Suicide

Suicide

In the Middle Ages, and later in Catholic Ireland, suicide was essentially unknown. Near Cork city is Barnavara Hill: “Cnoc Bearna Mháire”. The local tradition is that a young woman hanged herself on that hill. Her identity is not remembered, but the tradition is that she was not of Catholic stock, because Catholics never committed suicide. Whether the story as we have it today is completely accurate, the folk-tradition is testimony to the prevailing perception. [Notice this fact, to be considered in historical studies: a document may be forged by just one person, but a tradition must have been accepted by a whole community].

No Age is perfect, but the Mediaeval period provided support and meaning to life such that the tragedy of suicide was of the most extreme rarity.

Individuals who resort to suicide are very frequently mentally disturbed. They and their families need our pity and prayers.

If you feel suicidal at times, remember that times of discouragement and futility come into most lives, often, strangely enough, just when things were about to take a turn for the better.

St Ignatius in his Spiritual Exercises gives this advice: In times of spiritual desolation, * do not abandon prayer, even if it seems worthless - the contrary is the truth; *do not make big decisions at this time; *act against the impulse: if it is to neglect necessary work, force yourself to plod on; if it is to agitation and panicky activity, try to keep to a routine of legitimate recreation, or at least rest; *TALK to somebody.

We all crave a life of unclouded settled happiness, because this is what we were made for, but it is not to be found this side of Heaven. The great Sultan of a very large and fabulously wealthy Eastern country, who was the personal owner of all the wealth and all the men, women and children in his dominion, towards the end of his life declared that, for all his unimaginable wealth, power and pleasure, that he had thought back on his life and counted the number of days when he had been perfectly content; and the number came to seventeen.

There is an old proverb: “An té a ghlacann comhairle ní gá dó é a ghlacadh”: “The one who takes advice doesn’t need it”. Therefore please don’t be insulted at the following advice, if you find you don’t need it: Stay away from Horror Movies. They can play on your mind for a very long time, even a lifetime, and where is the entertainment? There is nothing to praise in being “tough” enough to watch them. They are destructive and useless. And stay away from violent and depressing books. There is so much printed literature in the world that it would take a dozen lifetimes to read it all: why waste the time on depressing or destructive reading when there is so much that will have the opposite effect: stories of heroes and heroines, of the Saints: the world’s best literature. — because there is a strange consensus down the centuries and across very different cultures – from Irish to Chinese – that good literature makes one a happier and a better person. It expands the mind in wholesome ways, makes one’s head a better thing to have between one’s ears.

It must be said that a very large proportion of school set books at present are of the opposite kind: ugly, coarse, depressing. Counteract it. Read one of the Gospels (especially John: The Eagle); watch the DVD of Mel Gibson's The Passion. Have recourse to prayer, especially the Rosary. You will be able to see the difference.

The Other Side