Murderer from the beginning:Evangelium Vitae

from Evangelium Vitae  #8:

“Brother kills brother. Like the first fratricide, every murder is a violation of the “spiritual” kinship uniting mankind in one great family, 11 in which all share the same fundamental good: equal personal dignity. Not infrequently the kinship “of flesh and blood” is also violated; for example when threats to life arise within the relationship between parents and children, such as happens in abortion or when, in the wider context of family or kinship, euthanasia is encouraged or practised.

At the root of every act of violence against one’s neighbour there is a concession to the “thinking” of the evil one, the one who “was a murderer from the beginning” (Jn 8:44). As the Apostle John reminds us: “For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, and not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother” (1 Jn 3:11-12). Cain’s killing of his brother at the very dawn of history is thus a sad witness of how evil spreads with amazing speed: man’s revolt against God in the earthly paradise is followed by the deadly combat of man against man.”

11 Saint Ambrose, De Noe, 26:94-96: CSEL 32, 480-481.

John Paul II

Dear Loreto House Family,

What I have come to understand, at least in my own reflection, is that when a person commits an act of violence, there is a moment when they cross a threshold from the emotions to the willful act and a turning over of the will to evil.  This is when sin takes place, when an act of the will is accomplished.  As JPII reflects, it is truly astonishing how fast evil spreads and the depth to which it penetrates in the human soul.  However, it also makes me love God even more because of the depth to which He came to redeem the human soul.

In Christ Our Life,

Katherine