Friday, April 19, 2024

Dear Zoraya.

I have recently learned of your decision to end your earthly life through euthanasia, scheduled for one of the first days of May. 

Even though we do not know each other, your situation has deeply touched me and I will not hide from you that, when I read about you and the illness from which you suffer - which has led you to consider death as the only form of "liberation" from a psychological pain that you perceive as "too great" and therefore unbearable - I cried warm tears.

As I would have cried for a beloved sister; for in fact in humanity we are sisters.

But if I limited myself to crying for you -- as well as for other people, men and women who are seriously thinking of taking their own lives -- that, albeit in the sincerity of feeling and the will of my heart, would still be far too little.

That is why today I turn to you, dear Zoraya, trusting that (since the internet has made the world "small" in certain respects) what I am about to tell you with my heart in my hand, you may listen to it, with your ears and above all with your heart. 

Moved solely by sincere love, I would like to pause calmly to reflect with you, starting from some statements you made in a recent interview.

I speak to you with extreme respect for your freedom; at the same time, however, I am fully convinced that assisted death is not at all the solution to your lasting suffering.

- I read that the choice to resort to euthanasia matured in you after the neuropsychiatrist told you: "There is nothing more we can do for you in terms of therapy, you will never be better than this."

With due respect for medical science and for those who practice it - I am referring to the doctors who are truly such because they operate for the true good: in favor of the life of the patients entrusted to their care -, in simplicity I tell you that it happens in fact that in certain cases the diagnoses made prove to be erroneous later on.

For example: I know a person who years ago was diagnosed with a certain disease; but, since she was not convinced of the correctness of this diagnosis - which she rightly deemed too hasty and partial -, she requested further and in-depth specialized medical examinations, based on which it turned out that she had an entirely different disease.

Now, I seriously wonder: if this person had blindly believed what that doctor, who was also a chief physician in a hospital, had told her, and had therefore taken the medication she had been prescribed to treat a disease that was not actually the one she was suffering from, what would have happened to her?...

Dear Zoraya, you might ask me: "Sabrina, but why did you tell me this? What does it have to do with what I am experiencing?"

To which I would reply: "If diagnostic errors are sometimes found in the realm of diseases that affect the human body - in some cases even serious errors - what can we say about the complexity of the human psyche?

Can one pronounce with absolute certainty that you will never improve? In my opinion, no."

So let's say better that the neuropsychiatrist who is treating you expressed his personal opinion, telling you: "There is nothing more we can do for you in terms of therapy." 

Precisely, Zoraya: in terms of therapy.

But is there really nothing else that can help you, that can soothe your psychological pain?...

- I saw your photo on the internet, you are young and of pleasant appearance, with an intelligent gaze; you live in a beautiful house in the Netherlands, near the German border... even just from this little information, I thought not everyone has received these gifts...

However, evidently, life: the profound and true meaning of human life and its inalienable dignity is not found in physical beauty (however fleeting), nor in residing even in a villa with a park and pool or having ten million euros in the bank...

I know little about your life, but I think with good reason, dear Zoraya, that you - like many, many other people, who have received so many natural and intellectual gifts - are still missing the One who alone gives authentic and unfailing consistency to our journey on this earth.

God is missing.

- In this regard, I read that you (understandably) are afraid of death, that you experience it as an unknown.

You yourself said: "We don't really know what will happen afterwards, or is there nothing? This is the scary part."

Here Zoraya, today I am here to answer, humbly and with clear certainty - like a sister who loves you very much! - this anguished question of yours.

What is there after physical death? The Encounter with God.

Precisely with the Lord Jesus, to whom the Father has entrusted the Judgment of every human being, and this because Jesus is true God and true man; our brother: and, as such, He knows and understands our human weakness.

This God is Judge, I said. Yes, it's true.

But He is first and foremost our Father, Zoraya.

It is He who thought of you from eternity; who wanted you to be born; it is He who created you, a unique and unrepeatable person: in your soul, in your heart, in your intellect.

Even if you (perhaps) do not feel Him, God - whose Heart is a boundless Ocean of Charity - is always present beside you; He looks at you with Ineffable and Tenderest Love.

A Love, His, that in the earthly journey never abandons us; indeed, that always remains close to each one of us with His inconceivable Mercy; and above all this God who is Father is close in a very special way to every one of His daughters/sons who intensely experiences the drama of suffering.

Let us then, beloved sister, let this Tenderest Father call us back to Himself when He deems it right, so that our transition from this world to the Hereafter marks the return of a most beloved daughter to the Father's House.

Then, on that day, we will close our eyes to the light down here and reopen them, dearest Zoraya, seeing the Savior Jesus who will embrace us.

After this life, in which joys and sorrows alternate for all, we can then rejoice forever in the Light and true Peace of Heaven. In an incomparable Happiness.

Let us not, therefore, reject the great gift of the present life; even when it is, in some respects, arduous and marked by pain. 

It is not for this reason that it is no longer worth living.

It is true: sometimes the pains of the soul are sharper than the physical ones.

But, whatever happens - even if we do not always see it: because our eyes are clouded by tears and our minds are clouded by anguish - the Sun of the Love of our Heavenly Daddy shines night and day on each one of us, His most beloved sons and daughters, with immense Tenderness and unwavering Faithfulness.

***

- It is spring, Zoraya: little birds are chirping again, the flowers delight us with their multi-colored shades; the tender little leaves growing on the branches of the trees tell us that, after the frost of winter, life is renewed once again.

And the night must yield to the light of dawn: it is like this every day! This is reality. 

May it be so for you too, dearest! If you want it, it is still possible.

Indeed, it is true that you suffer greatly, but in your existence there are not only anguishing and painful things.

If you take your own life, you do grave harm: absolutely do not do it!  

I beg you, Zoraya: choose life... choose to live!

***

Dear Zoraya,

I am close to you with all my soul, and I pray - and I will continue to implore the Sacred Heart of Jesus - so that you may reconsider, and decide to live. 

A strong and fraternal embrace.

Sabrina Luraschi Corbetta