It seems that our media has been filled with high-profile funerals for the past several days. As Maureen Dowd, writing in the New York Times Editorial section, recently wrote, “The deaths of iconic figures and the noisy debate over assisted suicide have brought boomers face to face with their nemesis.” (April 13, 2005)

It seems the largest generation in American history, the Baby Boomers (Americans born between 1946 and 1964), is now being forced to think about the thing they have spent most of their lives try to avoid– their own mortality. The recent controversy over Terry Schiavo, and the passing of two great religious leaders, Pope John Paul II and Archbishop IAKOVOS of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, have caused a good number of our fellow citizens to ask some very serious questions about ultimate life issues: Do I want a feeding tube inserted should I have a tragic accident and be unable to feed myself? What is the value of suffering in the life of a person? What is the legacy of faith I plan to leave behind when I’m gone?

At the very least our faith should inform us concerning our own mortality. Our modern culture wants to pretend that all we are as human beings are fleshly machines with no inherent value other than what we do, buy, spend, say, or produce, but our Orthodox faith has a very different view of the human person and the consequences of our life choices.

Here are some principles that our Orthodox faith gives us to make these ultimate life choices.

First, Life is a gift of God. The Christian faith declares without apology that life itself is the creation and gift of our loving God. So, as the gift of God, our life does not result from an accident of chemistry, but a purposeful creation by a Personal God. Life is no accident. Our human, physical life is God’s gift to us. In fact, it is this very physical life that our Lord Jesus assumed for Himself from the Virgin Mary. So, physicality is the good gift of God to each of us.

Second, Life is valuable. Now, that we know that our faith declares that life is a gift, then we learn from our faith that it is God Himself that values life and gives value to life. This is shown in the fact that God the Father loved His world so much that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life (see John 3:16). Our life draws its value, not from the quality of our life, not from the value other people may place on our life, but on how God values our life. But God doesn’t just value “healthy” life, no, He values all life. Therefore, we humans have no right to devalue any human life even if it is inconvenient or challenging. From the moment of conception to the natural death, a human being is valuable to God, and should be to us.

Finally, Life is eternal. Jesus Christ has conquered death for all humanity. Death has been defeated for all humans, and every human will be resurrected on the Last Day. We Orthodox pray regularly that we would “have the right answer before the awesome judgment seat of Christ.” Why? Because we will all appear there. The challenge isn’t whether we will live forever. That is a guarantee promised to us by Christ Himself. No, the challenge will be if we will enjoy living forever.

These Orthodox Christian principles of Life should be the bedrock of our decisions on how we live AND how we die. When we face end-of-life choices for ourselves and our loved ones, we know that God loves us more than we, ourselves, know how to love, and it is this confidence that allows us the freedom to endure even pain and suffering knowing that “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (II Corinthians 4:17-18)

This week Fr. Demetri Kantzavelos and Fr. Nicholas Jonas join us to talk about the Terry Schiavo controversy. They will share with us how we Orthodox Christians can prepare for these end-of-life situations informed by our Orthodox faith. Don’t miss CRTL this week.

Yours for the spread of Orthodoxy,

Fr. Chris Metropulos