Breaking the chain of life in Bali

When they transported drugs, they had the potential to steal much great life and miracles from future drug users.

In killing with the death penalty we are stealing life. That life that we know as Myuran Sukumaran or Andrew Chan will never exist again.

In killing the lives of others, I feel they are killing some life and miracle in me. It gives scant regard to life and diminishes the environment I grow in. The culture of these actions will inevitably trickle into a society that is more prone to violence and human rights abuses, with a greater tendency to overlook daily miracles.

A justice system that punishes as its main recourse is incongruent with life. Rehabilitation offers the chance to see the beauty and miracles in living. The death penalty rescinds any chance for rehabilitation.

Perhaps, ultimately, rehabilitation on death row allows you to accept the end of your life. To have grown from the person you were when you committed the crime, to the one you are now. To have woken each day with renewed commitment to a life of enlivened living. To grasp the heart and mindset that your life may be ending, that you have lived out the set quota of your days and have performed the best you could.

That you are exactly where you are meant to be. That your life path and the environmental circumstances that engraved you, allowed you to be here. That you allowed yourself to glow, to find meaning, to find redemption, to be reconciled with your situation. That you may comfort your family and friends as much as you can.

That you have come as far as you can go. That you have grown in love, in life. That you have engraved Life in you, and though it is denied you now, you engrave your life through the Love flowing from your heart. That you may find peace.

That you may accept that hypocrisy can meet at the juncture of justice. That our love meets the topsy turvy ways of the world, and it may be impossible to straighten them straightaway. But that our love may strengthen the resolve to respect all of life.

And in the final measure, once the deed is done, we may shed tears as we shift the rubble and uncover the depth of injustices, realising that we have the humanity to give life and to prevent the loss of life for those on death row.

I offer the two of them my hope. I offer them my love.