Is the Death Penalty Ever Justifiable?
One day not so long ago, I was on a theology website that I log onto from time, and a question was posed to all the subscribers: “Is it okay to hate?” As I reflected upon this question I remembered the book of Psalms. In the book of Psalms, the psalmist laments the suffering he endures at the hands of his enemies, but at the same time he praises God who destroys the wicked who inflict the suffering. The psalmist brings his hate to God and does not sugar coat his feelings. He gives to the Lord a very honest and shocking account of his feelings:
“Let their own table before them become a snare; let their sacrificial feasts be a trap. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see; and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out thy indignation upon them, and let thy burning anger over take them. May their camp be a desolation, let no one dwell in their tents.” Psalm 69:22-25.
It is hard for many Christians to understand how this verse and others like it belong in Holy Scripture. How do we reconcile such hate with the Lord’s command to love our enemies? However, I think the real question is: Are we being honest with God if we say that we have never experienced such hate or never wished for the demise of our enemies? After all, we do not have to go very far to find evil, and when we do we expect justice to be swift and harsh. Sometimes, we feel that the only appropriate punishment for the perpetrator of such evil is death.
I have felt just like the Psalmist pouring his heart out to God. It happened once about 16 years ago when I opened my newspaper to see a fireman tenderly cradling a dying baby in his arms. The baby looked to be about two years old and she was the victim of the Oklahoma City bombing. My youngest daughter was about the same age as this child and so it was difficult not to imagine my own baby in the arms of that fireman, the victim of a horrific crime. The feeling I had toward Timothy McVeigh was sheer hatred; there is just no other way to describe it. I yearned for justice to be swift and harsh and nothing less than death seemed right. I felt completely justified in my hatred, for I did not see Timothy McVeigh as a human being, but as the devil. It is not wrong to hate the devil and desire his demise. God gives us a conscience and an ability to hate evil so that we gravitate toward good. We, like the Psalmist in the book of Psalms, lament such evil and often beg God to answer our call for justice. Read more...
For many of our Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, a simple confession of faith with one’s lips is all that is necessary to be saved once and for all. I have heard many denounce the works of Catholics as no more than a futile attempt to earn salvation. Some common and typical responses I hear are, “Jesus did all the work, now all you have to do is accept it”, or one of the most recent is, “The commandments are no longer necessary, they are of the Old Testament, but the only rule we need in the New Testament is, to love Jesus as He loves us, or to love one another as we love ourselves”.
My reason for bringing all of this up is not as another prelude for arguing against the false doctrine of “Once Saved, Always Saved”. Rather, I have a different reason this time, and it has to do with what Catholics believe Jesus really means when he commands us to love one another. Is a simple verbal confession of faith in one’s love for Christ, the type of love Jesus not only speaks of, but models for us in the Gospels?
As we reflect upon the death and resurrection of Christ this Lenten season, we might want to think about what loving Christ really means, and I have spent some time doing just this. I have reflected most particularly on the Gospel of John, and some very telling passages that relate to how we are called to live as Christians today. I wanted to share some thoughts I had. Read more...
After reading John 6, it becomes crystal clear that Jesus sees himself as the fulfillment of the Passover we read about in Exodus. This is such an important connection because it really ties the Old Testament to the New Testament and helps us to appreciate how the Eucharist is the center of Catholic life.
Jesus knew he was going to ascend into Heaven after his resurrection and that there would be those people who would not believe that he would make his presence available to us in the Holy Eucharist. I believe that the Bread of Life Discourse ( John 6:22-59) reveals this to us. We see those disciples part from Jesus because this was a hard teaching and it still is a hard teaching as many of our Protestant Brothers and Sisters in Christ cannot make the Holy Eucharist the center of their Christian faith and come to believe in the real presence and gift of Christ’s offering. I believe that Jesus is showing us in this discourse that this teaching would indeed be hard to understand and therefore, there would be division among us concerning this teaching. But Jesus didn’t expect us to understand, he just expected us to believe. This is what is revealed to me every time I read this discourse. Jesus knew of the trouble we would have with this truth which is the center of the Catholic faith, and he tries to tell us that even despite our limited ability to recognize his full presence, we only need to take Him at his word. Read more...
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