Valuing life

NOW that Pope Francis has made it a Church doctrine that

the death penalty is inadmissible, we have to review the basis for the

true value of human life.

            We cannot exaggerate the value of human life, since it is

a life meant to have an eternal relation with God, its creator. Even

if that life is deformed physically and morally, God will always love

it and will do everything to save it. That is why abortion and

euthanasia or mercy killing are wrong. They go against the fifth

commandment: Thou shalt not kill.

            And capital punishment, while approved or at least

tolerated in the past, is also wrong, because no matter how bad or

criminal a person is, his life can still be saved by the infinite

mercy of God. From the Book of Ezekiel, we read: “As I live, said the

Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the

wicked turn from his way and live.” (33,11)

            The reason behind its approval or tolerance in the past is

the protection of the common good. But this reason does not hold water

anymore since there are many other ways the common good can be

protected today without resorting to the death penalty.

            Besides, given the many imperfections of our legal

systems, we cannot risk the loss of life just because of a guilty

sentence of the judicial process. The abolition of the death penalty

would, of course, challenge us to be more determined in reforming the

offender. This may be the area where many of us are still hesitant to

tackle.

            Human life is, of course, not just any other life here in

the world. Plants and animals also have life but they do not have a

spiritual soul as their principle of life. Theirs is a soul that is

simply a product of a combination of earthly elements that would

enable them to grow, move, act in some manner. But it is a soul that

disappears with their death.

            Human life has a spiritual soul as its principle, and as

such, it can survive death. It is immortal and is, in fact, meant for

eternal life. It is a soul that comes directly from God and is forever

in a relation with God. It is not a soul that is transmitted by human

reproduction.

            In some passages of the Bible, there is a reference to a

distinction between soul and spirit. This is mentioned for example in

1 Thessalonians 5,23: “May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept

blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

            My take in this distinction between the spirit and the

soul is that the spirit refers to our spiritual soul that needs to be

nourished by its union with God, while the soul refers to those

aspects of our soul that are akin to the soul of the plants and the

animals with whom we also share characteristics.

            To be sure, we only have one soul, and it is spiritual,

though that soul may be affected and conditioned by the similarities

it shares with the plant and animal soul. It is this spiritual soul of

ours that makes for the basis of the real value of human life.

            Having said that, we can also say that out of love for God

and for all men, human life can be sacrificed as what happens in the

cases of martyrdom and in the crucifixion of Christ himself. As Christ

said, this is the greatest proof of love. “Greater love has no one

than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15,13)

            In fact, we have to look forward to our own death and

somehow give our life up little by little by denying ourselves and

carrying the cross to follow Christ daily.