Is Health Care A Moral Responsibility?

“For a Catholic, that’s part of the comfort of it,” said the Rev. Matthew Allman, former parochial vicar of the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the Mission Hill church Kennedy chose for his funeral because he prayed there when his daughter had cancer. “He has amazing relationships around the world. But the focus of the Mass is his connection to Christ.”

I didn't find the focus of the Kennedy funeral to be on Christ. I watched most of the funeral on Saturday morning and was greatly saddened by the exaltation of such a flawed man. I was waiting to see if saint hood would immediately follow. Then there was the focus on health care and partisan politics. Who knew that Jesus cared so much about health care. I thought he was concerned about soul care.

"Senator Edward Kennedy pushed for equality among the underprivileged and desired reform for America’s mental health system. He was a gift from God — it was as if God had reached down from heaven through Sen. Kennedy to influence the very pinnacle of change..." and more

"These works of the kingdom were daily concerns of Teddy Kennedy. The fabric of his heart and life and hands....in a society more complex than...our hope is that the fruit of his work has well prepared him for God's kingdom."

God did reach down to this world for change but it certainly wasn't in the form of a man from Massachusetts but rather in a man that looked remarkably Jewish two thousand years ago.

But the concerns of the Kingdom are more about the eternal destinies of people. The salvation of the lost. Jesus, the King of this aformentioned Kingdom, came to seek and save the lost.

Then to top it all off...our dear friend Al Gore, the inventor the Internet and now the Savior of the Planet had this too add Saturday night: Al gore was quoted Playing off the focus of the Kennedy funeral on the Gospel of Matthew’s parable of Jesus taking care of “the least of us,” Gore thundered that the country has “a moral duty to pass health care reform. This year.”

It sounds as if the anti-religious establishment is now trying to use religion to convince the religious that we need universal health care. I am just not certain that this was Jesus', nor the gospel writers intention. But never mind really...it doesn't sound like it matters. The concern is politics.

But the concern of the Bible is Kingdom...one that looks less like a democracy and more like a monarchy. A monarchy that is ushered in not in the policies of Washington but in the return of a King and the defeat of his enemies. A kingdom that is comprised of citizens who do not cling to their accomplishments at the day of judgment but who cling to the work of Christ.

It is too bad the catholic church that the funeral was held at doesn't have this view of life...that would be something to herald.