There are many teachings in the New Testament just one example is the parable of the ‘Lost Son’. It is a story of a son who spends his entire share of his Father’s money but later realises what a mistake he has made .He returns to his Father and asks for penance an action that will act as a remedy for the main fault of him. However his Father forgave him instantly. This shows if you are truly sorry for sins God will always forgive you. The parable teaches us affectively on how to follow the way of God.
Forgiveness is not always handed out by God we also as good Catholics need to learn to forgive others. This is taught in the ‘Unmerciful Servant’. This parable is about the Master who followed the way of God and forgave a servant, however the same servant didn’t forgive another servant who wronged him and beats the other servant. The Master took note of this and banned the servant for eternity. This teaches us that if we bare grudges amongst our fellow man and we do not forgive him like God forgives us when we are truly sorry then we will be punished by not having the gift of eternal life.
There are many theories of punishment. Prison is one of these theories; this is usually handed out to criminals that may harm the public, for example if the criminal commits rape or murder. Another form of punishment is Community service where the criminal has to perform task for the community such as cleaning graffiti of walls, this punishment is usually given to minor crimes such as vandalism so that the criminal can put something back into the community.
Capital punishment involves the death sentence; this punishment mainly takes place when the criminal has committed murder. This form of punishment is the best deterrent of all, and is a subject under major debate across the world. Man people believe if capital punishment were injected into most countries there crime rate would lower.
However Christian’s attitudes are somewhat different. Christians feel that capital punishment should never take place, as many Christians believe the commandment ‘thou shall not kill’. Christians also believe that all human life is sacred and believe that only God can judge us if we shall live or die. There are many lines mentioned about capital punishment in Mathews Gospel that we should set aside the rule of ‘an eye for an eye’ in which Jesus was sent down to remove. One of these passages is Mathew 5:38-42 where it says ‘do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you.’ Also many Christians point to the fact that many people are wrongly judged and receive capital punishment and are later found out not guilty.
Christian’s arguments against capital punishment, are that they feel nobody apart from God has the right to take a life away from somebody as it is said ‘Cast the first stone those who are free of sin’ as if we should we are as bad as the person committing the offence. People have often been found innocent later on after the capital punishment had been ordered out. However many of the Catholics beliefs are set out in the catechism which is a series of questions and answers which helps the believers to understand on what they should believe in and on the case of capital punishment the Catholics belief is that ‘ the traditional teachings of the church has acknowledged as well as founded the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with gravity of the crime, including in cases of extreme gravity the death penalty.’ However with this statement if the church believes it is up to the authority to make decisions then how comes abortion and euthanasia are unacceptable in the church.
Some people may agree that only God can give life and take it away as they believe that God has given us a gift of life and it he is only one that can decide if he will give or take this away from us. It is said everybody is created in his image if that is so, if we go and murder a person we therefore are murdering apart of him. They may also agree with this statement as they feel all Human life is sacred and that every man must be able to recognise that. Abortion and euthanasia is condemned in every age of the Catholic Church, in the case of abortion they believe that abortion is in defensive as the child is innocent, and incapable of defending itself, has the same rights as the mother, and abortion is considered a mortal sin. Euthanasia is also condemned due to the beliefs of the sanctuary of life, it is also believed that assisted suicide, voluntary euthanasia and non voluntary euthanasia are wrong as they are forms of committing murder where people are taking on Gods role. However, I feel that only God has the right to decide if we live or die as I feel it is a gift from God and that we should take extreme care of it and live our life out until it is our time to die. The case of abortion I feel is wrong in certain issues, such as if the women has a chance of dieing by giving birth with this issue I believe the unborn child cannot be valued above the life of the women or if a women has been raped. Also in this case I feel at times it is right that we show some Christian compassion and allow the women to decide what she feels is best for herself. On the subject of mercy killing otherwise known as euthanasia I feel that if it will ease the suffering of a person than I feel it is acceptable especially if the person will be suffering a long term pain. In conclusion I have rather mixed emotions to the subject of only God can take or give life, but to come to a final decision I feel I disagree with this statement and I believe it is up to the person involved in the situation if they should live or die.
