Thursday, February 16, 2023

Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 9:1-13; Mark 8:27-33)

Today’s first reading authorizes capital punishment in cases of murder.  What other conclusion can be drawn from God’s statement to Noah that if someone sheds the blood of another, the killer’s blood will be shed?  Yet the Church has come to prohibit capital punishment.  What going on?

Nothing in the gospels annuls God’s declaration to Noah.  The New Testament letters presume capital punishment and acknowledge the state’s authority to administer it.  The prohibition has resulted from the need to shore up human dignity in recent times.  The carnage of twentieth century wars, the arbitrary killing in procured abortions, and the inequitable way the death penalty is adjudicated has necessitated the call for a prudential halt in executions. 

Perhaps someday the Church will reconsider its position.  We might hope and pray not.  Our motive is not the continuance of violence demanding a sign against it.  Rather we want to see a more peaceful society showing how capital punishment may be permissible but is also counterproductive.