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 because he was certain that he had never violated this commandment, the commandment which 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.

It is hard to believe, at any rate, that we are already at the half-way point of this year's First Friday talks--a good place to begin this new year. The fifth commandment is a divine institution--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 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 groups. As we are developing these meditations in a 3-fold approach, let us 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.

I.) The Hebrew Understanding

At first glance,one wonders whether this commandment ever really took hold on 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 the death penalty was prescribed. Called "judicial killing," they include:

(i) Murder (Exodus 21:12; Leviticus 24:17)
(ii) Child sacrifice (Leviticus 20:2; death by stoning)
(iii) Manslaughter. Jewish law made special provision for what might be called non-deliberate killing, killing which happened by accident, or as the result of a blow or an attack which was not meant to kill. For men involved in this, six cities of refuge were set apart to which they might flee if they killed 'without intent', but if the killer was not inside one of these cities of refuge, the avenger of blood might take his life (Numbers 35:9-28).
(iv) Keeping an ox known to be dangerous, if the ox killed a man (Exodus 21:29)
(v) Bearing false witness on a capital charge (Deuteronomy 19:18-21)
(vi) Kidnapping or stealing a man (Exodus 21:15, 17; Leviticus 20:9; Deuteronomy 21:18-21; death by stoning)
(vii) Insult or injury to parents (Exodus 21:15, 17; Leviticus 20:9; Deuteronomy 21:18-21; death by stoning)
(viii) Various forms of sexual immorality.
(a) Incest which was defined as intercourse with mother, step-mother, half-sister, granddaughter, stepsister, aunt, uncle's wife, daughter-in-law, sister-in-law, stepdaughter, step-grandaughter, mother-in-law (Leviticus 18:6-18; 20:14; Deuteronomy 27:20, 23; death by burning)
(b) Unchastity (Deuteronomy 22:21-24; death by stoning)
(c) Adultery and unnatural vice (Leviticus 18:23; 20:10-16; Exodus 22:19; Ezekiel 16:38, 40; John 8:5)
(d) Fornication by a priest's daughter
(e) Fornication by a betrothed woman (Deuteronomy 22:22; death by stoning; Genesis 38:24; death by burning)
(ix) Various religious and ritual offences.
(a) Witchcraft and magic (Exodus 22:18; Leviticus 20:6, 27; death by stoning)
(b) Idolatry (Exodus 22:20; Deuteronomy 13:6-11; death by stoning)
(c) Blasphemy (Leviticus 24:10-16; death by stoning)
(d) False claims to be a prophet (Deuteronomy 13:5, 10; death by stoning)
(e) Intrusion of an alien into a sacred place or office (Numbers 1:51; 3:10; 18:7)
(f) Sabbath-breaking (Exodus 31:14).

(W. Barclay, The Ten Commandments, 62-3)

A special note to the lawyers in our group who make Sunday work a regular feature of your life.

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. So shall the Israelites observe the sabbath, keeping it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant." (Ex 31:12-16)

I might add, however, that there was great mercy in the Hebrew law which made it next to impossible to carry out the death penalty for 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." Barclay 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." (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" and not the killing of war or capital punishment.

As is frequently pointed out, the verb normally translated 'kill' is not the common and general Hebrew verb for killing (harag); is the verb rasah, which often refers to what we customarily think of as murder, the willful, premeditated killing of an individual out of hatred, anger, desire, greed, or other reasons the community regards as illegitimate or illegal. The verb rasah, however, can also refer to unintentional homicide or simply accidental killing, as one sees in Numbers 35:25-28, where the word 'manslayer' translates rasah (cf. Deut. 4:41-42; Josh 20:3).

The commandment, therefore, is directed toward personal violence against the life of an individual, which is killing 'with malice aforethought,' but is open to include other forms of killing that are inimical to community life and order and deprive an individual of God's gift of life. Both the primary direction of the commandment-against murder-and its openness to exclude other forms of killing out of the sense of the sanctity of life, of God's gift of creaturely existence, are important dimensions of the commandment's continuing instruction. The obviousness of the basic intent-to prohibit murder-does not make that intent any less important. It is surely no accident that the original and primal social sin is the high-handed murder of a brother out of anger and with full intention (Gen. 4:1-8). Malicious violence that take the life of a human being is absolutely contrary to the will of God and is destructive not only of life but of community.

(P. Miller, Deuteronomy, 87)

The catechism speaks of this murder of Abel by Cain. "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

This commandment as with the others properly understood, must be seen most 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 actual 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:

But this commandment nevertheless was centrally important in shaping the mentality and the ethos of Israelite understandings of acts of violence against fellow human beings. No such act could be done, not when the Ten Commandments were functioning within the society properly, without the reference to the basic datum that life belongs exclusively to God. Once again we see how the Decalogue probably functioned in the life of ancient Israel, driving home the recognition by young and old alike that the kinds of acts not to be done under any circumstances would even so now and again have to be done. How could these acts be done? How could murderers be put to death, given the understanding that life belonged to God exclusively? The answer would have been that God knows the need to take the life of this murderer and accepts such a violation as appropriate, for the murderer if not killed will simply take other life and thus himself violate the commandment again and involve us in his guilt, since we could have prevented his doing additional acts of murder by taking his life.

The point is, however, that routinely and from earliest youth the community of Israel would have been warned by its recitation of the 5th 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. The taking of human life in warfare would normally require a decision on Yahweh's part that the war was called for, although it does seem likely that engagement in war did in fact become quite routine. The taking of human life as punishment for the crime of murder was done under the strict requirement that there be eyewitnesses and that the testimony of these witnesses be in agreement. Acts of killing that were judged inadvertent or justified by the situation required a decision by the community or its appointed judges that such was in fact the case. More and more in the later history of Israel the commandment was safeguarded by clarification of the test that must be met before the community could apply the death penalty to any perpetrator of a crime considered to be a capital crime.

(W. Harrelson, 114-115)

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, 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 not 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.

"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny." (Mt 5:21-26)

In this passage, 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 us to us, our co-operation, our yielding to the Holy Spirit, to allow Him continually to overpower us and free us ever anew. Love makes the world safe for life.

Speaking of this Love, Fr. Al McBride writes:

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 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.

(The Ten Commandments--Sounds of Love from Mt. Sinai, 69-70)

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 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. I urge each of you today, this very day, to reach out in love, unconditional love, to someone you have hurt, someone who might have hurt you. No friendship, no relationship need be failed forever. In addition, I encourage you in these wintry days to receive the healing and restorative grace which 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

I am writing this section of my talk on the day of the march for life having immediately returned from the great Mass in the MCI center where there were thousands of young people praying, singing and about to march for life. How could one not be impressed with such an incredible demonstration of support for the unborn!

After all, since Roe v. Wade in l973, the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion, there have been over 44 million abortions, young children dying before they had the opportunity to enjoy life outside the womb as we enjoy life. Our church is always, and will always, be on the side of life, life from conception until natural death. And it is precisely because Jesus took on life, took on flesh and ennobled it by becoming man and like us in everything but sin that we value human life so much, that we were born in His image and reborn in Christ Jesus.

Regarding the joy of childbirth, Dorothy Day wrote:

"If I had written the greatest book, composed the greatest symphony, painted the most beautiful painting or carved the most exquisite figure, I could not have felt the more exalted creator than I did when they placed my child in my arms," she wrote.

In a sense, the struggle between life and art was settled once and for all. As a new mother, she joined to the masses as never before-for childbirth is "a joy all women know, no matter what their grief at poverty, unemployment, and class war." She was not a painter or sculptor, not a "book writer." She was a journalist, who wrote from her own experience. So she sat up in bed and wrote an article for The New Masses about the birth of her child-"to share my joy with the world."

(P. Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, p. 53)

Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical letter Evangelium Vitae, wrote:

Mary thus helps the Church to realize that life is always at the centre of a great struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness. The dragon wishes to devour "the child brought forth" (cf. Rev 12:4), a figure of Christ, whom Mary brought forth "in the fullness of time" (Gal 4:4) and whom the Church must unceasingly offer to people in every age. But in a way that child is also a figure of every person, every child, especially every helpless baby whose life is threatened, because-as the Council reminds us-"by his Incarnation the Son of God has united himself in some fashion with every person".140 It is precisely in the "flesh" of every person that Christ continues to reveal himself and to enter into fellowship with us, so that rejection of human life, in whatever form that rejection takes, is really a rejection of Christ. This is the fascinating but also demanding truth which Christ reveals to us and which his Church continues untiringly to proclaim: "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me" (Mt 18:5); "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Mt 25:40). (EV 104)

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 commandments. These are practical implications for us.

l.) Respect for human life--

"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.

This means human embryos produced by in vitro fertilization. As Fr. McBride teaches: "By removing the seed from the man and the egg from the woman with the intention of forming a human embryo outside the womb, the couple and the technician bypass the conjugal act." (McBride, The Ten Commandments, Covenant of Love, 92) In the process of in vitro, "spare embryos" are routinely created and destroyed. Both the method of procuring embryos, by avoiding the conjugal act, and the resulting destruction of unused embryos, I.e. human life, form the basis for this immoral conduct.

This means, except in rare cases, the state taking the life of a guilty person by the death penalty. The catechism 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

This means euthanasia or assisted suicide, the direct killing or assisting a person to kill himself. The church's opposition to euthanasia does not mean that extraordinary efforts must be undertaken to keep people alive, however.

This means the use of human stem cells for research. This does not mean that adult bone marrow can not be used for research.

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--

It all 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 and finally "the virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco or medicine." CCC 2290

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 which 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, however, 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 might be right. Hopefully, he is. But the 5th commandment is much broader than it might seem on its face. AMEN.