YOUCAT Lesson 378
YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth
The Fifth
Commandment: You shall not kill.
378 Why is it not
permissible to take one’s own life or the lives of others?
God alone is Lord over life and death. Except in the case of legitimate self-defense
of oneself or another, no one may kill another human being. [2258-2262,
2318-2320]
Psalm 51, which is attributed to King
David, is a psalm of a repentance. The
king had caused one of his soldiers, Uriah the Hittite, to die in battle in an
attempt to cover the king’s act of adultery with the soldier’s wife, Bathsheba
(2 Samuel 11:14-17).
In the psalm, David says in his prayer of repentance to God, “Against you, you alone have I sinned; I have done what is evil
in your eyes so that you are just in your word, and without reproach in your
judgment.” The truly repentent David won God’s merciful forgiveness and was
destined to be an ancestral parent of Mary the mother of Jesus and through
separate family lineage, an ancestor of Joseph, the foster father of
Jesus.
An attack on life is a sacrilege committed against God. Human life is sacred; this means that it
belongs to God; it is his property. Even
our own life is only entrusted to us.
God himself has given us the gift of life; only he may take it back from
us. The Book of Exodus, translated literally,
says “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13).
“No one can under any circumstance claim for himself the
right directly to destroy an innocent human being.” Vatican Instruction “Donum Vitae” (1987)
THE
FIFTH COMMANDMENT
You shall not kill. (Exodus 20:13; Compare Deuteronomy 5:17.)54--Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second
Edition
You have heard that it was said to the men of old, "You
shall not kill: and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment." But I say
to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to
judgment. (Matthew 5:21-22.)55 --CCC
2259 In
the account of Abel's murder by his brother Cain, (Compare Genesis 4:8-12.)57 Scripture reveals the presence of anger and
envy in man, consequences of original sin, from the beginning of human history.
Man has become the enemy of his fellow man. 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." (Genesis 4:10-11.)58 –CCC
For your lifeblood I
will surely require a reckoning. . . . Whoever sheds the blood of
man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image. (Genesis 9:5-6.)59 –CCC
2261 Scripture specifies the
prohibition contained in the fifth commandment: "Do not slay the innocent
and the righteous." (Exodus 23:7.)61 The deliberate murder of an
innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the
golden rule, and to the holiness
of
the of the Creator. The law forbidding
it is universally valid: it obliges each and everyone, always and everywhere. --CCC
2262 In
the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord recalls the commandment, "You shall not
kill," (Matthew 5:21.)62 and adds to it the proscription of anger,
hatred, and vengeance. Going further, Christ asks his disciples to turn the
other cheek, to love their enemies. (Compare Matthew 5:22-39; Mt 5:44.)63 He
did not defend himself and told Peter to leave his sword in its sheath. (Compare Matthew 26:52.)64 --CCC
IN BRIEF
2318 "In [God's] hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind" (Job 12:10). --CCC
2319 Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God. --CCC
2320 The murder of a human being is gravely contrary to the dignity of the person and the holiness of the Creator. --CCC
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