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 By
Patrick M. Tigue ’04
I cannot take human life under any circumstance or for any
reason. This does not mean that I believe that ethics are simple. They
are not. I am generally suspicious of absolutism or orthodoxy when it comes
to the realm of ethical choice. But I believe, as a Roman Catholic, that
we live in a world touched most profoundly by God’s grace. I also
acknowledge the real presence of sin in the world. I mention this because
I want to register my deep belief that our world exists as imperfect. We
do not live in a state where the moral maxims that speak of the good may
be blandly stated as universal maxims with no attention to the concrete
experience of history. We live in history and must make our decisions accordingly,
based on that history and the One whom all history is moving toward, Jesus
Christ.
This being said, what we must never compromise is our commitment
to do the good in line with God’s will. Consequently, I believe that
doing fundamental violence to another human being is never good in God’s
eyes. I define “fundamental violence” as any act of aggression
that seeks to destroy what is human, and more deeply divine, in that person.
Things like torture or rape—which may not result in biological death—fall
within the realm of this prohibition. They are fundamentally evil and no
utilitarian aim can justify them.
As a Catholic and Christian, I am called to bring Christ
to this world, to be an instrument of His peace. Participation in fundamental
violence, or aiding in any effort that supports, sponsors or carries out
fundamental violence is totally unacceptable. The taking of a human life
is evil and the epitome of fundamental violence. This is why I cannot kill
or participate in any activity which, in any way, supports killing for
any reason.
The Catholic Church allows for its followers to take two
recognized positions regarding war and killing. One is the pacifist position
I have briefly outlined thus far. The other is the “just war tradition,” in
which killing is viewed as being permissible under very strict circumstances.
I fully embrace the first position as an authentic expression of God’s
will for the Church. I reject the latter position as, perhaps, well intentioned
but terribly misguided. At the root of the just war tradition is the notion
that some killing, in some circumstances, can be done out of love. The
entire theory of just killing relies on this notion. We can, the theory
claims, fulfill Christ’s dual commandment to love God and love our
neighbor by engaging in certain types of killing—a killing done out
of love. Killing done with love in your heart. I stand up today and firmly
say “no” to this idea.
I believe that God calls us to refrain from killing because
it cannot be done out of love. In fact, the very act of killing necessitates
the absence of love. I know this because it requires the dehumanization
of the one you kill. You would not, in your right mind, kill yourself.
The only way women and men move themselves to kill, I believe, is by first
attempting to erase the image of themselves, and more importantly, the
image of God, in the person whom they seek to kill. If they are successful
in blinding themselves to the person’s real nature and status—that
of a child of God, whom Christ is utterly present in—then killing
becomes possible. I have a profound faith that Christ never asks us to
deny His presence. Killing requires such a denial of God, through whose
grace all good things come.
We are called to make many ethical compromises. This is a
part of being human in the world God has so graciously crafted for us.
Killing, because it is always evil, cannot be a part of such a compromise.
The Holy Spirit begs us to realize this. Wisdom, at Her most profound,
speaks to us in whispers that we cannot ignore, and calls us to a conversion
of heart where the thought of taking a life should be, and is, unfathomable.
I refuse to kill what I am supposed to love, and as a Christian, I am called
to love each human person as a child of God. Killing radically damages
my ability to love and radically destroys that very capacity in the other
person whom I kill.
In one way of thinking of it, the Holy Spirit helps us understand
ourselves by making us understand the first Other—and the most important
relationship we engage in—is our relationship to God. He is the first
and final Other. And when we kill, we are being asked to strike out with
hate and violence toward God. We are being asked to kill an image of the
divine. If I am called to show reverence, respect, and to give thanks to
the Lord for those made in His image, how can I possibly smash a mirror
of the divine in another human being? I cannot. I will not. Christ calls
me to speak up and refuse any such request no matter who requests it and
out of whatever motives they do so. Not for the state. Not for my family.
Not even for myself. I cannot kill if I am to love God or to love anything
at all.
I believe this enough to give my life for it if that is what
I am called to do. Being ready to give one’s life in the service of
what one believes is what Christ calls us to. This is what He did, and,
as He promised, He transcended this sacrifice through His Resurrection
and made us understand His love anew. There is a profound difference between
such an act of nonviolent resistance, such as the Crucifixion, and the
actions of a soldier who takes a life on the battlefield. Christ teaches
us to be desperately active. The call to pacifism, for me, is not passive.
It is simply absent of violence. If there were a way for me to die to protect
my family or my country without killing, I would do so without hesitation,
if the cause were clearly just. But no cause is just enough for me to kill.
Christ will not come that way. We cannot bring His peace through violence
and death. It is true that any peace, no matter how it is established,
will be provisional until everything is fulfilled in Christ. We therefore
have an obligation to listen to the Holy Spirit’s whispers, and to
attempt to fashion a peace that will serve humanity for as much time as
possible. However, we cannot allow ourselves to be blinded in our desire
for peace.
We must accept that any peace we achieve now will be temporary.
This does not mean we should use violence as a means to achieve a temporary
peace. In fact, it necessitates the exact opposite response. Because the
peace of Christ will only fully come with Christ, we must trust that this
is so and refrain from arrogantly assuming that we can create that peace
ourselves through violence. We cannot control and make peace through violence.
We can only let the peace of Christ happen through us by loving one another,
even in the most difficult circumstances. I refuse, through the act of
killing, to claim, in a prideful manner, through evil no less, that I do
not need God. That I can keep the peace myself. That I, by destroying the
human person—through which Christ seeks to bring about His peace—will
make His peace my own. This is not what I am called to. I am called, as
a person of faith, to trust the Lord. To trust in what the Spirit speaks
to me. To let go of control and not seek to dominate others through killing,
even if they seek to dominate me. An opportunity to kill or to respond
with active nonviolence is an opportunity to say “no” or “yes” to
God’s call to be human. I am firmly and totally committed to saying “yes” to
God and, therefore, “no” to killing and “no” to war
which simply magnifies killing to a ludicrous magnitude.
War will never achieve peace because only Christ can do that.
And Christ already showed us that his power is not in munitions and slaughter
but in the Cross. The Cross stands always as the fundamental symbol of
my life. I look up to it. I see it everywhere, and it inspires me to love.
And this love—the love I am called to, the love that bears the cross—cannot
manifest itself in killing because that is exactly what it bore and bears.
Christ gave Himself up to death instead of causing more death.
In this giving up, He defeated death. I cannot, and will not, dishonor
God by futilely trying to make His Son’s sacrifice meaningless. I
will follow His path to life which leads away from killing. A Christian
cannot bring death because Christ brought only life. I am a Christian before
anything else. I, too, will bring only life. I shall not kill.
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