On Suicide and Our Love for Its Victims

When there is a death in the public sphere, society and social media tend to center around it and feel a personal sense of loss.  And that sense is very much real.  I have spent more time with Robin Williams' work in my life than with some of my extended family.  I have spent more time reading Star Wars books than biology books.  This shows us that there is some real loss in our lives, even if we have never met the deceased in their lifetime.

            Also, I work hard to not get excited about celebrities.  I had a very short stint in the theatre as a kid and worked with a few people who are notable.  I saw the chinks in their armor and how they had to take one day at a time. 

            Now, it is not the Star Wars world that has been wracked by a suicide, but I see on my social media feeds that this latest apparent suicide has affected many in my Star Wars circles.  So, let's look at the value of life first, and then what it means to lose a life in a tragic manner.

 Value of Life

Episode I spent a lot of time introducing us to our potential protagonist.  Anakin Skywalker was special boy, created to serve a greater purpose and to help people with his extraordinary gifts. 

Qui-Gon: The Force is unusually strong with him, that much is clear.  Who was his father?

Shmi: There was no father, that I know of...I carried him, I gave him birth...I can't explain what happened.

            This is indeed a special boy, capable of bringing much joy and goodness into the world.

Shmi: Annie, remember when you climbed the great dune in order to chase the Banthas away so they wouldn't be shot?... Remember how you collapsed several times, exhausted thinking you couldn't do it?

               His utter compassion was the result of his great inherent goodness.  All human beings have this great goodness.  You, my dear readers, were born inherently good.  You are valuable and you are special because you exist.  If you never existed, then you could make the opposite case.

               In the real world, human life is valuable because we are created with the free will choice to love our neighbors and our loving creator.

               After a while, when the wonder and innocence of youth is thrown away for the pursuit of earthly pleasures, we begin to ignore our goodness.  It is not my contention that we are born bad - just the opposite.  All people, though, have chosen some thing to either abuse, idolize, or overindulge in.  Food, alcohol, sex, money, power, entertainment, whatever.  Insert your particular idol of choice.  We become captives to our sin; not because we are predisposed to it, but because the temptations of this world are so powerful that all throughout history, save one, have succumbed to the seduction.  

 Tragic Loss

            So when our lives are damaged, when our psyche has become enthralled with our own illness, we are powerless over our particular addictions.  I will not pretend that I have been in a suicidal state.  I will not pretend that I know even the first thing about those who take their own life.  What I aim to do is offer consolation and the tiniest bit of understanding for us.

            So, to keep with the theme that we love and see goodness in, let us look at Anakin's life later.  The sinister element in Anakin's life had been softening his resolve for years without permission.  This kind and gentle boy was being twisted by external forces over which he had no real control.  Darth Sidious was turning good to evil for self-justification.  In a time of weakness, following his seemingly prophetic dream about Padme, Anakin hears this story from his trusted friend:

Sidious:  Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise that he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying.

            Evil overcame the good when the good lost sight of his love for his loved ones.  Anakin wanted to put his love in a pantheon of collected loves - from which he often lost them because of the underlying selfish motives.  But this is Anakin's story, and I am not casting any aspersion on a real person. 

            For us, we are Anakin in this story.  We love others, and yet still the evil one tries to pull us down from the heights of humility, compassion and selflessness.  The evil one teaches us to love ourselves above all others.  And in the genius, the strong and the blessed, he has to use more subtle means.  He creates an irrefutable despair that cannot be overcome.

            This is merely a feeling of despair or helplessness that is not coming from within the patient, but from without.  It is an external force bent on destruction of its victim.  Our illnesses and temptations do not come from within our goodness, but from the devil himself. 

            So when someone's psyche turns toward thoughts of harm, mutilation or suicide, it is quite often not necessarily hatred of humanity and the Divine.  This is true of despair, when one feels that God no longer loves them.  This is not natural for us, since we are created to be good.  It was not medically understood for many years what caused the majority of suicides.  It was assumed that the perpetrator was turned evil or was full of hate or had decided to leave the society of his brothers and sisters.  This is not a good way to look at it, so I won't dwell here for fear of temptation.  Irredeemable suicide is an Augustinian teaching, and not necessarily that of the rest of the Church. 

Final Analysis, Or, Analysis of the FInal

Suicide is more often than not caused by some sort of mental illness.  This is not a value statement on the person or the family out of which the tragedy emanates.  There are instances of mental illness in my own family, and I know that the afflicted person is just as good and lovable as someone who is not mentally ill.  I urge you to look at mental illness the same way you look at a deformed leg or a heat condition.  It is not there because of the sins of the sick one, but a happenstance of evil being present in the world.

            In a pastoral letter that was sent to the faithful of the Orthodox Church in 2007, we read the following:

In her wisdom, the Church has acknowledged the complex etiology and emotionally charged character of a suicide. The corruption of human nature, brought about by the ancestral sin, carried profound implications for both the spiritual and physical dimensions of the human person. While human freedom was not annihilated in the fall, both spiritual factors, like acedia (spiritual torpor), and physical factors, like depression, can severely compromise a person's ability to reason clearly and act freely. In regard to suicide, the Church has taken very seriously such spiritual and physical factors, and has responded pastorally by offering a funeral service and burial to suicide victims whose capacities for judgment and action were found to be significantly diminished. Thus, Canon 14 of Timothy of Alexandria states that liturgical services should be offered, "If a man having no control of himself lays violent hands on himself or hurls himself to destruction." And the patristic interpretation of this teaching states that services should be offered when a suicide victim "is not of sound mind, whether it be as a result of a demon or of an ailment of some sort." Question XIV of the 18 Canons of Timothy, Archbishop of Alexandria.

            We are called to be compassionate for those who have passed away.  We are called to love all of our brothers and sisters and not to judge them.  In fact, I would suggest that we look for every reason to look for the good in another person, rather than to look for the weakness in their character.  Look for a reason to love someone, and ignore the reasons to see them as unworthy your time and attention.

            Why did Robin Williams apparently take his own life?  I do not know.  Is he a human being worthy of love and admiration?  Absolutely.  At the least, he is lovable because he exists.  At most, he is lovable because of his struggles and body of work.  No matter where you find yourself on that continuum, you are called to the same response - to be like that young Anakin and care for the least among our brotherhood of man.

            Let me tie this all up with words from my favorite character, Luke, to his sister about their father:  "There is good in him, I felt it. He won’t turn me over to the Emperor. I can save him. I can turn him back to the good side. I have to try."  The son's unreserved love saved Anakin from the external evil that was stealing his mind and heart.