The hem of his garment

This column is dedicated to those who have lost loved ones or friends to disease and other maladies.

A 1995 dramatic film starring Andy Garcia -- "Things to do in Denver When You're Dead" -- featured a video business called Afterlife Advice.

Terminally ill folks pay a service, run by Garcia, to capture their musings on videotape.

Videos are later given to survivors after the interviewed person passes -- hence the title of "afterlife advice."

One interviewee opines about cancer in the movie.

To wit: "Cancer is the ugliest word in the English language."

"No, no," another person counters, saying, "The ugliest word is not cancer, but recurrence."

There is little point in my mincing words.

My kid sister died earlier this month from ovarian cancer.

She was more than six years my junior.

We lost our parents in 2014 and 2021 -- also to cancer.

Without going into specifics, the brand of the disease my sister contracted gives little warning to the sufferer.

A patient moves from feeling bad to awful to sleeping a lot and with a lot of pain in between.

At some point, the medical staff said there's nothing to be done, and palliative care and hospice were offered.

This is an oft-told story of which many readers of this missive will be immediately familiar.

In the age in which we live, options are available to deter pain temporarily and to prolong life, even if a cure seems forever elusive.

This nation's oldest president, Jimmy Carter, now in his final days, is a relevant example.

As a former White House occupant, the 98-year-old Carter has had cancer for several years and has had access to the best care available.

It is true medical science has advanced to the point where some can live longer with devastating disease -- in the grasped-for hope a cure may arise.

In this season of Lent, we recall Jesus of Nazareth acted as a healer in a time when every case brought to him was hopeless.

The poor, especially, had no access to the most rudimentary of care.

Even the well-to-do essentially were in the same boat.

There were no efficacious therapies nor effective medications.

If you got very sick in the first century, the time in which the Nazarene walked the earth, you were going to die with a high degree of certainty.

Imagine, then, what a rock star Jesus became in the eyes of those in his home region of Galilee.

Word spread of his healing power and large crowds followed him in the desperate hope that a touch from him, even a word, could eradicate disease.

One tale from Matthew chapter 9 illustrates the fervor of hope in the itinerant carpenter who had demonstrated the ability to make others physically whole.

While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live."

So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.

Suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment for she said to herself, "If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well."

But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, "Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well."

And the woman was made well from that hour.

When Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players and the noisy crowd wailing,

He said to them, "Make room, for the girl is not dead, but sleeping." And they ridiculed Him.

But when the crowd was put outside, He went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose and the report of this went out into all that land. (Matthew 9:18-26/King James Version)

Imagine an American patient with so much faith in her physician that she believed a mere touch of his white lab coat would cure her disease.

The New Testament picture makes clear while Jesus cared for the physical suffering of others, he used their belief in His healing power to turn their attention to something higher.

Jesus knew, as we all know, that our physical lives are temporary yet our bodies are all we understand.

Jesus healed their sicknesses and in doing so, made them able to hear what he had to say.

I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more, Jesus is quoted in Luke 12:4.

Cancer may kill the body, but it cannot touch the soul, the eternal.

The aforementioned should be remembered about all of the maladies that rob us of physical life.

My sister Lori, a gentle spirit with a wry sense of humor, a lover of matchbox cars, WWE wrestling and her husband and three children, was herself to the very end.

Cancer didn't take those things from her.

"O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory? (I Corinthians 15:55)

This is what could be called to mind when we look into a casket going forward.

It's what I thought of when looking down upon the face of my sister.