Do I Really Own Anything?

The Agony in the Garden by Andrea Mantegna

I've been getting into discussions on 'assisted-suicide' on the Telegraph blog, following George Pitcher's post on the tragic news of an elderly couple who decided to go to Swiss clinic, 'Dignitas', to be euthanised together, as both had terminal cancer. It's very sad. George's article was thoughtful and compassionate, but he certainly ruffled a few feathers of the readers. I kept my comments to the errors of 'assisted suicide' in general, the pro-death agenda of society today and talked about how, in the light of the Sorrowful Sufferings of Christ, who suffered in a way we cannot comprehend fully, God Himself shed new light upon the meaning of human suffering.

George's post ruffled a few feathers because many people were outraged by the idea that our lives are not ours to take. Up until quite recently mainstream society seemingly believed this. The logic and argument of so many of the commentators was this: 'The only thing I know I truly own, in this World, is my own life, therefore it is my choice and my choice alone what I do with it and I can choose when I die.' Human logic and reason, without God, quite understandably says, "It is my life, therefore it is my death." They made it sound like life was something of a possession. 'It is my life, therefore I own it!'

The Catholic knows that this is not true. Everything and everyone belongs to God. God is the only One who truly owns anything and indeed everything because He is Eternal and He is the Creator; The Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Universe, the Earth and of course us are His. For we cannot say, "It is my life," from the grave. For when we are dead, everything that we own ceases to belong to us (if indeed it ever did), including our bodies and lives.

All of our possessions gather dust and the 'owner' of all of these things has disappeared from human sight and now lies in the grave. How hollow then are the words, 'These things here are my belongings.' In truth, in this life, we own nothing, because we will all die. When we die, we can take nothing with us to the Next Life, not even our own bodies. When we die we meet God, who will judge us according to our lives and deeds. We pray He is merciful towards us and pray we shall have a Happy Death, fortified by the Sacraments of the Church.

This idea, that 'I own my life', that 'it belongs to me and me alone', like every idea that is ungodly is as a result of the Fall. Adam and Eve were given life by God in the Garden of Eden. Yet, until they ate the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they were not aware of their nakedness and did not see their lives in terms of ownership and possession, but were wholly innocent, living in harmony and Communion with God. God gave them free will and because they chose disobedience of God, rather than God's will, we inherit their fallen human nature. This is called Original Sin, and although the stain of Original Sin is washed away by Baptism we are still very much affected by it. We still fail to choose God's will, instead choosing our own self-will.

Prior to the Fall, they did not see their lives in terms of possessions, but saw themselves as God's creatures, for they were! Indeed, we are! The separation from God, the sin, pride and self-will that came as a result of the Fall ushered in the tragedy of human sin which saw Cain murder Abel to the present day sins that afflict the human race and sins that we all commit. Part of that sin, the result of the Fall, is the notion that it is 'my life' to do with 'as I choose' and that there is no Moral Law or Authority higher than ourselves to Whom we must give account. Atheism, like all sin, is a result of the Fall.

The Redeemer of the World, Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ, on the other hand, redeemed the World by His total obedience to the Heavenly Father. When He knew that He was to suffer agony, torturous suffering and death upon the Cross, in the Garden of Gethesemene, Christ could have said, 'No! It is my life!" He did not, because He knew He belonged to God and that His Life was meant to be lived in obedience to the Will of the Father, even unto His Death on the Cross. He prayed, 'Let this cup of suffering pass me by, but not as I will but as Thou wilt'. Christ did not kill himself, remember. No, the people of His time killed Him, and important to remember, by default, the whole human race committed Deicide, because He was crucified to atone for our sins and we have all sinned. On the Cross, He pleaded on our behalf to the Heavenly Father. He continues to plead on our behalf now at the Right Hand of the Heavenly Father.

So then, is my life my own? Recently I was in the shower looking at my rather skinny frame and thought this. 'This body, does it belong to me?' I looked at my skin and marvelled a little at the protective layer of tissue that wraps up my blood and bones and again asked, 'Does this belong to me? Is my body truly mine or does it belong to God?' Am I mine, or do I belong to God? I guess the truth of the matter is that it is in one sense my body, but in another sense it belongs to God. It has been given to me, but it does not belong to me alone, it belongs to God. It is His Creation, therefore it belongs to Him.

Therefore my life, is mine, in one sense, for it has been given to me, but it does not belong to me. No, for I belong to God. Indeed, whether I choose to believe this or not, whether you choose to believe this or not, I belong to God and you belong to God, for it is God to Whom you and I shall return at the end of our lives. If my life, my body, my heart does not belong to me, but to God then I do not have the right to end my life, kill my body or stop my heart, because the ownership of these is God's. For this reason, suicide, like every other '-cide', be it homicide, infanticide, fratricide, regicide or Deicide, is taking of life that is not ours to take.

St Francis determined to own nothing, but only for the motive that he may possess life in God, unhindered by the passing vanities of this World. For St Clare of Assisi it was the same and for each man or woman who renounces his or her possessions and life for the sake of the Gospel, there would be a great awareness that nothing in this passing World is to be possessed or owned. Yet, for every Catholic the prayer, however, remains the same:

Our Father,
Who art in Heaven
Hallowed by Thy Name
Thy Kingdom Come
Thy will be done
On Earth as it is in Heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our tresspasses
As we forgive those who tresspass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil

In relation to 'assisted suicide' the phrases that leap out of the 'Our Father' are this: 'Thy will be done' and 'lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil'. Assisted suicide and suicide in general are the sorry reflection of our sin, our rejection of divine Hope, our lack of trust in God, our fear of suffering and our lack of moral courage to do God's will, rather than our own. It is also a great temptation to avoid suffering by ending our lives when times get hard. But it is a temptation and we Catholics pray that we will be 'delivered from evil' if that temptation should arise. We believe that the body, our bodies, when we are alive and still when we are dead are important to God, because we believe in the Resurrection of the Body which will take place at the End of Time, to which Job alluded when he cried out: 'For I know that my Redeemer liveth and I shall see my God. In my own flesh I shall see Him, I, and not another. How my heart yearns!' Anyway...I'm off to have another cigarette now...