Tea at Trianon: An Icon of Courage and Faith

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

An Icon of Courage and Faith

Rest in Peace, Deirdre. From Kathryn Jean Lopez at Our Sunday Visitor:

One of the things she is known for is handing out the Litany of Trust prayer, written by one of the Sisters of Life. It’s about humble trust in God, and she doesn’t have to hand out those beautiful words, because her life has been a glorious song, an ode to her Creator in love for the life she has been given as a gift from God.

The last time I worked with her professionally, when she was working for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on pro-life issues, she was working on end-of-life issues. She was a compassionate advocate against doctor-assisted suicide and for palliative care and other merciful alternatives to assisted suicide.

Deirdre introduced me to a woman named Maggie Karner. She had watched her father deteriorate at the end of his life. She reflected later, as she faced her own terminal diagnosis: “He taught me how to live and die with faith and with dignity marked by patience and grace. He taught me that dignity can’t be diminished by pain or loss of personal control. Regardless of our circumstances and whether people acknowledge it, nothing and no one can take away our God-given dignity.”

She was brutally honest about her own illness: “I am certain my God hears my cries, which are sometimes angry, sometimes frustrated and sometimes exhausted. I know this because Jesus also cried out to his Father in pain and showed me that God can handle our questions, our fears, and our uncertainties.”

In 2014, at the death of another icon of courage and faith in the face of a terminal diagnosis, J.J. Hanson, she and her colleague, Greg Schleppenbach, wrote announcing his death: “Given only four months to get his affairs in order when first diagnosed in 2014, he sought a second opinion with a medical team that was willing to fight for his treatment. Sadly, his cancer returned late in 2017, and he passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by his family after receiving hospice care.”

Now Deirdre is in this same position. And every moment, excruciating as it can be with pain and the sure knowledge that life is at its end for family and friends, has dignity. She has dignity. Playing God in ending life prematurely is not worthy of the gift of life God gives us. It closes us off to unexpected graces only God can give in the purifying, humbling, even humiliating moment of our lives, when we are most vulnerable.

I can’t really pretend to know what Deirdre would say if she could say some last words of teaching about what she has learned about her suffering — though I expect those closest to her will share before too long. But she would be delighted if we all got to know the late Sister Thea Bowman, who Deirdre has had as a close friend and intercessor in her cancer battle. She, too, had cancer. And she said something that Deirdre has embodied: “I believe that there are kinds of healing. People are praying for healing for me. I want to be healed. I don’t know what that means in God’s infinite plan, but it’s not problematic for me. If it means to heal the body, thank you, God. If it means to heal the spirit, thank you, God. And I know the healing is already happening.” (Read more.)