is a heroic act if the purpose is to protect others. It is the ultimate expression
of unselfish love.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John
15:13)
If the country is threatened with ruin from an enemy or any other source, it is
noble to die for it, and glorious for a soldier to shed his blood for it. (True Christian
Religion 710)
In the other life all goods are immeasurably increased, and the life in the body
is such that people can go no further than loving the neighbor as themselves,
because they are in the things of the body, but when these are removed, the love
becomes purer, and at last angelic, which consists in loving the neighbor more than
themselves. The possibility of such love is evident from the married love that exists
with some people, who would suffer death rather than let their married partner
be injured. It is also evident from the love of parents for their children, in that a
mother will endure starvation rather than see her infant hunger, and this is true
even among birds and animals. It is likewise evident from true friendship, in that we
will undergo perils for our friends. (Arcana Coelestia 548)
Suicide and Heroism
When a person commits suicide as an escape, or worse, as a way of causing
suffering to others, it is a selfish and cowardly act – just the opposite of heroism.
Yet at times the line between heroism and suicide becomes blurred. It is the
motive more than the action that makes the difference, and looking at others
we see only the apparent motive. We may not know the real reason a person
takes his or her own life.
If a person dies in battle, we assume the motives were noble, although
the person could have been suicidal. For example, in the opening scene of
Dances With Wolves, the soldier is depressed because he is about to have his
leg amputated. He recklessly charges into the crossfire hoping to be killed, but
other soldiers think he is bravely leading a charge. They follow him, and so his
attempted suicide accid V