LaRee and I felt so terrified, helpless and close to despair. We lay motionless in our bedroom under a mountain of blankets, staring up into the darkness, looking to understand rather than to see. Our eyes were full of tears. Neither of us dared speak for fear of weeping.

Our Father ....
After a long silence, LaRee turned, hugged my spastic body and gathered the strength to whisper words our Lord gave us, “Our Father, who art in heaven . . .”.


I do not think I have ever loved her more than at that moment. LaRee knew that God could reach through our pathetic helplessness, defeat and pain to teach us.


Although not openly said, LaRee reminded me that as sweet as our marital love has been, it is a pale metaphor for Christ’s love for us. She was appealing to God to reveal himself to us in our trial of affliction.

The 17th-century poet John Donne suffered from an illness that took him to the edge of death. Reflecting on his near-fatal ordeal, he later wrote: “No man hath affliction enough, that is not matured, and ripened by it, and made fit for God by that affliction.”

At the climax of our ordeal that winter night so long ago, LaRee knew that God must have been trying to spiritually mature and ripen us and make us fit for him and the kingdom of heaven. LaRee knew that God could reach through our pathetic helplessness, defeat and pain to teach us. All that was required on our parts was to remain teachable and resist anger or bitterness.

Nobody wants to suffer. Our Lord did not want to suffer.

But out of Christ’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, his cruel and undignified death on the cross, came the resurrection and a tidal wave of love, hope and creativity that transformed the Western world (not to mention the eternal salvation for billions of people.)

By offering my agony to Christ, desiring to be united with his suffering, I discovered I was moving closer to him. A transformation began to make me fit for God just as John Donne said 500 years ago and countless suffering Christians have experienced over the past 2,000 years.

To love God

In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul said, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” And later he gave the assurance that “all things work for good for those who love God.”

In my anguish — at times too excruciating for words — Christ invited me into the truth of the cross. The kingdom of God is built upon the redemptive power of divine love -- the same love that motivated the Incarnation. The path to Calvary began in Bethlehem. The transcending light of Christ's life, death and glorious resurrection began with a flickering candle in a humble stable.

The flickering light of my small and uncertain wick of faith, gives way to a transcending light of Christ shining into my darkest nights with the promise of a Celestial City just beyond the horizon.

Lord, I believe, help my unbelief! (Mrk 9.24) Increase my faith. (Lu. 17.5)

Transforming moment

That terrible night more than 20 years ago when my wife held my rigid body racked by disease and prayed the Lord’s Prayer was a transformative moment for me.

It marked a mental and spiritual shift when I surrendered my will to God’s will that it might be done in my life on earth as well as in heaven. That is when I realized I was being invited to transcend my suffering and bask in the truth and warm light of Christ.

Give your pain to Christ. Let him unite your suffering with his suffering. Discover that he will bring light to your darkness and begin to transform you more to his likeness and mind.

That is the point of the Christian’s pilgrimage toward the Celestial City. The journey makes us fit for God through faith in his son Jesus Christ.

MP

Margaret Sanger: Planned Parenthood's racist founder

See American Life League's video revealing the racist idea's of Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger. Go to -

http://allreport.blip.tv/#1493951

Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of Abortions in America, and receives $100s of millions from government. Under a Obama administration, they will likely receive more.

MP

The bitter fruit of secularism

I feel like a stranger in the country of my birth: Canada.

We were a Christian nation at the beginning of the 20th Century but mutated into a secular nation by the beginning of the 21st Century. But that is not the end of the evolution of the nation. Canada is becoming anti-Christian – particularly within the mainstream media and the élite halls of officialdom. The last vestiges of our Christian heritage – the foundation of anything that gave Canada goodness and virtue -- are being systematically removed from public consciousness and recollection. And people have such short memories.

An example of Canada’s emerging anti-Christian prejudice occurred ten years ago after the SwissAir disaster off the coast of Nova Scotia. At an official memorial in which various faiths participated, federal protocol officials prohibited the Christian clergy from any mention of the New Testament or Jesus Christ or they would be bumped from the memorial program, in the interests of being “inclusive.” No such restrictions were placed on aboriginal, Jewish or Muslim religious leaders who spoke freely about God and quoted from the Koran and Talmud. Only mention of Jesus and the New Testament were banned. Canadian government officials demanded to see the speaking notes of Catholic priest, Father Duncan MacMaster’s, and other Christian clergy, before the service and removed any mention of Jesus or the New Testament from their speeches and sternly warned against speaking of either. The United Church minister protested to Prime Minister Chrétien’s office -- where the invitations originated -- to no avail. The clergy were invited but not Jesus Christ.[1] Period.

When Canadian politician and evangelical Christian, Stockwell Day, ran for the leadership of what is now known as the Conservative Party, an orchestrated media campaign was mounted to discredit him. They were successful. Mr. Day was presented as a scary man because of his Christian faith.

The bigoted idea was presented in the pages of newspapers and on the airwaves of television and radio that an evangelical Christian should be disqualified for high public office. Why? Well, liberal pundits pointed out they are “right wing religious fanatics.” To the secular liberal mindset that is as bad as a criminal record, and after all, central Canadian liberal elites concluded, evangelical Christians do not represent Canadian views or values. How they knew this is beyond me. After all, for decades, we were told by the same liberal mindset that there was no moral consensus amongst Canadians. (?)

A mischievous observer may have commented that the sort of anti-Christian bias that publicly ponders that evangelical Christians are unfit for public office, is itself in violation of the pluralism, intolerance and inclusion liberal secularists espouse in other contexts. Ahh yes, liberal secularists are tolerant of everything except Christians, their beliefs, morality, or their holy Book. It is a selective tolerance.

Another example of the limits of Canadian pluralism, tolerance and inclusion is the fact a 2001 Saskatchewan Human Rights tribunal deemed portions of the Bible were hate literature. That odious decision was later upheld by a Saskatchewan court in 2003.[2]

Bitter fruit

The bitter fruit of Canada’s rejection of its previous Christian moral consensus can be seen in the rejection of the sanctity of human life ethic. It's not a total rejection of every life's sanctity, just those in society who are unwanted or inconvenience others.

The most obvious evidence is seen in abortion on demand that prevails across the land. Over 100,000 preborn children are killed each year. At the Morgentaler Edmonton abortuary across the street from my wife’s office, 6,000 children are killed each year at that one killing center!

“Dr.” Morgentaler was given Canada’s highest award, the Order of Canada, for his role in this: -- Canada’s holocaust. He has abortuary franchises across Canada dismember the bodies of preborn children in assembly fashion then turn out their mothers out into the street, one-two-three .... Kaching-kaching-kaching! My wife sees the women go in the Edmonton facility then later come out unsteady, haltingly and trembling. Many double over in the alley behind the abortuary and vomit.

It’s a woman’s right, you know.

The god of choice is never satisfied!

Imagine! This goes on five days a week, week in, week out -- just yards from my wife’s office window. We are told that each week 117 preborn children up to 22 weeks gestation are slaughtered within eyeshot from where LaRee sits. She’s sees it all, the comings and goings.

Every week, a plain, unmarked van pulls up to the door of the abortuary to collect the dismembered pieces and parts of babies sacrificed to the neo-pagan’s god of choice. (The sanitized medical code word that used for the cargo is biomedical waste.) And it’s all protected by the government and paid for by Alberta taxpayers.

I wonder if there was code-language in the ancient world for the bodies of children forced through the fire as a sacrifice to the pagan god Molech?[3] I wonder if there were temple guards who protected the priests and the child sacrificers.

In Canada, the protection is twisted and distorted. The killers are protected and even praised. There is no protection at any point of gestation for prenatal life. Most Canadians ignore the holocaust and whistle a catchy tune as they pass the abortuary. Abortions occur up to, and including the third trimester – although we pretend it doesn’t.

The god of choice is never satisfied.

Choice will expand its deadly reach

Now, the next vulnerable and burdensome group is in the crosshairs of the new secular Canada: Killing off the terminally and chronically ill, and the severely disabled. The stage is being set for euthanasia and assisted suicide. (The code phrase here is 'choice in dying.') Again, the highest secular ideal of choice is being used to peddle death. And again, it’s working on the general public.

Seventy-percent of Canadians now agree with assisted suicide for the terminally and chronically ill (that’s me). It’s hard to go down any street in Canada and know seven out of ten of my fellow-citizens I pass think my life is worthless – so worthless I deserve help killing myself if I become suicidal.

There’s no sympathy for assisting physical healthy people to kill themselves – only the country’s sicklings, like me.

What was unthinkable in the 1950s and '60s, became contemplatable in 1970s and '80s, acceptable in the '90s. I predict euthanasia and assisted suicide will become commonplace in the 21st Century. If the past is any indication, people will have the 'right' to choose assisted suicide.

Choice at the cost of community

The writing is on the wall for any student of recent history. At first it will be for the terminally ill, then the chronically ill, then the mentally ill, then the depressed. I can not bring myself to think about what may come after that. Suffice to say that the right to die with dignity will eventually become the duty to die with dignity or at least with suitable aplomb in deference to the greater community.

Community? That brings me to my last point. A community that kills its unwanted children, old or sick people is not a community at all. It is a jungle.

Mark Pickup

Founder

HumanLifeMatters

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[1] Stewart Bell. “Jesus Snubbed at N.S. Swissair Service” The National Post, 21 December 1998, A1
[2] Art Bell, “Bible verses regarded as hate literature”, WorldNetDaily, 18 February 2003 (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31080)
[3] Molech: Fire God of the Ammonites to whom children were sacrificed.

E-Update – November 6, 2008

Alberta Pro-Life Association

LaRee Pickup, provincial Director

New Brunswick appeals Morgentaler decision

The provincial government in New Brunswick has filed an appeal of a Court of Queen’s Bench decision that granted public interest standing to Henry Morgentaler in his fight to have provincial taxpayers pay all the costs of abortions at his private clinic in Fredericton. On August 1st, Justice Paulette Garnett agreed that since no aggrieved women could be found to bring the case against the province, Henry Morgentaler, who stands to gain hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lawsuit, could testify in their place. This would mean that he could argue as a witness in his own lawsuit. The Canadian Press (CP) reported that the province argues that Garnett wrongly determined that public-interest standing is different from the legal capacity required in the Rules of Court.

Washington voters approve assisted suicide

In addition to electing a new president in this past week’s U.S. election, voters in Washington State voted 60% in favour of legalizing assisted suicide. That means Washington becomes the second state in the country, Oregon being the first, to allow doctors to help people kill themselves. Douglas Todd, who writes about religion for the Vancouver Sun, says this will bring pressure in Canada, and especially in British Columbia, for an open debate on changing the law here. Washington State’s proposition offered only competent adults, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, the opportunity to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician. They must obtain signed affidavits from two doctors and two affirmations of their intention from people with no financial interests in their deaths. Mr. Todd quotes from an editorial by Paul Schratz, editor of the B.C. Catholic newspaper, on the perils of this legislation. You can read the editorial at http://bcc.rcav.org/08-11-03/editorial.htm. You can also read a commentary on the Washington initiative by Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition at http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.com/2008/11/washington-state-passes-i-1000-assisted.html. Mr. Schadenberg points out that exit polls showed that among religious people, half supported the assisted suicide proposition.

Article warns Canadian docs to provide prenatal screening to all

The November 4th issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal has an article warning doctors that failure to offer pre-natal screening to all pregnant women could result in wrongful birth lawsuits. Last year the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) approved new clinical practice guidelines that included offering prenatal genetic testing to all pregnant women not just those over 35 years of age. (SOGC executive vice-president Andre Lalonde notoriously said last month that Sarah Palin might be a poor role model for women because she did not abort her baby after learning he had Down Syndrome.) The article, available at: http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/179/10/1027 was written by two lawyers and Dr. Jeffrey Nisker, a physician and professor at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. Nisker says that many doctors are unaware of the new guidelines which also require counseling to go along with the testing. Dr. Nisker says there are not enough doctors to do the lengthy counseling that is required if the tests determine a genetic anomaly in the baby. "The legal actions in the past have occurred because the counselling did not occur and the woman felt it should have occurred," he said. "We need to have strategies in place to rapidly double or triple the number of doctors per population in Canada, because we should be doing this counselling because the guidelines dictate it must be done and doctors have to be given the time to do it.
Events

November 15 Concordia University College of Alberta, Concordia Lutheran Seminary, and Lutherans for Life – Canada will be hosting the 3rd Annual Life conference in the Tegler Centre at Concordia University College of Alberta in Edmonton. Plenary speakers include the Rev. Don Schiemann who will speak on “The Respect for Life and Criminal Justice” and Dr. John Patrick (MD) who will speak on “The Domino Effect of Legalizing Abortion.” Dr. Patrick will also lead a session on “What Hippocrates Knew and We Have Forgotten.” The conference begins at 8:30 a.m. with registration and concludes at 4:20 p.m. (following the third sessional) with an hour and fifteen minute lunch break. For more information, contact Glenn at gschaeffer@lccabc.ca or call 780-474-0063.

Know that Jesus would choose life

My blog entry about suffering has generated much interest. I have received emails from as far away as France and India. Much to my happy surprise, the speaking notes of my address to Saint Joseph’s Basilica Catholic Women’s League have been distributed across Canada and the U.S.

I want to share something that happened after my presentation in the question and answer period. A young woman asked me about a predicament she is facing. She and her husband want to start a family. Unfortunately, she was recently diagnosed with a crippling disease with a genetic origin. Her children will have a 50 per cent chance of inheriting the disease.

Should I have a baby?

Her question was simple: “Do you think I should have a baby?” Tough question. If I were in her position, I would have a family. I told her, “Always be open to life.” There may have been people present who disagreed with me. However, she asked for my opinion and I gave it.

The purpose of life

After nearly a quarter of a century living with aggressive and degenerative multiple sclerosis I have become convinced humanity’s highest ideal should not be physical or mental perfection. I believe God created us for love — both human and divine — and that is the highest human ideal.

Choosing to have a child that may be disabled affects neither of these forms of love for the parent or the child. In fact, it may enhance that family’s capacity for human and divine love. God calls us to a higher standard of love.

Perhaps the real question the young woman should ask is: “Can I love a disabled child?” Looking into her eyes when we talked I suspect her answer is “yes.” But the question has a broader application.

In a time and culture where many disabled children are either aborted or allowed to die shortly after birth, are we able to love the handicapped child? Can we honour the natural dignity of a profoundly disabled child in our midst?

What about the profoundly disabled adult, the demented senior? How about the deranged person meandering through the streets of the inner city?

WWJD

The popular slogan asks, “What would Jesus do?” We know what he would do. That is the queue that we must take as his followers. The servants are not greater than the master.

Mark Pickup

For further reading about suffering, see my recent columns in Canada's Western Catholic Reporter:

• "Know that Jesus would choose life" http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/markpickup/2008/markpickup102708.shtml
• "Our suffering opens us to God's light" http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/markpickup/2008/markpickup110308.shtml