Brittany Maynard's Suffering | National Catholic Reporter

Brittany Maynard's Suffering | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: I agree with the salvic value of suffering - not for the state of the soul hereafter as much as an opportunity to surrender to some higher power, in my case, Jesus.  Still, that kind of salvation is as much for life now as it is life hereafter - which has more to do with how we bring charity to others, because doing so elevates the person helped to how we would treat Jesus. We have more lapses there than lapses of suffering. Sadly, I think much of the Church's reaction to this is a lingering belief in the sovereignty of God over death (as if He is not sovereign over everything we do).  Suicide is somehow tampering with what is God's - and no one can tell me that is not the prevailing viewpoint.  Here again we encounter God the Ogre.  Sanity requires that this conception of God be kicked out of the Catholic Church.  It means that Brittany's death not be treated as some event to be explained away, or talked about at all, to reinforce that lingering image. The reality is that her cancer was to destroy her intellectual capacity. She would feel pain (either the cancer or the anesthesia) but she would feel none of herself or God in that pain.  We need to stop wondering about the underlying, unasked question on her decision - whether she is going to Hell - with the stern answer that it and the related arguments are none of the Vatican's business - or of the local bishop either.