THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
1028. “You shall not kill” (Ex 20:13; Dt 5;17) forbids direct attacks on human life and physical integrity. It thus protects God’s gift of
life and promotes practical care and respect for the life and dignity of all persons. We Filipinos generally know the biblical
background of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel (cf. Gn 4:8). Even more relevant is God’s solemn warning in his covenant with Noah
that we will be held accountable for human life. Those who shed the blood of another, by others their blood shall be shed; for in the
image of God we have been made (cf. Gn 9:5-6; CCC 2260). This indicates that the basis for the extraordinary value of human life is
GOD. He is the Lord and Giver of life, in whom “we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
1029. All human life has its basic value and dignity, therefore, because we are all created in God’s image and likeness. Added dignity
and value are given by God’s Son becoming man in Jesus Christ, for his mission of salvation in the service of life. As “Word of life” (1
Jn 1:1), “light of life” (Jn 8:12) and “ bread of life” (cf. Jn 6:35, 51ff), Jesus came so that we “might have life, and have it to the full”
(Jn 10:10). He sent us the Holy Spirit who “gives life” (2 Cor 3:6). At the climax of his life, Christ “in fulfillment of [the Father’s] will,
gave himself up to death; but by rising from the dead, he destroyed death and restored life” (EP IV). Through his Passion, Death, and
Resurrection, Christ has become for us “the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25).
1030. In his teaching, Jesus both perfected and intensified the respect commanded for human life. He perfected the respect
enjoined by linking it directly with the great, ‘Love Command.’ “You have heard the commandment ‘You shall love your countryman
and hate your enemy.’ My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your persecutors. This will prove that you are sons of
your heavenly Father, for his sun rises on the bad and the good, he rains on the just and the unjust” (Mt 5:43-45). By
his command to root out all hatred and to love even one’s enemies, in imitation of God’s own manner
of acting, Jesus touched the fundamental question of life or death. “Anyone who hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that eternal life abides in no murderer’s heart” (1 Jn 3:15).
1031. Jesus intensified the commandment by forbidding even anger. “You have heard the commandment imposed on your
forefathers,‘You shall not commit murder; every murderer shall be liable to judgement. What I say to you is: everyone who grows
angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (Mt 5:21-22). Thus did Jesus go to the root of killing, and reveal anger of the heart
as the real menace. St. James repeated this teaching, as relevant today as it was for the early Christians. “Where do conflicts and
disputes among you originate? Is it not your inner cravings that make war within your members? What you desire you do not obtain,
and so you resort to murder. You envy and
you cannot acquire, so you quarrel and fight” (Jas 4:1-2).
1032. The basic value behind both the Fifth Commandment and Jesus’ teaching is that God alone is the ultimate Lord and Master of
life. Since life comes from and is sustained by God, it belongs to Him. Therefore, we are stewards of life who must respect and care
for our own lives and the lives of others. Hence it is not simply a question of “not killing,” but of protecting, promoting, and
enhancing the quality of life. “God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry
it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception” (GS 51).
1033. Vatican II emphasized respect for the quality of human life. This Council lays stress on respect for the human person: everyone
must consider every neighbor without exception as another self, taking into account first of all the life and the means necessary to
living it with dignity, so as not to imitate the rich man who had no concern for the poor man Lazarus (GS 27; cf. Lk 16:19-31). This
includes respecting the life and human dignity of those with whom we differ in terms of political, social, economic or religious
matters (cf. GS cf. 28). But as our Philippine bishops remind us, “to our continuing shame and sorrow as a people,” the lives and
dignity of such are often accounted so cheap in today’s Philippines. As disciples of Christ we must always be concerned for truth and
goodness. “But we must distinguish between the error which must be rejected and the person in error, who never loses his dignity
as a person” (GS 28).
1034. The Vatican Council also makes a summary of offenses against life itself, such as murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, and
willful suicide (cf. CCC 2268-83). In addition, it enumerates violations against the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation,
physical and mental torture, undue psychological pressures. Also listed are offenses against human dignity such as subhuman living
conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, prostitution. Even degrading working conditions can seriously threaten the quality
of human life when men and women are treated as mere tools for profit rather than as free and responsible persons. The Council
judges that “all these and the like are criminal. They poison human society and debase the perpetrators more than the victims, and
constitute a supreme dishonor to the Creator” (GS 27).
1035. In numerous pastoral letters the CBCP has alerted Filipino Catholics through the years of many grave dangers in our country
which imperil human life and dignity.* The letters themselves are quite outstanding for their clarity and precision, and extremely
pertinent to the concrete conditions among our people, such as the frequent kidnappings. But the problem of effectively
communicating them to the great majority of Filipino Catholics, together with an appropriate and ongoing follow-up, remains yet to
be solved. Much of the potential value of such instructive letters is undoubtedly lost for lack of adequate catechesis.
Particular Offenses Against Life
1036. Perhaps the most widespread abuse in our country against physical well-being are the common “vices” of alcohol and drug
abuse, and to a less intensive degree, smoking. Medical studies have proven the serious injury in terms of physical harm and
addiction, and psychological and social difficulties and dependence, which these vices can cause. The quality of life - and sometimes
life itself - of both the users and their family and close friends suffers greatly. More culpable still are drug dealers and pushers who,
for the sake of money, care nothing about drawing others, especially innocent youth, into addictive dependency that ruins their very
lives (cf. PCP II 381).
1037. Abortion, or the deliberate ejection of a nonviable fetus from the mother’s womb, is strictly prohibited by the 5th
Commandment as the killing of an innocent human being (cf. PCP II 585; CCC 2270-75). Yet, this moral position must be related to
the social and economic situation that most often is at the root of the problem. Many women who in anguish, depression and fear,
succumbed to having an abortion, felt they simply had no choice in the matter - they simply felt they had to do it. Consequently, the
equally urgent moral obligation is to help indigent mothers, expand adoption services, improve health care agencies for needy
women and children, and the like.
1038. The principle that direct killing of the innocent is always wrong holds also for mercy killing or euthanasia - doing away with the
handicapped and the terminally ill (cf. CCC 2276-79). No one has absolute power over life and death but God. We are stewards of
the gift of life granted us by God. Therefore we must take ordinary means to preserve life such as medicines, treatments and
operations that can be obtained and used without excessive sacrifice or expense, and when there is reasonable hope of benefit for
the patient.
1039. However, when there is no real hope for the patient’s genuine benefit, there is no moral obligation to prolong life artificially
by the use of various drugs and machines. In fact, using extraordinary means to keep comatose or terminally ill patients artificially
alive seems clearly to lack objective moral validity, especially in a society where the majority of the population do not enjoy even
adequate elementary health care.
1040. The terrible, unalterable act of taking of one’s own life, suicide, expresses a total loss of will to survive that results from
extreme depression and despair (cf. CCC 2280-83). Rather than an act of deliberate malice, suicide most often seems to be some
sort of psychological ‘short circuit’ which involves running away from a life that has become ‘impossible,’ and from a God who seems
completely absent. As in the case of abortion, much of the blame for this terrible loss falls on society in general, and especially those
more directly involved with the distressed person. As Christians we must do all in our power to help those tempted to take their own
lives, to recognize God’s personal love for them, and to continue to “hope in the Lord.”
1041. The practice of capital punishment has a long history dating from biblical times. But in recent times the practice of executing
those convicted of especially serious crimes has been questioned. The three traditional reasons for punishing criminals seem to be
lacking in the case of execution. First is retribution, or the vindication of the rights of the victim. Capital punishment, rather than
vindicating rights, seems to satisfy a spirit of vengeance or revenge, thus perpetuating the cycle of violence. Second, reform or
rehabilitation of the criminal. Obviously capital punishment, by taking the criminal’s life, destroys any chance for reform, and
moreover rejects any hope that God’s grace could effect such reform. Third, deterrence or discouraging others from committing the
same crime. Surprisingly enough, there is no conclusive proof that capital punishment actually deters others from serious crime.
What unfortunately can be shown is the number of hardened criminals who, after being released from prison, again commit serious
crimes against the community.
The Catholic Hierarchy of the Philippines (CBCP) in 1979 supported abolishing the Death Penalty, and this stand against capital
punishment was repeated in 1991 as “in consonance with the spirit of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ.” However the CCC does “not
exclude the death penalty in cases of exteme gravity” (CCC 2266). Surely the Christian ideal is to be able to abolish the death penalty
in view of respect for human life. But actual societal conditions in some countries may not be such as to make this ideal feasible.
Nevertheless, it remains a serious Christian task to work precisely toward changing social conditions so that the abolition of capital
punishment becomes an actual possibility.
1042. Finally, the traditional moral doctrine on “just war” proposed criteria which amount to little more than common moral sense.
War is judged moral when all the following conditions are present: a) a just cause; b) necessary to protect human rights and values
equal to life; c) for a good proportionate to human costs of war; d) with reasonable chance for success; e) declared by legitimate
authority; f) only as the last resort (cf. CCC 2307-17). It is extremely doubtful if these criteria were ever actually used by those
considering entering into war. In any case, this doctrine has undergone radical reevaluation since World War II with its introduction
of nuclear war.
1043. John XXIII, in his encyclical Pacem in Terris (1963), wrote: “It is irrational to believe that war is still an apt means of vindicating
violated rights.” What is clear is the moral imperative to work for PEACE. PCP II asserted that “Peace cannot be equated with the
absence of war, nor with a certain balance of power. It is a harmony in the human heart and in the social order brought about by
justice, requiring respect for human dignity and human rights, the promotion of the common good by one and all, and their constant
practice of solidarity.” Significantly, PCP II adds, quoting Vatican II, “Peace is likewise the fruit of love which goes beyond what justice
can provide” (GS 78; cf. PCP II 307).
1044. PCP II links peace in our country with “a strategy of nonviolence,” since our socio-economic and political situation is partly one
of violence and counter-violence. This requires “solidarity of spirit as well as action” as was manifested to an extraordinary degree in
the active non-violence of ‘People Power’ in the EDSA Revolution of 1986 (cf. PCP II 309). Moreover, since “the concrete demands of
the common good are constantly changing as time goes on, peace is never attained once and for all, but must be built up ceaselessly”
(GS 78). Yet, in the final analysis, the real peace we seek is the Lord’s because “It is he who is our peace” (Eph 2:14; cf. PCP II 307).
INTEGRATION
1045. Our Catholic faith has much to offer in this area of respect for human life. Perhaps never before in the history of human kind
has the quality of human life been so quickly and radically advanced as in our era. Yet never, too, has the continuing disparity
between the “have’s” and the “have-not’s” been so scandalous. The advances of science and technology have alleviated so much
human sickness, misery, suffering, and brutal toil, and brought so many good things to so many people. But, at the same time, they
have unfortunately often obscured some equally basic human life values. In the Philippines today, we can assert with assuredness
that the Christian Faith provides an irreplaceable contribution toward fostering the quality of Filipino life.
1046. Doctrinally, by grounding the dignity of human life in God the Creator/Redeemer - Father, Risen Incarnate Son and Holy Spirit -
our Faith safeguards reverence for parents and for human life in an unshakeable way. No power or institution on earth can take
away the human person’s inalienable dignity. Despite all the continuing violence, torture, suffering, and injustice in the world, and
even within our own country, believing in God our loving Creator stands as the abiding source of the Filipinos’ unquenchable human
thirst for freedom and justice.
1047. Moreover, this thirst is nourished, proclaimed and celebrated in the Christian liturgy in a twofold manner. First, by bringing us
to public, communal acknowledgement of our own sinfulness and failures, the liturgy cuts through all ideological condemnation of
“others” as the sole enemy of human life. Second, in praying: “Father, all life comes from you, through your Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord, by the working of the Holy Spirit” (EP III), we are brought inescapably before the Infinite Love that is the unique Source of our
very lives - and of all human life.
