Looks Like a Thorn Bush but It's a Flower

Recently we had the death by suicide of a popular politician, sympathetic to the struggling ones in society and showed this in his words and actions. He was lamented by many, those who agreed and disagreed with him. A university professor in a Catholic Peace Weekly column visits the issue and uses the occasion to reflect on suicide.
 
How difficult must it have been in his own mind to deal with the thoughts which came? He was a good man. His fault was not to report a gift of money which he acknowledged as stupidity. He was not asked or did he do anything because of the donation. The professor uses the words of the French sociologist Emile Durkheim to describe reasons for suicide.
 
First is the selfish suicide. It happens when you feel alienation because you cannot compromise or adapt to reality; it often happens in a society where the tendency towards individualism is strong.
 
Second is the altruistic suicide where a person is overly attached to the society or group to which he belongs. This is a society with a strong collective tendency.
 
Anomic suicide (socially alienated) a lack of connection with society—weak social cohesion. When we have extreme changes in society and a person feels confused and disconnected suicide is possible.
 
Catholic faith teaches that life is given. God created man from the dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being (Gen.2:7). My life is not my own. I was not born because I wanted to be born. God created man in His holy image. In the end, it was God's will that we were born on this earth. Therefore, a man should not cut off his precious life which God has given. This is a betrayal of God's love.
 
Saint Mother Teresa on a visit to the United States after giving a lecture was accosted by a woman who told her: "I have decided to end my life. I no longer have the strength nor the desire to go on."

Sister Teresa responded: "I have something to ask you before you kill yourself, come with me to Calcutta and work for a month."
 
The woman accepted the invitation and worked for those dying from hunger and disease along with Teresa. She realized how happy she should have been and reconsidered her thoughts on death. The darkness of her future turned into a bright light. She decided to live a new life caring for the precious life that God had given her.
 
In Korean, if the word for suicide is read backwards we have 'let's live'. If one has the courage to commit suicide one also has the courage to live. One of the well known and beloved Korean poets is Ku Sang whose poem: "The Place of the Flower" comes to mind as he concludes the article. "Life at times looks like a thorn bush but it's really a flower."