In my Philosophy 2, I had an argument with a friend of mine. Yes we were trying to understand the rationale behind the deaths of many Christ's faithfuls under the name of martyrdom. For my friend, martyrdom is just the Christening of the evil called suicide. Indeed he saw many martyrs as "suicidists" if I may be permitted to use that word. This discussion about the authenticity of martyrdom came up again in our canon law class, and every talk circled round the fact that these individuals who died for their faith are nothing more than people who committed suicide. A perfect example was brought forth and the name of the Saint was Maximilian Kolbe. I admire in fact what Kolbe did, and I think that it was quite outstanding, I guess it is high time we drew a very big line between sacrificing ones life for God and committing suicide. First of all we must understand what suicide is. Suicide (Latin suicidium, from sui caedere, "to kill oneself") is the act of a human being intentionally causing his or her own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair, or attributed to some underlying mental disorder which includes depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism and drug abuse. Financial difficulties, interpersonal relationships and other undesirable situations play a significant role. Suicide is the act of deliberately taking one's own life. Suicidal behavior is any deliberate action with potentially life-threatening consequences, such as taking a drug overdose or deliberately crashing a car. Now let us consider why people enter or choose the option of Suicide. Suicide is chiefly engineered by depression. But what is depression? Depression is a serious mood disorder that affects the way a person thinks, feels and acts. It is not just feeling “blue” for no reason for a day or two. It is a lengthy pit of despair where hope is just a memory and suicide appears to be a reasonable, real choice. Suicide will end a person’s emotional suffering instantly, and it makes the person feel like they are removing one of the causes of pain and suffering for others in their lives as well. Now we know that some people adamantly think martyrdom to be suicide. to those people I will say this: martyrdom is suicide with the virtue of HOPE attached to it, hope in life after, hope that such an individual will behold the beatific vision of God and enjoy in the presence of He (Christ) to whom he/she offered up his/her life. Let us understand now what martyrdom is. Martyrdom, in its traditional sense, refers to the death of someone because of his or her religious beliefs. The term is most commonly used for the early Christians, but also applies to the pagans who were killed when Christianity became dominant. From the Greek word meaning ‘witness’, the term was originally used within Christianity for the Apostles — that is, those who had witnessed Christ's life and resurrection. As Christians came to be persecuted in the pre-Constantinian period, it was used first for those who underwent hardship for the faith, and then only for those who died for the faith. The suffering body plays an important role in the martyrdom accounts of the early Church. In that act of suffering torture and enduring death, the martyr defeated the enemy (identified with the devil) and imitated the suffering and endurance of Christ on the Cross. The truth of the matter is that the one who commits suicide does so with no thought of Hope in mind, he has reached the end of his strength and considers death as the only option. Such an individual would not have killed himself/herself, assuming he did not reach the stage of depression as our definition above, stated. No martyr would love to take his/her life ordinarily in the way a "suicidist" would do. This is because all martyrs did consecrate their lives to God and looked upon their lives not as theirs but as God's. The story of the mother and the seven brothers in the 2 book of Maccabees chapter 7, brings to light the difference between martyrdom and suicide. Now anyone would have thought it foolish that the mother and her children prefer death to life. Why would they not preserve their lives so that they can serve their God with their lives? Can the dead give praise to God? Are we not meant to be in charge of our lives? God has given us this life of ours for us to be custodians of it, thus we have a call to self-defend that which God in his kindness have given to us. Indeed all are called to preserve their lives, but again that same God through the person of Christ says that the saving of our lives means its loss and the loss for the kingdom of God means salvation for such life. Can God be contradicting Himself? No. Now we are called to self-defend our lives, but we are also called to self-defend our faith. In the order of preference, our faith comes before our lives because this world is not our eternal home, we are just here on pilgrimage, we are just here in preparation for our heavenly homeland. What Maximilian Kolbe did and Indeed what all the martyrs did and would do, is live out the life Christ lived while on earth, I call that living in close contact with Christ. What we should all understand is that martyrs gave their lives out of love for Christ. Yes love is what motivated their acts such that they regarded themselves in that light, in the light of LOVE. Why should we place suicide and martyrdom side by side? He who commits suicide is guilty of the sin called selfishness and he who is martyred for his faith, is guilty of the virtue called selflessness. When love reaches the extent that one is able to lay down his life for another, or for ones faith then, that love transcends the normal earthly love that we are known for and attains a new definition, it becomes in every way divine. Divine love is hard to come about nowadays in this world of ours because this world is getting more selfish.
How would you define the act of a parent taking a bullet for his/her child or a friend taking the blame for his partner? What Maximilian Kolbe did and what all the saints do is similar to what a mother or a father does for his child. As a priest He was father to all and he needed to be that which he was- a fatherly figure. Martyrdom is the fullest expression of ones love for God as seen in and translated through love of ones neighbour. Martyrdom is love and although both martyrdom and suicide fall under the name of self-sacrifice, one is of virtue while the other is a vice.
