Hi,
MSNBC says the Pope dictated a note Thursday to his private secretary saying he's joyous and, I believe, not afraid, and asks those around him to be joyous, too.
And why wouldn't he be, if he believes in the Christian doctrine of life after death, with no worries, no pain, no more limits of the frail body he inhabits now?
Seems he's showing by example that we should honor the lives we've been given, but be accepting of death as a natural end to this life and the beginning of the next, even be joyous.
I wonder if Bush & Co. will come out screaming... I can see the headlines:
POPE DISRESPECTS LIFE!
What a perfect ending to the whole fiasco they created in poor Terri Shiavo's death. How dare the Pope grandstand this way and try to make them look bad?
By dying himself, not fighting it, daring to not even be afraid?
What nerve of the man.
First, Terri ruins all their hopes of her dying on Easter, and now, the Pope dares to likely die so closely to her own death and upstage everything?
I know he's against removing feeding tubes, and I'm not saying I agree with the man on everything he's advocated, but I do think he's basically a good guy and this just seems perfect. Planning to die in his own bed, refusing to go to the hospital, telling his people not to mourn him and that he's unafraid.
Do we think any members of the American media might dare compare the two? And ask real questions about what we just went through with Terri Shiavo?
Why Christians would ever be so vengefully angry and horrified about someone dying, if dying truly means going on to something better? To a perfect world?
Why poor Terri would be thought to be better off trapped in a body over which she had no control for 15 years, rather than in Heaven? There's absolutley no logic in that? Can no one ask this question?
Seems obvious that if God wanted her to wake up, she would have, and surely it wouldn't have taken 15 years. If he hadn't wanted her to fall into a coma in the first place, she wouldn't have. If he wanted her to live despite having no brain and being deprived of food and water, she would have. If they truly believe in an all-powerful God, there's nothing anyone on earth could do to kill Terri.
If they believe in a kind and loving God, how could they think he'd want her to live in that shell, trapped there, like the worst kind of prison, when she could easily be free of it?
Do these people not think? Do they never use the brain God gave them?
Is there anyone in the media with half a brain who might compare the way these two people passed away? Anyone?