The Terri Schiavo case has dominated the news media, exacerbated political divisions, and played heavy on the sympatheties of the public. What is more, the case underscores how badly the church needs a language and a theology that provides us with the courage and skills to face our own and other's deaths without weaving false webs of personal significance.
I won't go into the medical details of the case except to say that the autopsy supported the majority opinion by the doctors that Terri was in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). A review of that affair is not necessary. More to the point is what moral voice those who are grounded in the theology of Holy Week and Easter should bring to the public discussion.
One reason the passion narratives were recorded in such detail is that they served as a "how to do it" manual for Christian communities enduring trial and persecution of their own. The passion of Jesus was the prime example for Christians of what it means to bear fruitful witness even unto death. From the passion narrative they learned - and we learn - that mere survival is not the goal of human life. When that truth is grasped, then one is free to use one's life boldly and lay it down willingly when one's witness is finished.
Life is to use - to use for faithful witness. It is not an end in itself. When physical life is seen as an end in itself, that is idolatry and the idol is the body. Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, did not leave us that example for the race that is set before us (see Hebrews 12:1-2). The cross removes from our sight any notion of "sanctity" when the object is the human body alone.
James Gustafson introduces the phrase "physical fundamentalism." He applied it to the point of view that locates the value of human life in the biological unit and invests the body with absolute value. If that were so, then Jesus should never have gone to the cross. God's action in Christ makes it clear that the spirit that Jesus commended to his Father on the cross is a spirit that transcends the dust of the earth - the purely physical - and that death does not defeat it. What a contrast to the sad spectacle enacted in the courts and Congress.
And Easter teaches us that good can come of the saddest events. No one could fail to empathize with Terri Schiavo's parents as they grieve their daughter. Yet such times as these are when parents most need a moral community around them to remind them, in their grief and struggle, that it is possible to face our death and other's with faith and courage and without denial. I find it ironic that with all the church people who waded in on this issue, not one metion was made of the resurrection.
When we are not loudly protecting a "right to life," then we may hold in balanced view God's gift of eternal life. In this frame, one is empowered to live boldly and to plan for death with stewardship in mind. Stewardship: not to use a disproportionate share of common resources to hang on when it is time to lay life down; not to complicatre the grief of loved ones with unfinished business; not to leave important medical and legal decisions un-addressed. I hope the Terri Schiavo case rasies the level of awareness of us all to these personal responsibilities.
(adapted by John Camp from an article in The Presbyterian Outlook)