June 6, Ordinary 10B (1 Samuel 8:4-20)
What happens when Samuel reads his people the fine print?
She didn’t read the fine print. Or maybe she simply chose not to believe it.
Entering the second year of treatment for a cancer that could not be cured, she started talking with her family about last things. Plans for her funeral. Distribution of her estate. Last wishes. Always a realist, she seemed ready to accept the imminent end of her life. It was tremendously sad to those of us who loved her, but no one tried to talk her out of it. Accepting mortality—making friends with finitude—seemed wise.
But then a friend showed her a full-page magazine ad for a new drug that offered the one thing for which she most longed: time. Time with children and grandchildren. Time for books she’d not yet read. Time for coffee with friends she’d not seen since before the pandemic. The glossy ad dangled the promise that cancer patients who used this drug might prolong their lives. “Unpronounceable Made-up Drug Name is not a cure,” the ad admitted, but “why not live all the life you can.”
