A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. Jesus, seeing the people crowd around him, gave orders to cross the lake to the other side, the other shore. A scribe came up to him and said, teacher, wherever you go, I will come after you. Jesus said to him, the foxes have their layers, the birds of the sky, their nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head. Another disciple said to Jesus, Lord, let me go and bury my father.
But Jesus said to him, follow me, and let the dead bury their dead. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. Over the weekend, we had two rather spectacular news items.
As regards the way some men and women do or do not face up to what can be a very difficult life. Maybe some of you read the article about the May mister and missus May of Annapolis. For over five years, mister May took care of his wife who had the Alzheimer's disease. And at the end of five years of taking care of her, clothing her, bathing her, she was utterly helpless to do anything, she couldn't dress herself even. Had her memory had gone, everything.
So after five years, because he was resolved that no one was going to take, he was never going to resign what he thought was his duty to anyone else, that it was his job to take care of her, and he did it for five years, day in and day out. You see nobody can even imagine that who hasn't experienced it. See, just keep that in mind. Nobody can imagine what five years of that day in and day out routine can do to a person unless you've been there. So he shot her and then killed himself.
Then we had the news yesterday of senator East. I the the name I think I have that right. It was I only heard it on the news last night, who who a very young man in his twenties I've only heard this once, so don't hold me to the facts. Roughly, they're this though, that he as a very young man coming out of the war, he got polio and was put in a wheelchair. And he became then a professor at a university, and then became he got into politics, and became a member of the Senate of the United States government.
And then what appeared to him to be a false diagnosis or a delayed diagnosis, He got into more severe trouble with his health, and at the age of 55 as you probably read or heard, he committed suicide. At least that's what it looks like, asphyxiating himself with the exhaust of his automobile. Now, when I read these things, then I think for example of Auschwitz, and I think of the the some of the accounts that came out of there, and how in spite of the almost awful degradation and sufferings of human beings, some people came out of it stronger than they went in, and others succumbed, Suicide. Well, now, as all of you know, the the second greatest killer of our teenage youth is suicide, and it's growing for adults. And the third thing that I'd like to point out is what's wrong with it.
If there is no God, if there is no immortality, if there is no hereafter, if all that we're living for is this world, then with Ivan of the brothers Karamazov, I say, what's wrong with it? All is right. Now, the thing that came out on an empirical basis, that is men who were completely competent to make a study of this, and who were themselves prisoners in some of those camps. What was their explanation of the survival of some of those poor people and the complete degradation and despair of others? What?
It wasn't due to their environment. It wasn't due to their background. It came down to motivation. Why? Why?
Why should I put up with this? Now you've got to answer that question when you're up against trouble, tragedy. Or you can shut your eyes and say, well, I don't care. This is my duty. Who says it's your duty?
Where does duty come from? What's its foundation? We're told today, love your neighbor. Why should I love my neighbor? Why should I sacrifice myself for anybody else?
Why? That's a legitimate question. And I I have a right to an answer. And if I don't get an answer, then I'm either either acting absurdly without reason, or I'm acting blindly, totally blindly, which is even worse. That these are this is that's the reason that you see, these questions do not become alive until we face them, and then unfortunately it may be too late to do anything about it.
What what can what can give life perseverance? Remember, there's a virtue called fortitude. You don't hear anything about the virtue of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. When did you hear them last mentioned even? But it's the grace of God that gives me those virtues.
Even Plato knew about them. But if there is no God, if there is no hereafter, if all there is is this life, then what's wrong with suicide? And the answer is nothing. Because there's no right or wrong about anything anyway. On the other hand, that isn't going to give anybody the virtue of fortitude.
That just gives you the virtue of escape, of retreat, of flight. It doesn't give you fortitude. It just ends it for you. So we come back to this, what does sustain men and women when life gets tough. I mean tough.
When even Christ on the cross said, my god, my god, why have you abandoned me? I don't think there's anything more tragic than those words of Christ on the cross. What sustains us? What sustain Christ? Not my will, but thine be done.
Ah, there you have it. If we're in life only on a one to one with my neighbor, then that's one ballgame, and it's not enough. Altruism, John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham, the rest, they were good men, remember. They were if only most of us don't even live up to their ideals. Let's face it.
But the point is what altruism is an empty thing unless you can tell me why I must be altruistic and choose my neighbor to myself. Remember, John Stuart Mill was on the verge of suicide when this great illumination came. I must live not for myself but for others, The altar, altruism. But why must I do that? Notice that little word must, must.
That's a sensible question. It must be answered when the chips are down. And this poor man, five years of that, he looked back and he was probably he had they had no children. They had the closest relative was a niece. The the only person he had to talk to was a neighbor next door.
So for five years, he did this. The senator, for about twenty some years, he put up with this illness and and proved himself superior to it. And as of about Wednesday or Thursday of last week, he had everything going for him. And yet, he just, I guess, got tired. Tired.
You see, what I'm saying is that when our blessed lord said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Notice how we prayed for truth this morning. I, Christ said, I am I am the way, the truth, and the life. Did he mean that or he didn't he? When the going is good, when the sun is shining, when life is smooth, it's easy to be a good Christian, more or less.
Too much of it, of course, will ruin us. On the other hand, when the chips are down and the going gets tough as only those who have experienced know how tough it can be, then we must have reliance on something more than myself, much more than my neighbor. My neighbor can't do a thing for me, really. And unless there's a God, unless there's immortality, unless there's a heaven that I can expect to be released into, then what's it all worth? This is the story of the brothers Karamazov of Dostoevsky, the Ivarn.
So let us take to heart, and the faith that we need in Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. Life. Notice life. Vita. He said that, and there is no other way to life.
Name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.