Tantalus

 There are many gods in Greek mythology.  The god Zeus had mighty powers and handed down cruel punishments.  Tantalus was a king that was wicked and always testing Zeus.  One time Tantalus killed his own son, Pelops and served him in a stew.  He did this to see how smart the gods were.  The gods could tell that the stew wasn't right, but Demeter wasn't paying attention and ate the shoulder of Pelops.  That is why when the gods put Pelops back together, his shoulder was missing.  So he wore a prosthetic made of ivory.

To punish Tantalus, Zeus made Tantalus go forever thirsty and hungry.  In Hades, Tantalus stood in a pool of water and every time he bent to take a sip the water receded away from him, and every time he went to take a bite of the succulent fruit hanging right in front of him, he couldn't reach it.

Aren't you glad we have our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is all merciful?  Did you note that Tantalus' sin was to test the gods?  That's hubris.  Tantalus thought he was smarter than his gods.

But we shouldn't feel smug that we know our Lord is omniscient and we would never test Him.  After all, we test God every time we do what we want, when we know God wouldn't approve.  Who do we think we are?

                                                     by Gioacchino Assereto public domain

Orwell's Pro-Life Stance

Much to my surprise, I came across George Orwell's epiphany on capital punishment.  I was reading his essay, A Hanging, where he was describing a prisoner walking to the gallows.  The setting is a prison camp in India.  Orwell is an English policeman.  At this time in history, India is a colony of England.  This story really isn't much of a political treatise, but rather an opinion on  capital punishment.

The condemned man doesn't resist.  I noticed how human, Orwell depicts him.  He never calls him inmate, convict, criminal, in fact we don't know what capital crime he committed to deserve the ultimate punishment.  He is named a man, or a Hindu.  He had a dog who loved him very much because the dog goes crazy when he sees him.  But it isn't that fact, that brings about Orwell's epiphany.  (But Orwell knows the reader will start to see a human being.)  Orwell describes the event.

It was about forty yards to the gallows.  I watched the bare brown back of the prisoner marching in front of me.  He walked clumsily with his bound arms, but quite steadily, with that bobbing gait of the Indian who never straightens his knees.  At each step his muscles slid neatly into place, the lock of hair on his scalp danced up and down, his feet printed themselves on the wet gravel.  And once, in spite of the men who gripped him by each shoulder, he stepped lightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.
       It is curious; but until that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.  When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide.  This man was not dying, he was alive just as we are alive....

And Orwell goes on the describe the humanness of the man.  I can easily imagine what Orwell would say about abortion.  I watched the embryo.  The tiny heart that rhythmically pulsed a beat to a miraculous dance of eyes and limbs leading to a crescendo of a real human being.  It is curious; but until that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, potential human person.  When I saw the baby move away from the instrument of death, I saw the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it has just begun.  This human being is not a tissue blob, he is alive just as we are alive...

Yes, it is unspeakable wrongness.  Who do we think we are to decide birth, death--life?