I met Dr. Jack twice. On my first meeting with him in Dearborn, I was shocked to see him face to face because he looked like a cadaver standing up. There was no life in him at all. He face was gray; his eyes dark and sunken. He actually looked like a corpse in a casket upright. He was really vampire-like I thought to myself. Well, I passed very close by him and was able to get his attention and simply, lovingly asked him: "What do you think God thinks about what you are doing?" He said, "Which god?" I said, "The God that created you, doctor!" That was the whole of it.
But some people feel that didn't Dr. Korvorkian show some compassion for those who suffer by putting them out of their misery? Well, we do put dogs, cats and horses out of their misery but some type of lethal injection. That is the absolutely right thing to do because these animals's suffering is not in anyway redemptive for them. Their suffering is just that: suffering. No good come to them in this life or the next by their suffering. Putting out of their misery is the really humane thing to do. Suffering does them no good at all. But that is not the case with human beings. Jesus on the cross was given a mixture of vinegar and gall as a narcotic to lessen the pain. He did not take it. Why? He did not take it because His suffering was redemptive for the whole world. He was making atonement for all the sins of human kind from all ages to the present and to come. But why is suffering redemptive for you and me? St. Paul says: "I fulfill in my body what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ." He was not saying that Christ's suffering lacked anything; but what he saying that our indivicual suffering is united to Christ's suffering for the redemptive of the world. Jesus said that if we wanted to follow Him: "take up your cross and follow me." So, following Jesus entails the cross - suffering. But if we take away the suffering of the dying, we are taking away the cross. Yes, it is good to give pain management to patients - to allieve their pain. But we cannot kill them to avoid their suffering because only God can call someone home to Him. If we take their life, we are playing God. We are not helping them if we help them to commit suicide because suicide is a grave sin. We would be sending them into eternity with grave sin on their soul. Then we endanger them to eternal suffering. How does that help them. God is merciful and kind but suicide is against the 5th Commandment: "Thou shalt not Kill." I met a woman who helped her mother to die by Dr. Korvorkian. She had great guilt feelings for doing it. I told her that God knows she was ingnorant at the time. God is merciful; but she had a pain in her heart over her mother that only God can erase.
In the Netherlands, 70% of the doctors there admit to having assisted the suicide of patients without the patients knowledge or consent. This is forced euthanasia - medically induced suicide/murder without the consent even of the patient's families. When one family complained about the assisted suicide of their dad, the doctor in defense said, "He asked me to do it." The family said, "What did he say exactly?" The doctor answered simply: "He said, 'Help me'!" That is where the slippery slope of assisted suicide/euthanasia will go to when it becomes legal in this country.
In marked contrast, my mom died from cancer; she was saying her rosary when she finished: "pray for me now and at the hour of my death, Amen." She took two inhales and never exhaled. She died in God's arms.
But after meeting Dr. Korvorkian at the post office, I went home thinking what can I do for him that would show God's love for him. No matter how wrong he was in the crimes he was doing, I knew that God hates the sin but loves the sinner. At home, I looked around for something to give him. I did not have to look long. I saw my new very expensive leather-bound bible with gold edged pages. This was the best bible I have ever owned, but I thought Dr. Jack needed it more than me. So, I wrote in the front leaf these words: "Dear Doctor Korvorkian, please accept this gift to show you that God loves you. When you come to realize how wrong you are in what you are doing, do not despair. God loves and forgives you! Love, Pio" I found him again, and this time I was able to approach him with ease since he did take the few seconds to talk to me. I showed him the bible and read the inscription to him aloud just for him and me to hear. A real phonomenon occured: His face changed. Life and rosely color flushed into to his face. His being loved unconditionally and with no judgment so moved him that his very countenance changed from a dead man to a living man. He accepted the bible and said thank you! Talk about a life giving word! This encounter probably was the first time in years he ever felt loved by anyone. His obsession with death had become so internalized that his very face was the death mask he wore for all to see. But love gave him new life and tore that mask off.
Dr. Jack has just died this past week at age 81. He is on the other side, now. I know God is all merciful and His mercy is greater than all the sins of the world. I pray that Dr. Jack accepted God total loving mercy. We can say "'Goodbye".....if there is truly "Good" in the "bye". There will be "Good" if we pray for him. Let us pray: "Dearest Father in heaven, please be merciful and loving to Dr. Jack as you were to the prodigal son in Jesus's story. We offer the Precious Body and Blood of Jesus in attonement of all his sins now and at the moment of his death. Eternal rest grant to him, Father. Forgive all his sins and embrace him to your bosom for all eternity as you embraced the prodigal son. All this we ask in Jesus's Name. Amen.
Love, Pio."
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