THY 1 U1 L3 - Jesus Sheds Light on the Mystery And Dignity of the Human Person '23-'24 (no notes).pdf

LESSON C: JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON 1.Created in the Image and Likeness of God 2.Redeemed by the Blood of Christ 3.Made Holy by the Presence of the Spirit 4.Christ as the One who Sheds Light on the Dignity of the Human Person The only child of Dr. Scott Ber...

LESSON C: JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON 1.Created in the Image and Likeness of God 2.Redeemed by the Blood of Christ 3.Made Holy by the Presence of the Spirit 4.Christ as the One who Sheds Light on the Dignity of the Human Person The only child of Dr. Scott Berns, a “No matter what I choose to become, I pediatrician, and Dr. Leslie Gordon, then believe that I can change the world,” he a pediatric intern, Sampson Gordon said in his TEDx talk last year. “And as I’m Berns was born in Providence, R.I., on striving to change the world, I will be Oct. 23, 1996. He received a diagnosis of happy.” progeria shortly before his second https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/us/sam- berns-17-public-face-of-a-rare-illness-is-dead.html birthday. Finding little medical literature about progeria, his parents, with Dr. Gordon’s sister Audrey Gordon, started the research foundation. As a result of its work, clinical trials of a drug, lonafarnib, which appears to ameliorate some effects of progeria, began in 2007. Though preliminary results are considered encouraging, the drug does not constitute a cure.  “No matter what I choose to become, I THE PRICELESS STONE believe that I can change the world,” he said in his TEDx talk last year. “And as I’m striving to change the world, I will be happy.” https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/us/sam- berns-17-public-face-of-a-rare-illness-is-dead.html  “No matter what I choose to become, I THE PRICELESS STONE believe that I can change the world,” he said in his TEDx talk last year. “And as I’m striving to change the world, I will be happy.” https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/us/sam- berns-17-public-face-of-a-rare-illness-is-dead.html  QUESTION: WHAT IS THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE?  AM I IMPORTANT? YES NO Dustin Lang  Together with the rest of humanity, the Church, following Christ as her model, has made it her mission to uplift the lives of everyone in this world. To do this, the Church teaches that it is only in knowing Christ that the human person can arrive at a full understanding of who He really is.  Being in full solidarity with humankind, our Lord showed us how to be fully human and fully alive. Christ primarily revealed how the essential dignity of all persons is grounded directly on their origin, meaning and destiny. In the light of Christian revelation, it was understood that all persons, endowed with inviolable dignity, are:  CREATED by God in His image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26) through our Lord Jesus Christ, “through whom everything was made and through whom we live” (1 Cor 8:6).  REDEEMED by the blood of Christ (cf. Eph 1:7; Col 1:14); and are sanctified by the indwelling Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:14-16; 1 Cor 6:19).  CALLED to be children of God (cf. 1 Jn 3:1), destined for eternal life of blessed communion with the Father, His Risen-Incarnate Son, and their Holy Spirit. LESSON C: JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON 1.Created in the Image and Likeness of God Man is the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake, and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity. CCC  He is not just a being one among the many creatures created by God, The doctrine that man is created in the image and likeness of God provides the theological grounding that upholds the sacredness of the human person and guarantees the respect to be given him. but a “Person.” a. Able to Know and Love his Creator He is an image of God by virtue of his/her possession of the distinctive faculties of intellect and free will, on account of which he/she is capable of self-determination. Because of the spiritual character of his/her soul, man possesses freedom, an eminent sign of divine image. Man’s reason enables him/her to know the voice of God, compelling him/her to do good and avoid evil. b. Willed by God for His own Sake Every human being is irreplaceable and non- substitutable, a kind of good that cannot be treated as an object of use or a means to an end. As a subject, he/she is in charge of his/her life as he/she can act according to his/her conscience, in freedom, and with sufficient knowledge. Karol Wojtyla, Love, and Responsibility (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1981), 41. We are compelled to treat our fellow human beings as equals. b. Willed by God for His own Sake vs. Immanuel Kant and Marx According to Kant, the human person is not ultimately ordered to God. Instead, he is an end unto himself, apart from God. According to Marx, man must be freed from religion “so that he revolves around himself and thus around his true sun. Religion is only the illusory sun that revolves around man as long as he revolves around himself.” c. Called to be Stewards of Creation  The companionship between man and woman is not of dominance but solidarity, not inferiority but complementarity, equity, and not equality.  As stewards of creation, both man and woman were equally ordered to "subdue" the earth as His stewards.  This sovereignty is not destructive domination. God calls man and woman to share in his providence toward other creatures, hence their responsibility for the world God has entrusted to them. CCC, 373. d. Called to Communion As images of the self-giving love of God, human beings are capable of self-giving love as well. As products of a divine self-gift, human beings should respond to God by giving themselves to others. To give oneself to others as much as possible in imitation of the self-giving of God in the Trinity is the concrete living out of our being an image of God. Therefore, being created in the image and likeness of God is both a gift and a task. The challenge to be true to who and what we are is an endless task – it never expires. We always look at Jesus Christ and strive to always model our lives to his, for we are not just any slave or servant who follows the will of his/her master, but we are raised to the status of being adopted sons and daughters of God.  Intelligent and Free Imago Dei Somebody Dignity Transcendent Redeemed Saved by Christ Sanctified Made Holy LESSON C: JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON 2. Redeemed by the Blood of Christ  God elevated man to participation in the divine life and live in communion and belongingness with the Trinity. But with the entry of sin, this communion and belongingness was shattered, as well as their communion among themselves. Yet God did not abandon man altogether; instead, He held out the means of saving them by gathering men together to counter the chaos which was the consequence of sin. “That all of them maybe one, as You, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as we are one.” Man's sins, following on original sin, are punishable by death. By sending his own Son in the form of a slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. “For in Christ and through Christ, we have acquired full awareness of our dignity, of the heights to which we are raised, of the surpassing worth of our humanity and of the meaning of our existence.” CCC, 602. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love, He predestined us for adoption to Sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:3-7. Healing the wounds of sin, the Holy Spirit renews us interiorly through a spiritual transformation. He enlightens and strengthens us to live as "children of light" through "all that is good and right and true." CCC, 1695. LESSON C: JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON 3. Made Holy by the Presence of the Spirit When God touches man's heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not inactive while receiving that inspiration, since he could reject it; and yet, without God's grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself toward justice in God's sight. CCC, 1993.  The merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit itself, moreover, is due to God, for his/her good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit. CCC, 2008. Being a witness of Christ, as in leading a life worthy of the Gospel of Christ is made capable of doing so by the gift of his Spirit which we can obtain through prayer, though the impulse to pray is still permeated with the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Healing the wounds of sin, the Holy Spirit renews us interiorly through a spiritual transformation. He enlightens and strengthens us to live as "children of light" through "all that is good and right and true. LESSON C: JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON 4. Christ as the One who Sheds Light on the Dignity of the Human Person  To understand man as a person is to point out that man is created by God with inviolable dignity.  The Human Person in the Aristotelian-Thomistic Hierarchy of Beings The Aristotelian-Thomistic hierarchy of beings (scala naturae) provides a backdrop for the Christian understanding of man. It gives a view of human beings in relation to God (as creator) and other created beings. The Human Person: Aristotelian-Thomistic View Hierarchy of Being (Scala Naturae) GOD ANGELS Individua Substantia Naturae Rationalis (An individual substance of a rational nature) HUMANS ANIMALS Capax Dei PLANTS (Capacity for God) MINERALS  In the ecology of the visible world, only human beings possess rationality, i.e., intellect and freewill, while possessing altogether the excellent traits of the beings in the lower strata of the hierarchy, to wit: motion (animals) and life (plants).  Hence, we define human beings as an individual substance of rational nature (Individua Substantia Naturae Rationalis).  Open and Relational. Persons are open and relational The Human Person According by nature. No one exists by oneself, but only in relationship to the Catechism for Filipino with others. Human existence does not precede Catholics CFC, 687-692. relationships but is born and nurtured by them. We grow into our full selves as persons only in relating with others.  Being a person means being by others (our conception, birth, upbringing), being with others (our family, friends, neighbors, business associates), and being for others (love, service). Our Trinitarian origin infers that this is how we have been created by God — as social beings. This is how we have been redeemed by Christ — as a people. This is how the Holy Spirit works not only within but among us as the people of God, journeying towards our common destiny in God. CFC 687.  Conscious Beings. Persons are conscious beings, aware of themselves in their outgoing acts. We possess this self-awareness through our knowing and free willing. For his reason, human beings: o Know the order of things established by God; o Understand how and what things should be. o Is imbued with the instinctive awareness of the unwritten decree inscribed in his heart. o Recognizes this as the voice of God constantly urging him to do the good and avoid evil. CFC, 688.  Embodied Spirits o This stresses the unity between our “body and soul.” o This substantial unity of our body and soul is known as “hylomorphism.” o Our body is an essential part of our being human and not merely an “instrument” we “use” as we please. The Body Christian Faith regards the BODY as “good and honorable since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day” (GS 14). God the Son further dignified the body through his Incarnation: “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14). St. Paul admonishes us: “You must know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is within — the Spirit you have received from God.... So, glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19-20). The SOUL Serves as the form (the nature or essence of a thing that makes it what it is) of the body. Functions as the unifying principle that forms the one unique human being. Needs embodiment, i.e., the assistance of the senses to fulfill the soul’s vital task.  Historical Realities o As Persons, we are:  Pilgrims on-the-way, gradually, through time, become our full selves.  Free to decide for ourselves and form ourselves; in this sense, we are our own cause.  Developing in discernible stages, described in great detail by modern psychology. CFC, 690.  Integrating our past into our present existence makes us move into our future with a sense of integrity and a coherent sense of direction. R. M. Gula, S.S. Unique yet Fundamentally Equal  All men are endowed with a rational soul and are created in God’s image; they have the same nature and origin and, being redeemed by Christ, they enjoy the same divine calling and destiny; there is here a basic equality between all men.” GS, 29  But despite sharing common features of humanity, we do things differently. This implies therefore that we seriously consider each person’s uniqueness and originality. Each of us is called to “image” God in a unique way — no one can “take our place. Required Reading: Veritatis Splendor Nos. 1-34