Is Life Like a Lottery?

After suffering two devastating losses within a short time, Catherine Mendenhall-Baugh ponders the comfort she finds in the Catholic concept of death.

I remember, when I was in high school, having an assignment to read “The Lottery,” a short story by Shirley Jackson. The story revolves around the residents of a small rural town gathering on a wonderful summer day to enjoy what appears to be a celebration. They are sharing stories and updates on family lives. Each year they have a lottery to ensure the success of their crops and good fortune throughout the year. After Tessie Hutchinson draws the dreaded marked slip, she is stoned to death.

At the end of the story, we are left with the idea that this tradition will continue and is considered sacred.

I remember thinking about this story many times over the years. It came to my mind again in the last few months, when I experienced two great losses. In March, I lost my sister Mary thirteen days after she was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer. Sixty days later, I lost my sister Connie two weeks after her hospitalization for a respiratory illness.

What separates our concept of death from a casual outlook on death?

After realizing what we all know that life is short and can change very quickly, I came to the realization that it is faith in God that makes the biggest impact on our view of death. Without our faith, we are just living and then at some point we will die. I am so grateful that this is not all there is. I am grateful to know that spending eternity with God is the end goal.

I was brought up in a large family by a mother that had a strong belief in God and showed this daily with her Catholic faith. Sharing her faith is what we all learned through her actions, her daily Rosaries, and her walking to Mass every Sunday.

I believe that God loves us each personally and will go to great lengths to save us and bring us home to heaven to be with Him. I also think that life and eternal life are about love. Our life on earth is meant to teach us to love and be loved. All of this we learn through the life of Jesus Christ. Christ revealed that God is love. God holds us accountable for our lives and our actions based on how we love.

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In school we discussed every angle in the story of “The Lottery” including the many themes it showed. We talked about cruelty when individuals submit to evil and horror for the sake of the status quo. We discussed the danger of following traditions of bigotry and hatred justifying actions that promote these ideologies for the sake of the greater good.

I do remember taking it a step further. Is life like a lottery? Are we just waiting for our slip of paper to come up?

Mrs. Graves, one of the villagers in the story, comments to Tessie when she initially complains about this method of drawing, “All of us took the same chance.”

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Life and eternal life are about love. Our life on earth is meant to teach us to love and be loved. #CatholicMom

We know all of us will eventually die. Losing both my sisters suddenly was a shock. Their losses have been a devastating blow to our family. We will miss them so much. We all participated in their Catholic funerals by praying, writing eulogies, and offering suggestions for the music and readings. Doing this helped us to say goodbye.

I used this poem at the funerals:

“God saw they were getting tired and a cure was not to be.
So He put his arms around them and whispered, ‘Mary and Connie, come be with me.’
We watched them fade away.
Although we loved them deeply, we could not make them stay.
Two golden hearts stopped beating, hardworking hands put to rest,
God broke our hearts to prove to us,
He only takes the best!” (Author Unknown)

I pray for my sisters, along with the guardian angels, to watch over the rest of us.

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