Posted on 11/03/2014 2:19:24 PM PST by NYer
With the sad and scandalous news out of Oregon last night of Brittany Maynard’s state sanctioned suicide, thoughts turn toward the eternal consequences of such actions. The Internet and social media com boxes are full of praise and condolences for the terminally ill young woman and her grieving family. Many have offered their personal belief that Brittany is now in heaven with God who understands (and apparently condones) her decision. Even among professing Catholics there has been an incredible disconnect between what we are called to believe and what some “want” to believe.
As word of her suicide was released over a weekend when Catholics celebrated both the Church Triumphant (All Saints Day) and the Church Suffering (All Souls Day), it is even more distressing to see so many either oblivious to, or outright dismissive of, foundational truths such as mortal sin, the existence of Purgatory, the sin of presumption, praying for the dead and even the possibility of eternal damnation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, regarding suicide, instructs:
Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.
Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.
If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.
We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives. (CCC 2280-2283)
In addition to the most recently promulgated Catechism, however, we can also turn to the brilliant work of Fr. Francis Spirago, The Catechism Explained: An Exhaustive Explanation of the Catholic Religion, from 1899. Regarding suicide, Fr. Spirago states:
“Suicides are generally men (or women) who are devoid of religious beliefs, who have got into trouble or committed some great sin, and who despair of God’s mercy and assistance; they are sometimes not accountable for their actions, and consequently not to be blamed for them.
“King Saul lost all hope when he was grievously wounded and surrounded by his enemies; he then cast himself on his sword (1 Kings xxi.)…Judas, in despair at the enormity of his crime, went and hanged himself (Matt. xxvii. 5). How often we read of people destroying themselves because they have lost their all at the gambling table, or because they have ruined their character by embezzling money, or because they cannot obtain the object of their illicit passion.
“But often madness, or overtaxed nerves, cause men to take their own lives without knowing what they do. Let us beware, therefore, how we hastily judge and condemn them.
“The prevalence of suicide is however principally and generally to be ascribed to the lack of religion, of a firm belief in a future life, of confidence in God’s willingness to aid the unfortunate and to pardon the repentant sinner. Experience teaches that as religion decreases in a land, the number of suicides increases…
“A man’s life is not his own, it belongs to God, Who takes it away at His will (Deut. xxxii. 39). Thus self-destruction is a presumptuous encroachment upon the divine rights, and shows contempt for God, by flinging back at Him His greatest gift to man, which is life…
“Far from being an heroic deed, it is a most cowardly act; real heroism is shown by bearing bravely the miseries of life…” (pp. 383-384)
In the coming days and weeks we can seek the good out of what is a truly tragic story. While the “death with dignity” movement will attempt to argue that suicide is something noble and good, we have both the opportunity and obligation to charitably instruct what our Catholic faith teaches.
Remind others that we who make up the Church Militant have a duty to offer prayers and masses for those poor souls suffering in Purgatory. We do not need to despair for Brittany Maynard and others who choose suicide; we must not presume to know their fate…whether it be heaven or hell. What we can do is pray. And we can catechize others so that they too can understand that suicide is never dignified and that it is God, and not man, who is the author of life.
Ping!
I am not going to dump on this lady, the whole thing is really sad.
It’s neither heroic or cowardly. It’s a personal decision, and unless she was a Catholic the church’s opinion is irrelevant.
Right - better she become a vegetable for the last few weeks of her life. Just to make the people around her feel good. How does anyone know what was going on in her mind? It’s easy to condemn her from others perspective.
I think a clear example of an acceptable way to go is Samson, if one finds themselves in such dire straits.
That said, she was not in a Samson situation.
Poor woman.
Yet, she made it everyone’s business and so it wasn’t personal, but public.
About 39 years ago God formed me in my Mother’s womb. Far be it from me to question God’s wisdom, but often I regret having to live in this wicked age, and I shudder to think of what we’re leaving for my children.
No one would have thought about something like this 20 years ago. And if anyone did, they would have thought there would be universal outrage, mourning, and reflection. Well it happened, and no one cares. What’s the worst thing you could imagine a state doing to a person (other than ripping babies apart in the womb)? That’s what they’ll be doing in 20 years or fewer.
Compare it to the Baltimore Catechism:
Q. 1274. What sin is it to destroy one's own life, or commit suicide, as this act is called?
A. It is a mortal sin to destroy one's own life or commit suicide, as this act is called, and persons who willfully and knowingly commit such an act die in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of Christian burial. It is also wrong to expose one's self unnecessarily to the danger of death by rash or foolhardy feats of daring.
I wouldn’t dump on this woman for a her act either. Not everyone can be a martyr or saint; only God can judge her.
I think that this guy would be unwise to judge her action less he is willing to find himself in the same situation at the end of his life.
Part of the problem is that medicine has advanced. What used to kill people quickly now can be managed enough to keep the body alive for a long period of time that benefits no one, least of all the ill person.
“That bad girl down the street should be run from our midst
She drinks and she talks quite a lot
She knows not to speak to me or my child”
My neighbor then smiled and I thought
A tongue can accuse and carry bad news
The seeds of distrust it will sow
But unless you’ve made no mistakes in your life
Be careful of stones that you throw
A car speeded by and the screaming of brakes
A sound that made my blood chill
For my neighbor’s one child had been pulled from the path
And saved by a girl lying still
The child was unhurt and my neighbor cried out
“Oh who was that brave girl so sweet?”
I covered the crushed broken body and sad
The bad girl who lived down the street
Just a peom.
Easy to say in the abstract. It's different when something like this happens to you.
Pray that you never face what she did, and say a prayer for her too if you feel that strongly about it.
Why aren’t the drugs given to the suicidal used for executions?
So what if The Holy Spirit was planning to give her a miracle cure from prayer requests that Jesus heard????
Additionally, this woman wanted to be a poster child for assisted suicide, yet another plank of the leftist platform of paganizing America and the world. Like homosexuality, pornography, abortion, and heterosexual promiscuity, what starts out as a cultural taboo is promoted to the point that it becomes the norm in society. With health care rationing on the horizon (except, of course, the wealthy and politically connected), the powers that be would like to encourage this variety of homicide in all 50 states.
Even if the Republicans do well tomorrow and recapture the White House in two years, Obamacare will not go away. From Eisenhower to Bush the younger, the GOP has repealed few, if any, of the Democrats' social programs when in power.
She chose not to follow the example of Christ by joining her suffering to his on the Cross.
This is flat out denial of God and a sin against the Holy Spirit with is a sin that cannot be forgiven, either by a priest or by God.
She would have been much better off to suffer with Christ, rather than doom herself to eternal fire, don’t you agree?
My sentiments, exactly.
How does the Baltimore Catechism (which I love), describe a mortal sin?
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