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According to the Jewish faith, suicide is prohibited by the Torah, but the Talmud shows great sensitivity when people end their lives in the wake of overwhelming loss. As Jay D. Homnick describes in American Spectator: “One episode recounted there (Hullin 94a) involves a man who accidentally sold his costly barrel of wine for the price of olive oil. There were some oil drippings on the cover of the barrel and he had mislabeled it as the much cheaper liquid. When he realized he was wiped out financially, he hanged himself. The rabbi’s response was to caution the public not to drip oil on wine barrels”.
To turn that example into a Christian perspective, remember the betrayer Judas, who, in his extreme remorse, flung the thirty pieces of silver right back into the faces of the Establishment, and then went out and hung himself. Judas, to coin the phrase from above, mistook the oil of the Spirit of God as a troublemaker, at the very same time that the wine of the cup was being described by Jesus as “this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins, do this in remembrance of me”. Unfortunately for Judas, he completely misread the oil drippings on the cover of the Christ, and also the blessing of salvation from the Cup of the wine.
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Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality… ~ I Corinthians 15:51-53
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FRENCH POLICE WORKING TO RECOVER REMAINS from the Germanwings crash site say so far they have recovered between 400 and 600 pieces of remains from the 150 people who died in Tuesday’s plane crash. Speaking from the French Alps town of Seyne-les-Alpes, Col. Patrick Touron of the gendarme service said “we haven’t found a single body intact.”
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But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness… ~ II Peter 3:10-11
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MARSEILLE PROSECUTOR BRICE ROBIN SAYS PASSENGERS on the doomed Germanwings flight could be heard screaming just before the crash. He said the co-pilot’s responses, initially courteous, became “curt” when the captain began the mid-flight briefing on the planned landing of the Germanwings flight which crashed in France, killing 150 people. He refused to give details on the pilot’s religion or ethnic background. The prosecutor says German authorities were taking charge of the investigation of the co-pilot, whom he identified as Andreas Lubitz. Robin refused to give details on the pilot’s religion, saying: “I don’t think it’s necessarily what we should be looking for.” The plane and everything and everybody in it was “pulverized and vaporized. Death was instantaneous.”
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Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I … ~ John 14:27-28
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IN THIS CONTEXT WE EXAMINE THE CASE OF THE GERMANWINGS copilot who willfully smashed a full passenger plane into the Alps, ending 149 lives besides his own. A French cabinet minister angrily rejected the appellation of “suicide” to this act, and I heartily concur. This is a malicious genocide and the murderer’s willingness to give his own life in the process makes it worse, not better. Just as we admire heroes who give their lives for epic efforts of goodness we must despise zeroes who give their lives for epic efforts of badness.
Germans have a good word for this kind of suicide. They call it selbstmorder — murder of the self. This is not the spark of life extinguished in the chill wind of despair. This is the eldritch screech of deviltry twisting the human heart into an instrument of evil. Sad that we as a society handed 149 innocents into the clutches of the monster.
As for us, people who strive to be decent and constructive and who take our custodial responsibilities seriously, we can take one lesson to heart. It is something I learned back in 1981, when I landed in Israel for the first time at the age of twenty-three. Walking starry-eyed through the streets of Jerusalem, I was astonished at the hardy pace of construction all around the city. Soon I was standing next to one vast excavation where the construction of a large office building was set to begin.
On the corrugated steel fencing of the worksite, someone had written this message in the name of Rabbi Nachman of Breslau (1772-1810), who made a specialty of encouraging the pessimistic and the despondent: “IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE THE POWER TO DEMOLISH, BELIEVE YOU HAVE THE POWER TO BUILD!”
~ From Jay D. Homnick, American Spectator
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Take My Hand, Precious Lord…
When my way grows drear precious Lord linger near
When my life is almost gone
Hear my cry, Hear my call
Hold my hand lest I fall
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, Let me stand
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
When the darkness appears and the night draws near
And the day is past and gone, At the river I stand
Guide my feet, Hold my hand
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, Let me stand
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night
Lead me on to the light
Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home
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Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday .. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked .. Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation .. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways ..
~ Psalm 91:5-6, 8-11
IN MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS OF THE AIR DISASTER
OF MARCH 24th 2015
Sole` Deo Gloria!