Health Care as Part of a Christian's Vocation

Such self-deception has been facilitated during the present century, especially since around 1960, by theories of fundamental option according to which one can remain faithfully committed to the Lord deep in one's heart while making concrete choices to do particular acts that one knows to be gravely wrong. But such seductive thoughts should be set aside as groundless. The commitment of faith is the fundamental choice of Christian life, and even without losing faith one can lose sanctifying grace, charity, and eternal happiness by committing any mortal sin, as the Council of Trent definitively teaches: sess. VI, Decree on Justification, chap. 15 and canons 27–28 (DS 1544/808, 1577–78/837–38); cf. John Paul II, Veritatis splendor, 65–68, AAS 85 (1993) 1184–88, L'Osservatore Romano (Eng. Ed.) October 6, 1993, x.

See Lumen gentium, 39–42; cf. 11, 46; Presbyterorum ordinis, 6; Gaudium et spes, 31, 43, 75.

See Eph 2.9–10, Jn 15.1–11; cf. Council of Trent, sess VI, Decree on Justification, chap. 16 (DS 1548/810).

For a more detailed summary of John Paul II's teaching and for references to the places where it may be found, see Germain Grisez, The Way of the Lord Jesus, vol. 2, Living a Christian Life (Quincy, Il: Franciscan Press, 1993), 113–29. (This volume will be referred to hereafter by LCL.)

See Gaudium et spes, 38–39; cf. Grisez Germain , The Way of the Lord Jesus, vol. 1, Christian Moral Principles (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1983), 459–68, 814–22; LCL, 78–87.

See Catechism of the Catholic Church, 362–65; LCL, 460–67; cf. Finnis John , Boyle Joseph M. Jr. , and Grisez Germain , Nuclear Deterrence, Morality and Realism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), 304–9; Patrick Lee, “Human Beings are Animals,” in Natural Law and Moral Inquiry: Ethics, Metaphysics, and Politics in the Thought of Germain Grisez, ed. Robert P. George, forthcoming.

Still, I disagree with Daniel Callahan, Setting Limits: Medical Goals in an Aging Society (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), 115–58, who argues that age can be a valid principle for cutting off governmental support for various forms of health care. People age at different rates, so that some eighty-year-old persons can get greater benefit from various health care measures than most people who are sixty. My point, rather, is that as people get less real benefit from health care measures that impact on others, fairness, and mercy increasingly require them to limit or even forgo such measures.

See Mt. 20.24–28, Mk 9.3–37, Lk 22.24–27, Jn 13.1–20; cf. Eph 6.5–8, Col 3.22–24.

See Cassidy Sheila Sharing the Darkness: The Spirituality of Caring (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991), 1–71.

Of course, all Christians should use every morally acceptable means to resist and strive to overcome secularists’ injustices against not only themselves but all theists. Realistically, however, though true believers can win some battles, they cannot expect to avoid persecution and suffering. And Jesus’ faithful disciples can hope to overcome the world only as He did: by rising from the dead.

See Grisez Germain , The Way of the Lord Jesus, vol. 3, Difficult Moral Questions (Quincy, IL: Franciscan Press, 1997), 292–18, 325–28, 355–60, 370–80, 391–402.

See Mt 10.5–7, 23.37–38; Heb 12.2.