"The Last Supper Project."
A Reflection on Assisted Suicide and a Message of Hope.
My dear friend,
“I'm unimportant. This Instagram is basically a scrapbook and public requiem of my demise.”
This incredibly unsettling statement is currently the biography of a creator that goes by the username ‘Okuntakinte’ on Instagram. According to his post on 8 December 2024, he is pursuing assisted suicide in the Netherlands, which is scheduled sometime within the next few months. Though his struggle is unique, I find it appropriate to reflect on the morality of assisted suicide, the state of the world that has caused its normalisation, and ask for prayers for this young man.
With 421,000+ followers, his page is not something to glance at and forget about. Nearly half of a million people are following his journey, whether to support his decision, out of curiosity, or maybe because they enjoy his content about food. Nonetheless, it should be alarming that so many people are supporting this decision.
Much like abortion, ‘euthanasia,’ ‘mercy-killing,’ otherwise known as assisted-suicide, is an intrinsically evil act, due to the fact that man is assuming the position of God and taking what is not his. The act of abortion is when a woman decides to end the life of a human being which is the product of her engagement with the procreative act (nearly always consensually), whereas assisted-suicide is the act of a capable-minded soul deciding to terminate its temporal being in order to achieve ‘peace,’ unlike existing in the ‘cruel world,’ which they currently reside in.
Evidently a product of the Enlightenment, the modern world, which largely rejects its Creator, has decided to provide an escape for souls who cannot seem to find their way in the salvation-economy. To them, the world is a cruel place, intolerable and unbearable, the product of their misery, and worth escaping from. To a Catholic, the world is merely a launching pad towards Heaven, corrupted by sin and a product of the revolt of against God, but nonetheless, a place worth residing in until God calls us home. The Catholic knows that he will fight against temptation, deal with the pesky Satan constantly, but that God has given him free will in order to stimulate greater good, not to permissibly allow evil.
In the backwards philosophy of the modern world which chooses to forget its First Cause, man has decided that it is he who is the arbiter of morality, the ultimate end. Man has adopted Satan’s non-serviam as the starting point of his philosophy, and has decided that God is no more than a fairy tale, or as they often call Him, “the Sky Daddy.”
One such means of supposed “relief” provided is that one enters willingly into a ‘Sarco pod’ which decreases oxygen levels while simultaneously releasing small amounts of carbon dioxide. In the attempt to humanise an otherwise dehumanising, murderous action, the humanistic founders allow the ‘patient’ the ability to leave the window pane in front of them transparent or to apply an image to it in order that they may pretend to die where they’d like.
Pictured above: the murderous Sarco device, derived from the word ‘sarcophagus.’
Having spoken about the situation at hand, there is no better time to reflect on the only legitimate way to confront the harsh realities of this life. Our Lord Himself came down from the Heavens to face a gruelling death to relieve His creation from the banishment of paradise and assist us this battle with sin. Perfection is merely the imitation of Our Lord, which entails sacrifice and self-denial, obedience to the will of the Father, and to keep the precepts of the Church given to us by Christ.
Being the subject of, and assisting in the horrific self-termination process goes against the 4th (honour thy father and mother), the 5th (thou shalt not kill), and the 7th Commandments (thou shalt not steal; the body is not yours, but an irrevocable gift from God).
Additionally, the process is fundamentally anti-Christian, knowing that life itself is a gift from God, and the termination of one’s life is not his own decision, but of His Father who gave it to him. Although God passively permits this process to occur, He is not the cause, nor supporter of it. The act of suicide is an act of the free will (although usually with a great deal of clouded judgement), a neglect of the ability to choose between greater goods, and instead, a self-inflicted sentence to Hell, unless, by some extraordinary means, God has mercy on the soul and deems it unfit for the depths of Hell.
Knowing that life can be miserable and admittedly that mental illness is a very real occurrence, it is still important to constantly reflect on the example of Our Lord and His Saints as inspiration for everything we do. Though one may find their conditions troubling, they ought to look at the example of the God-Man who descended from Heaven, was humbly born into a stable to poor parents, spent most of his life doing harsh labour, and then willingly underwent the Passion- in which He was rebuked by those who once loved Him, deemed a heretic, abandoned by His friends, sentenced, scourged, forced to walk through town carrying a heavy cross in His diminished condition, and then voluntarily crucified for the sins of the world, only to come back on the third day to confirm His Divinity and grace the world one last time in His human form.
Another example is the physical suffering of St. Rafka. A humble nun, she underwent eye surgery for her condition without anaesthesia to “unite herself to Our Lord’s Passion,” eventually went blind, and miraculously regained her sight (attested to by her fellow nuns) at Holy Mass temporarily.
There is no such condition that hasn't been faced bravely by the saints before. We ought to carry our crosses, persist with fortitude and prayer, and make it to our primary end, which is Heaven, our only reason for being created. May we lose our lives at the hand of God before we willingly forsake that!
You Matter, Here’s Why:
Something we often forget about is the impact we have on other people. Although it may be hard at times to understand your own significance, it is crucial to recognise your place in the world.
A consoling thought that I stumbled across is the simple recognition that we’ll never know all of the little ways we impact people; the way a stranger likes the way we look, how someone appreciates our smile, our sense of humour, our zeal, how a friend has been lifted out of a particular state by our encouragement or motivation, and so much more. Since the world tends to focus on negative things, we usually don’t think of ourselves in such a redeeming light.
It is most essential to remember that Our Lord put us here for a reason, that He chose to create our specific souls, to place us in the situations we find ourselves in, and that we have free will in order to choose greater goods, not the liberty to choose evil.
You matter to God, to your family, to your friends, and to all of the strangers that have found something to appreciate about you.
You are destined for great things, and you have the capacity to achieve them.
And even in the worst of times, God only asks that we have fidelity and be faithful, and we will be brought to an eternity of blissfulness.
My dearest friend,
You matter. More than you’ll ever know. God loves you. In your darkest hour, call upon the great Mother of God and she will care for you.
If you are ever struggling with thoughts of suicide, please call # 988
Additional information: https://fsspx.uk/en/short-catechism-euthanasia-46340
A Short Prayer For Those Who Are Struggling:
God, our Most Merciful and Loving Father,
Jesus Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God, consubstantial with the Father,
The Holy Ghost, the Paraclete,
Mary, Most Holy, Mother of God, and Our Consoling ally,
Defend us from the wicked snares of the Enemy,
Keep our minds vigilant, our faith strong, and our happiness proper,
Guard us from all evil thoughts, temptations, and lies of the Evil One,
Intercede for those most desperate for help,
Revive the desolate, restore the broken, and strengthen the brave,
With the assistance of all of the Angels and Saints in Heaven,
We pray.