Sacred Image of God.
Introduction
The World Health Organization furnishes the figures of suicides around the world. A thousand people a day commit suicide, or about 500,000 people a year, with ten times that number attempting it. Hungary has the highest rate with 34.9 per 100,000 population. Czechoslovakia is next with 24.5; Austria follows with 22.2; Sweden with 22; Canada and the United States have 10.9 and 10.7 respectively. The Latin American countries have the lowest, Venezuela has 7.3 and Chile 3.1.
Factors most commonly associated with suicide are bereavement, social isolation, chronic illness, psychotic disturbance, alcoholism and drug-addiction.
—Christian Victory
“Not to be fortified with good ideas is to be victimized by bad ones.”
each of us must keep vigil over our personal lives to ensure that the normal chaos associated with our profession is consistently and regularly resolved. Normal chaotic events that go unresolved gradually mount one upon the other thus producing abnormal and potentially lethal responses. In fact, sometimes difficulties come so rapidly or require such long-term attention, that immediate or timely resolve is impossible. In these circumstances, we can become mentally and emotionally burdened, and therefore vulnerable to self-diminishing and destructive thoughts that under normal circumstances would never cross our minds. In a sense, we are exactly where our adversary wants us and where our sinful disposition must not remain. The struggle against suicide in our society must begin with the safeguarding of our own soul. Let us give you a brief description of how this downward spiral constructs itself toward self-destruction.
Like a ripple that comes from a stone thrown upon still waters, the tolerance and acceptance of suicide is gradually widening and its noose is around the throat of an entire culture.
The truth of the matter is that human nature’s inclination toward self-preservation has been corrupted by the fall of our original parents; under certain and varied circumstances this nature of ours can be tempted to opt for physical, intellectual and emotional peace at the expense of life itself
Whether we are speaking of self-execution in our formidable years or assisted suicide because of the ravages of disease or during our end of life struggles, it is essential that each of us, who bear the image God, realize our own vulnerability to suicide when the pressures of persistent physical, intellectual, emotional and, yes, even spiritual weakness mount and threaten us.
The morality of suicide clearly surfaces how broad world view considerations are important for understanding and evaluating different moral positions. In the final analysis one’s approach to suicide is determined largely by the world view one brings to the issue.
The Slow Descent
each of us must keep vigil over our personal lives to ensure that the normal chaos associated with our profession is consistently and regularly resolved. Normal chaotic events that go unresolved gradually mount one upon the other thus producing abnormal and potentially lethal responses. In fact, sometimes difficulties come so rapidly or require such long-term attention, that immediate or timely resolve is impossible. In these circumstances, we can become mentally and emotionally burdened, and therefore vulnerable to self-diminishing and destructive thoughts that under normal circumstances would never cross our minds. In a sense, we are exactly where our adversary wants us and where our sinful disposition must not remain. The struggle against suicide in our society must begin with the safeguarding of our own soul. Let us give you a brief description of how this downward spiral constructs itself toward self-destruction.
Seek Solace in the Gospel
When life’s inevitable traumas, catastrophes, and crises threaten to cast us violently upon destructive rocks and shoals, it is personal faith and the worldview of the individual in distress that provide the chart by which he or she may, or may not, steer to safety.
Christianity proclaims the certainty of truth, the sufficiency of Scripture, and the sacredness of life. The Christian worldview is not one of sacredness in private and silence in public. Rather, it is one that touches every area of life. In the closing words of The Universe Next Door, James Sire reminds us that acceptance of a worldview, and specifically Christian theism, encompasses much more than intellectual assent.
Writing of his experiences at Auschwitz, Dachau, and other Nazi death camps, physician Viktor Frankl commented frequently on suicide and its rejection even in the midst of unspeakable personal horror. He tells of talking to fellow prisoners on one occasion after food had been taken away from them.
Then I spoke of the many opportunities of giving life a meaning. I told my comrades (who lay motionless, although occasionally a sigh could be heard) that human life, under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning, and that this infinite meaning of life includes suffering and dying, privation and death. I asked the poor creatures who listened to me attentively in the darkness of the hut to face up to the seriousness of our situation. They must not lose hope but keep their courage in the certainty that the hopelessness of our struggle did not detract from its dignity and its meaning.
For the Christian, the creation of humanity in the image of God has far-reaching personal, theological, and cultural ramifications that must be considered; among them, the rejection of suicide in all of its manifestations.
Our thoughts and our values must be in sync with the Creator’s if we are to have meaningful fellowship with him and properly reflect his character and will to others.
His created dignity consisted in knowledgeable and responsible relationships to the supernatural world and to fellow humans. His life was intended to consist of intelligible and dutiful devotion to God who is himself the truth and the good, and of service to his earthly neighbor.
