Msgr. Peter J. Vaghi
Title of Series: "Moral Life: Living the Hope Within Us"

Part 5: "The Fifth Commandment: Make the World Safe for Life"

February 5th, 2009
First Thursday

I have entitled this meditation “The Fifth Commandment: Make the World Safe For Life.” One of my friends said to me that he was happy to attend this reflection this morning because he was certain that he had never violated this commandment, the commandment that proscribes killing. I thought to myself that he might have a different view after hearing this talk today, for this commandment proscribes more than first degree premeditated murder.

The fifth commandment -- “You shall not kill” -- is a divine institution. It is short, pithy, concise -- no penalties added -- simply the exhortation not to kill. Stated positively, its intention is to make the world safe for life, the preciousness and uniqueness of each and every life, every human life. In the words of Servant of God John Paul II, each of us is an “unrepeatable reality.”

In commandments 5-10, the clear focus is how God’s children, children free from the slavery of Egypt, were to act with each other. The first three commandments, in contrast, were focused more on our relation with God. The fourth commandment is akin to a bridge between the two sets of commandments. As we are developing these meditations in a 3-fold approach, we begin then without delay: l.) The Hebrew Understanding; 2.) The Effect of the Christ Event on the Commandment and 3.) Some Practical Implications for Each of us in our Day.

I.) The Hebrew Understanding

At first glance, one wonders whether this commandment ever really took hold in the Hebrew mind, in the Hebrew heart. Even a cursory reading of the Hebrew scriptures points up that warfare was a regular feature of life in ancient Israel. In fact, some wars were called “holy to Yahweh,” the slaughter of an enemy ordained by God. In addition, there is a long list of capital crimes for which a person was liable to the death penalty. Called “judicial killing,” they included, inter alia: murder, child sacrifice, manslaughter, incest, unchastity, adultery, witchcraft, magic, idolatry and Sabbath-breaking.

A special note to the lawyers in our group who make Sunday work a regular feature of your life. From Ex 31:12-16, we read: “The Lord said to Moses, ‘You must also tell the Israelites: Take care to keep my sabbaths, for that is to be the token between you and me throughout the generations, to show that it is I, the Lord, who make you holy. Therefore, you must keep the sabbath as something sacred. Whoever desecrates it shall be put to death. If anyone does work on that day, he must be rooted out of his people. Six days there are for doing work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of complete rest, sacred to the Lord. Anyone who does work on the sabbath day shall be put to death.”

There was great mercy, however, in the Hebrew law that made it next to impossible to carry out the death penalty. The law was astonishingly careful to protect the rights of the guilty person. In the book of Numbers 35:6-34, one can read of the Hebrew concept of the six “cities of refuge.” William Barclay, that great 20th century Scottish Protestant preacher and theologian, writes that: “The idea was not that entrance into one of these cities gave complete and everlasting safety and asylum. The idea was that, when a man reached one of these cities, he could not be handed over to the avenging next of kin of the dead man until the whole circumstances of the killing had been investigated.” (The Ten Commandments for Today, Barclay, 65)

With this background, it is obvious why the specific Hebrew word for “killing” used in the decalogue --RASAH -- has been the subject of much study. It is a rare verb -- used only 46 times in the Hebrew scriptures. It means a specific kind of killing which is prohibited -- basically “unauthorized killings” or generally a killing with “malice aforethought” and not the killing of war or capital punishment.

The catechism speaks of the murder of Cain by Abel. “God declares the wickedness of this fratricide: ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.’” CCC 2259

Properly understood, this commandment, not unlike the others, must be seen importantly in the context of the covenant with Yahweh. That means how free people should act with each other and the promises that the covenant includes -- “a long life on the land.” (Deut 4:40) Fundamentally, the proscription against murder, this kind of killing, the willful act of taking another’s life, bespeaks a deeper theology on the part of the Hebrew. They understood so well the preciousness of life, that life, above all, was a gift of God, indeed a creation of God. Genesis 1:26 teaches that each of us is made in God’s image and likeness. To kill a person is actually to violate God.

In his book, The Ten Commandments and Human Rights, Walter Harrelson states it this way: “The point is, however, that routinely and from earliest youth the community of Israel would have been warned by its recitation of this fifth commandment that such a taking of human life was not to be routine, was not to become simply a part of the ordinary practice of administering justice….More and more in he later history of Israel the commandment was safeguarded by clarification of the tests that must be met before the community could apply the death penalty to any perpetrator of a crime considered to be a capital crime.” p115

For the Hebrew, all human life was thus tied to the Creator in such a way that it was simply not the prerogative of any human being to dispose of such life except as the human being, or the community, could claim to be acting directly on behalf of God. Since each individual Israelite was bound to the Lord in the covenant, his life lay in God’s hands. God alone, who had made man in His own image, had the right to terminate life. Thus an act of murder involved the abrogation of divine power, the taking away of that which God had given and which God alone could give, namely life itself.

II. The Effect of the Christ Event

In Mt 5:17, from the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish them, but to fulfill them.” There is perhaps no commandment that better portrays Jesus “fulfilling” the Hebrew law than the 5th commandment, the proscription against killing. The word “fulfill” takes on a whole new meaning, a deeper and expansive meaning.

To that point, we hear in Mt 5:21-25: “You have heard the commandment imposed on your forefathers, ‘You shall not commit murder; every murderer shall be liable to judgment.’ What I say to you is: everyone who grows angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; any man who uses abusive language toward his brother shall be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and if he holds him in contempt he risks the fires of Gehenna. If you bring your gift to the altar and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift at the altar, go first to be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Lose no time: settle with your opponent while on your way to court with him.”

In this passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew seeks to teach precisely how Jesus Himself “fulfills” the law and the prophets. “You have heard it say...but I say.” Jesus deepens, interiorizes, radicalizes, specifies, clarifies and concretizes the Law. Not only are murder or unauthorized killing proscribed. The 5th commandment also prohibits growing angry, abusive language and the holding of one in contempt. It is an intensification of the force of that commandment.

Jesus directs His attack at one’s interior disposition -- growing angry (that profound lack of love) -- which can result in killing, in harming another. Misplaced and inappropriate anger in itself can kill even the best of friendships. Certainly it can shatter any semblance of civility in a family, in a marital relationship, between and attorney and client, a doctor and patient and in the workplace at all levels. Jesus’ focus on one’s interior disposition (I.e.anger) in no way seeks to relativize the concrete action of killing either.

By underscoring the evil of anger and abusive speech, Jesus seeks to turn something external into something internal without abandoning the external precept. In effect, Jesus demands more than the absence of murder. He desires love and mercy, the coming to terms -- each of us -- with that power of God within us, that new life of the Holy Spirit, the life made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus. He pours God’s life within us, a love which can transform us and help open our hearts, a love which dissipates all anger. Not only does Jesus proscribe anger. He makes it possible, by His very life within us, to live without anger. This life, His life, is powerful indeed. It is our co-operation, our yielding to the Holy Spirit, that allows Him continually to overpower us and free us ever anew. Love makes the world safe for life.

Speaking of this love, Fr. Al McBride, in his book The Ten Commandments -- Sounds of Love from Mt. Sinai, writes that “So long as love is experienced and practiced, life has a chance: this is the basic message of the Fifth Commandment. If this value were absorbed into our inner lives it would crowd out the destructive impulses that beget anti-life behavior. This liberating value of the Fifth Commandment would free us from war, murder, genocide, terrorism, abortion and all the other forms of mayhem humans inflict on one another.

Love is the closest experience we have to the act of creation. Love does not murder life. Love wants to produce, sustain and care for it. Some speak of love as a seamless garment that wraps its creative protectiveness around life from conception to death.” pp69-70 Love is thus the central, greatest and primary commandment. It is the “fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10)

Jesus amplifies even further the requirements of the 5th commandment in Mt 5:24. He speaks there of the need for reconciliation, the urgency of reconciliation, of being reconciled brothers and sisters. “If you bring your gift to the altar and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift at the altar, go first to be reconciled.” Not enough is spoken today of reconciliation in families and reconciliation between nations and above all reconciliation with God. Conversely we seem to dwell inordinately on dysfunction, yes even a justification for certain destructive conduct. And yet central to the Church’s mission -- your mission and mine -- is the reconciliation among peoples. It is so linked to the conversion of hearts, a daily challenge for each of us.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes so far as to make the task of reconciliation a part of “fulfillment” of the fifth commandment. No friendship, no relationship need be failed forever. On a pastoral note, I encourage you in these wintry days to receive the healing and restorative grace that only Christ can give in that great healing sacrament of reconciliation. It should be a regular part of our walk with the Lord. It certainly will help us in our efforts to live fully the fifth commandment.

III. Some Practical Implications for Each of Us

The catechism speaks of three areas under the 5th commandment -- respect for human life, respect for the dignity of persons and safeguarding peace. Each of us must reflect on these areas and see if our actions or omissions bring us under the prohibitions of the fifth commandment. These are practical implications for us.

l.) Respect for human life --

The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on September 8, 2008, issued an important document entitled Dignitas Personae. Two fundamental principles, citing Donum Vitae, (an earlier document in this same area) are set forth to help us understand the Church’s teaching on Human Life and Procreation: l.) Speaking of the human embryo “…the fruit of human generation, from the first moment of its existence, that is to say, from the moment the zygote has formed, demands the unconditional respect that is morally due to the human being in his bodily and spiritual totality. The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from the same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life.” DP 4 and 2.) “The origin of human life has its authentic context in marriage and in the family, where it is generated through an act which expresses the reciprocal love between a man and a woman. Procreation which is truly responsible vis-à-vis the child to be born must be the fruit of marriage.” DP 6

With those principles in mind, the catechism teaches that “God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can under any circumstance claim for himself the right directly to destroy an innocent human being.” CCC 2258 One would otherwise be in violation of the 5th commandment. Now I will set forth some examples where the violation of the 5th commandment is involved:

A.) This means abortion. Since Roe v. Wade in l973, the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion, there have been over 40 million abortions in our country, young children dying before they had the opportunity to enjoy life outside the womb as we enjoy life. From the earliest of times, “the Didache (The Teaching of the Apostles), 2,2, written toward the end of the first century and revered as an honored guide for Christian life, we read, ‘You shall not kill the embryo by abortion.’ This teaching has never changed and it will not change.” USCCA 391

Our church is always, and will always, be on the side of life -- from conception until natural death. This is a theological and moral issue for us, an issue that has regrettably become political. It is precisely because Jesus took on life, took on our human flesh and ennobled it by becoming man, and like us in everything but sin, that we value human life so much. The pro-life movement, in effect, was born on Christmas for, as a result, we also become children of God.

B.) This means human embryos produced by in vitro fertilization. Why? The conjugal act is bypassed and in the process of in vitro, “spare embryos” are routinely created and destroyed. Thus both the method of procuring embryos, by avoiding the conjugal act, and the resulting destruction of unused embryos form the basis for this immoral conduct.

C.) This means, except in rare cases, the state taking the life of a guilty person by the death penalty. The catechism clearly reads: “Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm -- without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself -- the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity ‘are very rare, if not practically non-existent.’” CCC 2267

D.) This means euthanasia or assisted suicide, the direct killing or assisting a person to kill himself. “Intentional euthanasia, sometimes called mercy killing, is murder. Regardless of the motives or means, euthanasia consists of putting to death those who are sick, are disabled, or are dying.” USCCA 393 The church’s opposition to euthanasia does not mean that extraordinary efforts must be undertaken to keep people alive, however. “Catholic moral tradition has always taught that we can discontinue medical procedures that are burdensome, extraordinary and disproportionate to the outcome.” USCCA 394

E.) This means the use of human stem cells for research. “Some scientists, however, maintain that the best source for stem cells is the human embryo. The moral problem is that in order to retrieve the stem cells, the growing child must be killed. But every embryo from the moment of conception has the entire genetic makeup of a unique human life. The growing child must be recognized and treated as completely and fully human. He or she needs only time to grow and develop. To destroy an embryo is to take a human life, an act contrary to God’s law and Church teaching.” USCCA 392 On the other hand, the use of adult stem cells is permissible. “Stem cells from placenta, bone marrow, and the umbilical cord are being used to treat leukemia” -- a promising field of research that does not involve the moral implications of embryonic stem cell research. USCCA 393

In all of these situations, it is important to underscore that just because something may be legally protected or even permissible, that does not necessarily confer a moral right to exercise the legal right in question.

2.) Respect for the dignity of the person --

Such respect goes back to the fact that we were made in the image and likeness of God. In this section of the catechism, we are taught to avoid scandalizing people. “Scandal is a grave offense when by deed or omission it deliberately leads others to sin gravely.” CCC 2326 We are taught to take good care of our health. “Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God.” CCC 2288 “The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco or medicine.” CCC 2290 The fifth commandment also forbids bigotry and hatred, physical or emotional abuse and violence of any kind against another person.

3.) Safeguarding peace --

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called son of God.” Mt 5:9 From the beatitudes, the Lord teaches us to be peacemakers. The 8 beatitudes are not optional if we are to follow the Lord. They form the magna carta of the Christian moral life. In the upper room after the resurrection, twice the Risen Lord says to His disciples -- “Peace be with you.” He gives us His kind of peace, a peace that the world can never give.

Each January l, the World Day of Prayer for Peace, our Holy Father helps form the conscience of the world insisting that peace is possible and it is our duty to teach peace and work for peace and pray for peace. “Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.” CCC 2307 The catechism is clear on the principles of legitimate defense and the just war. I would encourage you to study that section of the catechism carefully.

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In all of the above three areas, we are called to see the presence of the 5th commandment, the commandment not to kill. It is our perennial challenge to make God’s law, the law enshrined in that and every commandment, a vital part of our lives and of the lives of those with whom we live, work and play.

At first glance, my friend I mentioned at the beginning of this reflection, i.e. my friend who said that he never violated the 5th commandment, might be right. Hopefully, he is. But the 5th commandment, as we have seen, is much broader than it might seem on its face. I hope this reflection has helped make that clear.

AMEN