The Value of Human Life; Cardinal Cooke
Is it possible that a person’s life becomes more valuable, not less, when he is feeble, sick, and useless, as Terri Schiavo was? On page 25 of his excellent 1991 book, Making Saints, Kenneth Woodward writes about the death of Cardinal Cooke of New York. Cooke was not all that great a cardinal—
But Cooke did one thing well: he died with considerable courage and grace. Three months before his death, the cardinal’s office revealed that for the previous ten years he had been secretly receiving blood transfusions and chemotherapy for leukemia…. In a moving final letter, read on Sunday, October 9, three days after his death, Cooke reminded the Catholics of New York that “the ‘gift of life,’ God’s special gift, is no less beautiful when it is accompanied by illness or weakness, hunger or poverty, mental or physical handicaps, loneliness or old age. Indeed, at these times, human life gains extra splendor as it requires special care, concern, and reverence. It is in and through the weakness of human vessels that the Lord continues to reveal the power of His love.”
I find the idea intriguing that human life per se is valuable. If it is, then a feeble life indeed shows that value more clearly.