Another interesting question that arises from a general consideration of this subject is whether or not there is anyone who would genuinely want another person to die for them.
Going back to the armed services angle of it, I totally appreciate these guys die for my freedoms. I don’t want them to die, but I would rather they willingly die, doing what they believe in doing and knowing that without their doing it there would be no freedoms, then for me and everyone else to lose what previous generations fought and died to get for us.
But I just thought of another angle, I’ll call it a “mystical” angle.
Back to giving people a part of our lives, I appreciate it when somebody stops to say hello and chat for a minute when they really don’t have to. Or trusts their feelings with me by telling me a personal story. I love it when people give me a minute of their time. Whether it is their last minute or not, it’s still a part of themselves.
When we are told to give the tunic as well, or to walk a second mile, Jesus is clearly talking about giving somebody much more than what we “owe” them, as a spiritual exercise. (It isn’t that God’s up there counting beans.)
Like if a person asks for something, and you give it to them, it may not be selfless. If you don’t give it, you might go around all day feeling like you avoided what you should have done. But if you go “over the top” then as long as you’re not just feeding ego, you are making a FREE WILL decision to give something of yourself.
If it is a young person, and they pay attention to me, and even believe in me, whether in person or on chat, I feel lucky they have given some of their “fresh new” lives to this old one. Makes me feel important on this planet. A young person listening to me tell them about the “old days” is qualitatively dying for me. I try to make it up to them by being interesting enough to be worth their time – but it is just a mutual favor not quid pro quo. Ideally. And that’s what I’m about – ideally what is possible, and how do we get there?
On one level, it’s easy to suppose that there would be considerable relief at being spared a horrible fate - but if you, in turn, value the life of the person who has sacrificed for you, what longer-term effects would this sacrifice have upon you?
Great point. I think it can be devastating, depending on where you are spiritually and of course the specifics.
Obviously this is one of those questions that can only be fairly superficially examined unless one has actually experienced the circumstances involved; but I can’t help thinking that if someone willingly gave their life for me, the burden of guilt, for one thing, would be very hard to bear. Am I worth it? The sacrifice of a life for a life implies a lot - anything short of perfection (and who doesn’t fall short pretty much all of the time?) would be amplified to a failure, all the more onerous because it would be a failure of the faith your benefactor placed in you, a faith so great they were willing to give their life for it. Such, I think, is the core of what is known as “Catholic guilt” - but even that is alleviated by the belief that Jesus came back to life three days after his crucifixion.
I’ve heard quite a few times, “YOU did that to Jesus. YOU put Him on the cross by YOUR sins.” Or, “if you disobey your mother and refuse to eat your Brussels Sprouts, then YOU have just hammered in one more nail!!” It’s maddening. I could cut out the tongues of people who use that guilt/blame/shame garbage on innocent children especially. People get messed up their whole lives over that.
If someone dies for me, I’d spend a part of my life honoring them by doing something they would want done. By keeping in touch with the survivors and helping them however I can. By giving to others of myself, in like fashion and in memory of, the lost one. Lighting candles. Having Masses said. Playing music and dedicating it to them. By writing that letter to the editor the other person always thought about writing.
Alan
