The Presentation of Question 27 Chapter 11 : 2/3

 How does In God's Love 
written by Janet Hurlow
relate to 
the Catholic Faith ?

  Chapter 11  We Live to Love Others (continued ) 2/3 

            Part 1 We are to Love Our Neighbor  (continued)
                      Section 7 Do not Kill

495         Do not kill another person.  The church and the scriptures speak out against ending a person’s life: “You shall not kill. <54>….  Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. 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. <56>”(57)   The messengers speak out against ending a person’s life: “seek not a man’s life on Earth.  Such agony has killed many saints whom God loves.”(58)

496           Do not commit suicide.  The Church speaks out against seeking to end one’s life: “Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls.  We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.”(59)  

497           The messengers speak out against seeking to end one’s life, for they state, “He (Satan) is so pleased when a foolish person cries, ‘I can’t take it here’ and that person jumps off a high wall and his or her soul lands right into the arms of the most vile, heartless creature who ever was.  He laughs when, in the process of, ‘all is lost,’ one loses the last, precious commodity of all…..  It is at this point we are telling you it is a foolish thing to jump off a high wall.  We are telling you that you have one more thing to lose.  We are giving you a hint.  Wait until tomorrow.  Speak to someone.  Speak to God.  Remember, wonderful things have been waiting for people who have died minutes before a prayer was answered.”(60)

498           Even though committing suicide is a sin, the causes of this situation can lessen the guilt of the person.  The Church states that “Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.”(61)   Scripture speaks to the just and merciful God in many places and one place is the Book of Wisdom: “For your might is a source of justice, your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all… You are the master of might you judge with clemency and with much lenience you govern us; … You taught your people by these deeds that those who are just must be kind.”(62)

499           The above quote on suicide from In God’s Love is from passage “# 481 God Has a Better Way”, and the quote makes up only 9 of the 48 sentences of passage.  It is the only place in the book where the topic of suicide is discussed.  The major point of the passage is that God’s way is better than Satan’s way, which is currently having great influence on the Earth.  While suicide is only dealt with in these nine sentences, topics of death, judgment, and the mercy of God are discussed in many places.  In the passage just prior to # 481,(63)  “# 480 We Are Trying to Inspire You to Seek a Better Way”, when speaking about facing God after death, the messengers write, “This is a tip to all those who are frustrated.  God will take a lot of misunderstanding into consideration.  He does understand and is fair, considerate and merciful.”(64)   In the very next passage after passage # 481, “# 482 Death Is Being Released From the Clutches of Evil and Passing Into a New Life”, when talking about our afterlife, the messengers state that “Many sins and mistakes will be wiped away because of circumstances”(65)   Like the Church with its Scripture, the messengers believe that God understands and is merciful.

500           The Church’s stance is that God can provide an opportunity for those who commit suicide to repent.  The Church states, “We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance.”(66) 

501           The solitary comment on suicide(67)  from In God’s Love, if taken to mean that all who commit suicide are damned, would be against what the church teaches in the above quote.  What is important to note in the messengers quote on suicide is that nowhere does it state that all who commit suicide are damned.  It states that landing in hell is a possibility for “you have one more thing to lose.”  It does not say that all who “jump of that wall” lose it (eternal life with God).   So it could be read as those who commit suicide “end up in hell” or “could end up in hell”.  Because of the reasons that follow, I hold that the better reading of it is “could end up in hell.”

502            “By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance,” which would save the sinner from hell.  In the writings of In God’s Love, two passages come to mind that approach the footsteps of this stance of the Church, even though it is  not explicitly stated.  First, “A God who would die along with a person who has committed the most hideous crimes, a human being, who in His last breath cried out, ‘Forgive me.’ And God-in-man whose arms are stretched out, in such agony, dying on a cross, forgives him as He forgives all mankind.  Those who cry out, ‘Forgive me, Father. I am so sorry. I want to be where you are.’  That’s so inviting, so welcome, and the worst of sinners, even those most in need of His mercy, are given that chance.”(68)   In his last dying breath, this grave sinner cried out and was saved.  Note that it says “the worst of sinners, even the most in need of His mercy, are given that chance.” A second passage that approaches the stance of the Church concerns prayers that are seemingly unanswered.  The messengers write, “Some (prayers) are not answered until the last hour.  This is the time when spirits need prayer.  So prayers are answered at the last hour.  Those who receive answers to prayer at the hour of death are so thankful that God has saved their prayer until the time it is needed most.”(69)   Prayers for someone or that person’s prayers for themselves are answered at the most needed time and that time may be the moment of death.

503           To summarize this presentation on suicide, both the Church and the messengers believe that suicide is wrong.  Both the Church and the messengers believe that God is understanding and merciful regarding circumstances.  If the above solitary quote on suicide is the only place where we look for the messenger’s theology on suicide and the possibility of damnation by this action, then we might come to the conclusion that they contradict the Church’s teaching of a merciful God who can somehow offer one last chance.  (I believe that if God can create the universe with a word, then God can touch and offer life to the universe of our being in any space of time that exists between dying and a possible entrance into hell.)  If we look at all of the passages of In God’s Love we can see that while they do not explicitly state that God gives people who commit suicide a chance for repentance, they do state that in general, not just with suicide, that God does give even the worst sinner the opportunity to repent even at their dying breath.  So, taken as a whole, (and not just one way of reading nine sentences of one passage) In God’s Love theology of suicide agrees with the Church’s stance on suicide.

504           Abortion is killing a human being, therefore, it is wrong.  The command to not kill does not have any time limitations.  We should not destroy life before or after birth.  The Church, with its Scripture, speaks out against abortion: “Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception.  From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. <71>  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. <72>  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the Earth.<73>”(70)

505           Before reading further in “The Presentation,”  I would encourage the reader to reread the primary passage on abortion and contraception which is passage “#207 Sirts”. The messengers speak out against abortion and mourn for the spirits who commit abortion.  They profoundly write, “Rise up, voices of spirits slain in such a way. Cry for life, small ones of God. Children of Earth, sing a song of Holy innocence. Sing a song of Sirts. Songs of such sorrow, songs of such crimes reach Heaven in sorrow for their murderers. Souls of such sweetness see rest in God’s Spirit. This is real life. Those who send such little ones kill the spirits of themselves, and this is self aborted death.”(71)   Furthermore they state that the gift of eternal life is given at conception: “This is your gift of eternal life.  When you were conceived, this gift was given.”(72)   I present, we could rightly reason that the giving of eternal life is synonymous to the creating of a soul.  The Church and the messengers agree that abortion is killing.  Abortions are also very harmful to the spirit of those who have them, which is why the Church promotes Project Rachael.

506           Contraception and sterilization are wrong.  A husband and a wife should not prohibit life from being created.  The Church speaks out against prohibiting God’s natural creation of life within the very act of He created for that purpose.  As the Catechism states, “Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which ‘is on the side of life’ <150> teaches that ‘each and every marriage act must remain open 'per se' to the transmission of life.’<151> This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act.<152>”(73)   The Catechism also states, “Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.(157) These methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, ‘every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible’ is intrinsically evil. <158>   Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality.... the difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . . involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality. <159>”(74)

507           Without using the words contraception or sterilization, the messengers intimately describe God’s movement in our creation and His displeasure when His call to life is hindered.  With the images of nature they write, “On Earth, the seed is stifled, and the bud is pinched off. God calls a name very softly, and, in response to His calling, there is no answer. In this sign, God is very displeased. Signs of life are in a seed. Signs of life are created in a sprout. Small, oh so small, when God calls, ‘Let there be life.’ The seed answers, ‘Yes, Father, let there be life.’ Such signs are sacred in God’s Spirit. When such life is called in, inscribed in this way, but unfulfilled in God’s plans, God is displeased, and, in His displeasure, it is unwise to stand.”(75)   That pretty much summarizes the Church’s stance in a language even mere mortals can understand.  It also speaks of the Father’s creative hand and our restrictive stance.  If there is a more concise and beautiful summary of the Church’s stance on contraception and sterilization, I have not found it.   

  The next section in Part Two   Chapter 11 : 3/3