My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The recent decision to make assisted suicide legal in California has been denounced as "a great tragedy for human life," by Cardinal Seán O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston and Chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. In a statement after the recent legislation in California, Cardinal O'Malley said, "Most people taking the lethal drugs do so not because of pain but because they feel they are helpless and a 'burden' on others. The state of California in effect is now confirming this judgment. A government that legalizes assisted suicide sends the terrible message Pope Francis has so eloquently warned us against, that there is such a thing as disposable people."

November is the month that we give special attention to praying for those who have died, so it is a good time for us to reflect on the meaning of human suffering and death. For those who support the practice of assisted suicide, suffering is seen as something to be avoided. We all face various forms of suffering in our lives, and it is not unnatural for us to want to avoid suffering if at all possible. In this regard, much progress has been made in the field of medicine in finding ways of alleviating suffering in ways that were not possible in previous generations. While this is to be seen as a positive contribution to humanity, there are drawbacks. The successful maintenance of suffering can lead to an attitude that we have a right not to suffer, and that any and every means should be employed to eliminate that suffering.

The prospect of having to suffer for the rest of one's life, therefore, is seen as something absurd and unnecessary. It is out of this that advocacy for ending that suffering by the willful taking of life arises. The Christian view of suffering, however, is one based on the dignity of human life from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death. It is a view that sees all of life as good, not something that can so easily be discarded. While arguments for this view of suffering can be made apart from our faith, we find great clarity and illumination from our Catholic faith in this regard.

In his Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris written in 1984 On the Meaning of Human Suffering, Pope St. John Paul II wrote (§18), "Human suffering has reached its culmination in the Passion of Christ. And at the same time it has entered into a completely new dimension and a new order: it has been linked to love … to that love which creates good, drawing it out by means of suffering, just as the supreme good of the Redemption of the world was drawn from the Cross of Christ, and from that Cross constantly takes its beginning."

The suffering of Christ is therefore not absurd or without meaning, for his suffering has redeemed the world. As such, Jesus gives a new light to the experience of suffering, that we too can find meaning in suffering by uniting it to his suffering on the cross.

This message of the redemptive power of suffering can be a source of great comfort for those who find themselves confronted with the frightening prospect of suffering. When we "offer up" our sufferings, our faith promises us that those sufferings will be transformed into blessings for ourselves and for the church.

In light of this hopeful view of suffering, we are called to be messengers of this good news in our lives. When we suffer, we are invited to place our trust in God's loving care for us, confident that he will not abandon us in our time of suffering. Our trust in the love of God speaks volumes to those who encounter us in our sufferings.

Regardless of what the law says, we are always capable of treating those who are suffering with true compassion by encouraging them, by loving them, and most importantly, by just being with them in their time of struggle. We can also be messengers of the proper view of suffering through our interactions with those who are suffering. We need to reassure them that their life is a gift. They should never feel, either by our words or by our actions, that they are a burden to us.

Let us remain united to Christ every day of our lives, so that whatever suffering we may encounter, personally or in those around us, we may confront it with that faith which believes that with him, all suffering can be transformed into a powerful gift of love for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

May God give us this grace. Amen.