The
dignity of the human person is rooted in God because man was created in God’s
own image and likeness. Sacred Scripture teaches that human beings were created
“to the image and likeness of God,” are capable of knowing and loving their
Creator, and were appointed by him as master of all earthly creatures that
might subdue them and use them for God’s glory. “What is man that you should
care for him? You have made him little less that the angels, and crowned him
with glory and honour. You have given him rule over the works of your hand,
putting all things under his feet.”
Human
life is sacred because the human person is the most central and clearest
reflection of God among all creatures. It is in Christ, Redeemer and Saviour that
the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its
original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God.
The
divine image is present in every man, which shines in the communion of persons,
where we establish unity among ourselves in truth and love. Love of neighbour
is inseparable from love of God. “Belief in the dignity of the human person is
the foundation of morality. The principle of human dignity is the foundation of
all the Catholic social teaching principles.”
Although
human beings were made by God in a state of holiness, from the beginning of
their history men and women abused their liberty at the urging of the Evil One.
They set themselves against God and sought to attain their goal apart from God.
Often refusing to acknowledge God as their beginning, people have disrupted
also their proper relationship to their own ultimate goal as well as their
whole relationship toward themselves and others and all created things.
Man is split within himself. As a result, the
whole life of men, both individual and social, shows itself to be a struggle between
good and evil, between light and darkness; so much that they find that by ,
themselves they are incapable of fighting evils, feeling as though they are
bound by chains. But Christ came to free and strengthen us, through his
passion, death and resurrection and delivered us from Satan and sin. He merited for us a new
life in the Holy Spirit. He who believes in Christ has new life in the Holy
Spirit. He is endowed with grace, making him capable of doing what is right.
The
intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom, for wisdom
gently attracts the mind of a person to a quest and a love for what is true and
good. It is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that a person comes by faith to
the contemplation and appreciation of the divine plan.
Resources:
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paulines Publications Africa,
11th reprint 2012.
On The Church in the Modern World, Paulines Publications Africa, 2nd
reprint 2011.
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