Though many, due to some illness or disease, may be aware that their death is very near, by and large, I suspect they still are not sure of the exact day or hour when the Son of Man will come for them (Mt. 25:13). Here in my home state of Missouri, 47 year old Martin Link knows the day and the hour, but he’s not sick. In a little over an hour he will be put to death for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 11-year-old girl in 1991.
I can’t imagine what goes through the mind of a person who is not just facing certain death, but knows the exact day and hour when he will meet his maker – especially one who has committed such an unspeakable crime. So tonight my little votive candle is lit for Martin Link, for the conversion of all criminals, rapists and murderers and that we all may learn to overcome evil with love.
This, of course, also has me contemplating the hour of my own death and praying that I may be like the wise virgins (Mt. 25:1-13) and appear before Jesus with my lamp filled with the oil of faith and hope and burning with the pure flame of charity. Fr. Kenneth Baker has a beautiful editorial on the importance of thinking about death each day.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church on capitol punishment:
2267 Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”
The New Theological Movement has the excerpt from her autobiography in which St. Therese of Lisieux recounts how prayed for the soul of a condemned rapist and murderer who was sentenced to death – one of her first apostolic endeavors when she was just fourteen years old.
Related: Pro-Life is Whole-Life