4
and “desire of revenge” by the death of Damião, sought “spiritual help” in an
Evangelical Church, which “relieved” him.170 Also, human suffering has an
intergenerational dimension, passing from parents to children, -as already noted in
the Genesis book, which predicts that all human beings shall know good and evil
(3,5).
11.
The shadows of human existence are retaken by the Book of Job, where the
oppressors give orders to the oppressed using violence (24.2-4.9 and 24.5-8.1012ab). When Damião died, his sister Irene had a newborn baby girl. As a
consequence of the events occurred, the baby stopped being breast-fed; as pointed
out by Irene before this Court, “due to the emotional shock, I spent weeks without
feeding her, and my breasts did not produce milk; my daughter was deprived of
natural food and had to take artificial food.”171 Human suffering passes from
generation to generation, from the beginning to the end of life. As already predicted
by the Ecclesiastes,
"… and behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they
had no comforter, and on the side of their oppressors there was
power, but they had no comforter" (4,1).
12.
Sophocles sensed it well, in the verses of Antigone and also of Oedipus the
King: the first stated that
"Thrice happy are they who have
never known disaster!
Once a house is shaken of heaven, disaster
Never leaves it, from generation to generation. (...)
Then pray no more; from suffering that has been
Decreed no man will ever find escape."172
And the second inquired:
"Has any man won for himself
More than the shadow of happiness,
A shadow that swiftly fades away?"173
13.
As noted by Edgar Morin in the 20th Century, the history of human culture
itself is built on acts of cruelty, not there being a single testimony of culture which is
not of barbaric acts. 174 Which led him to add that:
"Como la propia vida, el hombre se desenvuelve en el azar,
contiene el azar en si mismo, está hecho para encontrarse con el azar,
170
.
Ibid., pp. 28.
171
.
Ibid., p. [9].
172
.
Verses 584-587 and 1335-1337.
.
Verses 1189-1191. - Texts in: Sophocles, Antigone - Oedipus the King, Electra, Oxford,
University Press, 1998 [reed. Oxford World's Classics].
173
174
.
E. Morin, El Hombre y la Muerte (1970), 4th edition, Barcelona, Ed. Kairós, 2003 [reed.], p. 53.