What Makes Me Cry

I only cry when I am alone, or can reasonably be assured of no-one bothering me.  I cry during Eucharistic Adoration, and once I cried after a confession - the priest on the other side of the screen made me feel absolutely terrible about myself.  I got over it.  Good music can cause me to cry if I allow myself to be immersed within it.  Sad movies, sad stories, yes, these too.  But there is one thing that never fails to sadden me to the point of tears:  disrespect for life.

Of course, disrespect for life takes many forms.  When someone says they are "pro-life", abortion comes to mind.  But respect for life is not limited to the unborn.  The prisoner on death row, civilians in the middle of a war zone, the terminal or very elderly patient thinking about euthanasia, and many, many more situations are "life issues".  When we begin to lack a respect for life, I think we lose much of what makes us human.

A few years ago I heard of someone who had just found out she was pregnant.  She didn't want to be, so she had an abortion.  That made me cry.  It also caused me to start a Rosary for Life at our local church.  No one joined.  That, too, made me cry.  Is life really that controversial?  Can we not agree as humans that life is important enough to be valued?  Without life, what else matters?  If we aren't alive, then does universal health care really matter?  Does national defense really matter?  Does whether we have 3 or 6 county commissioners matter?  I am not an eloquent writer or speaker, but I feel to my core that we must value life, and if we do not then we are circling the drain faster than I thought.  We are sinking into an abyss, into a darkness. 

Here in Washington State the "Death with Dignity" act passed a couple of years ago.  If you are terminally ill, with a very short life expectancy, you can ask for a prescription which will provide you with drugs to end your life.  Of course, one must find a doctor who is willing to write this prescription.  Apparently that isn't too difficult to find.  This makes me cry, too.  I cannot discuss it intelligently right now - maybe later I will write some more on this.  Right now there is a situation hitting too close to home for me, and all I can do is cry and pray and cry some more.  Intelligent discussion will have to wait for another day.