No ferás homey
The Prohibition of Homicide
God commands against murder, extending this prohibition to the self as a matter of reason.
Murder is the destruction and killing of people whom God intends to live.1 So, to ensure your will isn't against God's will, He commands you not to commit murder. If God doesn't want you to kill someone else, then He doesn't want you to kill yourself. If beasts and birds, which lack reason, don't kill themselves, how much more senseless and unfitting it is that you, my son—who possess reason—should kill yourself!✦2
The Gravity of Taking Life
Murder carries eternal consequences, as it may destroy both the body and the soul of the victim.
My son, a man can kill another, but no one can bring back to life the person he has killed. So if you kill someone and God asks you for what you've taken from Him, what will you do? It often happens that when a man kills someone, he also kills that person's soul in everlasting fire, insofar as he is the occasion of the anger and ill will in which the man he kills dies; and through that anger and ill will, God kills that person's soul in the fire of hell. My son, if God commands you not to kill the body, how much more does He command you not to kill the soul through sin! Since the soul is far better than the body.3
The Call to Preserve Life
Because life is fragile and God-given, one should choose mercy and patience over violence.
A tunic and a cloak wear out, but murder doesn't—not in the fear of the killer, nor in the anger of the victim's relatives.4 Dear son, don't wish to be a murderer, and don't wish to kill any human being; for many a man plans to kill another and dies himself, and God takes many a man's life so that he will not kill someone else.✦5 Dear son, do not wish to destroy or kill what God makes and keeps alive, or that for which God became incarnate; for if you do, you hold God and his works in low esteem.✦✦6 As soon as a person is born, he begins to die, for every day he draws nearer to death. And so, my son, there's no need for you to kill anyone: leave death to kill people, and pardon death for the love of God Jesus Christ.7
Read the original Latin
Homey es destruir e auciure los homens, los quals Deus vol que viuen. On, per assó que ton voler no sia contra lo voler de Deu, te fa manament Deus que tu no fasses homey.
Si Deus nou vol que tu aucies altre, dones Deus no vol que tu aucies tu metex: ne si les bestíes nels aucells qui son sens rahó no aucien si meteys, ¡quant més es sens rahó e encovinent cosa que tu, fill, qui has rahó, aucies tu metex!
Amable fill, un hom pot auciure altre hom; mas hom no pot tornar viu lom que auciu: on si tu aucius lom e Deus te demana so que tolt li has, ¿que ferás?
Moltes vegades sesdevé que en auciure hom, que auciu hom lanima daquell en foch perdurable, en quant hom es occasio de la ira e de la mala volentat en la qual mor lom que hom auciu; per la qual ira e mala volentat Deus auciu lanima daquell en foch infernal.
Amable fill, si Deus te mana que no aucies lo cors, ¡quant més te mana que no aucíes lanima en peccat! con sia cosa que lanima sia molt mellor quel cors.
Gonella e mantell enveleex; mas homey no enveex en la temor daquell qui auciu ne la ira dels parents daquell que hom auciu.
Amable fill, no vulles esser homeyer ne vulles auciure nuyl hom; cor molt hom cuyda auciure altre, qui mor, e Deus auciu molt hom per so que no aucía altre.
Amable fill, so que Deus fa ne té a vida e so per que Deus sencarná, no vulles tu destroyr ne auciure; car si ho fas, en menys preament has Deu e ses obres.
Hom tentost com es nat, comensa a murir, cor cascun jorn s acosta a la mort: e per assó no cal, fill, que tu aucíes hom: e lexa la mort auciure hom, e perdona a la mort per amor de Deu Jhesu Christ.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Exod.20.13;Deut.5.17 — You shall not murder. Deut.5.17 — You shall not murder.
- ↩Exod.20.13;Deut.5.17 — You shall not murder. Deut.5.17 — You shall not murder.
- ↩Exod.20.13;Deut.5.17 — You shall not murder. Deut.5.17 — You shall not murder.
- ↩John.1.14 — And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Notes
- 1 ↩Old Catalan *homey* is homicide/murder (cf. chapter title *No ferás homey*). Rendered as 'murder' for the Decalogue sense; 'homicide' is an equally faithful alternative.
- 2 ↩Source 'nou' is read as 'no u' / 'no' ('does not'): 'Si Deus no(u) vol que tu aucies altre'. 'dones' = therefore/then (modern Catalan 'doncs'). 'encovinent' = unfitting/improper (negation of 'covinent', fitting).
- 3 ↩Medieval Catalan 'con sia cosa que' is a causal connective (since / inasmuch as / given that); rendered as 'Since' to keep the logical force that grounds the previous a fortiori.
- 4 ↩Old Catalan enveleex/enveex = grow old, age, wear out. Rendered as wear out to keep the contrast between perishable clothes and the lasting stain of homicide. homey = homicide/murder (cf. chapter title No ferás homey).
- 5 ↩Medieval Catalan 'homeyer' is the agent noun of homicide ('homicida'); the chapter title 'No ferás homey' is the Decalogue prohibition. Rendered as 'murderer' to keep the moral force plain without archaism.
- 6 ↩Old Catalan 'ne' coordinates both pairs: 'fa ne té a vida' (makes and keeps alive) and 'destroyr ne auciure' (destroy or kill). 'en menys preament has' is rendered as 'hold … in low esteem' (lit. value less / hold of less account).
- 7 ↩Medieval Catalan perdonar a can mean forgive/pardon, yield, or leave alone. Rendered as 'pardon death' (accept death's office; do not usurp killing). If a softer pastoral sense is preferred: 'give death leave' or 'leave death be.'
Doctrine for Children — Opening companion
Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat
Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.
Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.
- A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
- One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
- Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit