The Foundation part II

Almost all Catholic moral and social teaching rests on two primary foundations. Last week, I covered the first pillar in that we are created in the image of God. The second pillar is that of the birth of Jesus, the incarnation. When God took on flesh like ours, God gave each human being a special dignity not in words, but by God's action. We all know Jesus died for us, but even more amazing if you think about it, He was born for us. We were worth being born for...worth taking on flesh for.

Jesus was once a grouping of stem cells, an embryo, and a fetus. Is it hard to see why the Church would defend the rights of the pre-born? Not when our savior was once a pre-born himself. Jesus gave the dignity to the pre-born just as He gave us dignity as human beings.

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." (Jeremiah 1:5) We believe in the omniscience of God and that God has known who we are from all eternity. Human beings have a special place before God in His created order.

With these two pillars as foundations, the Church will always teach that everything done must be done to promote, protect, and defend the dignity of a human being, and at all costs. Of course, there are many things that defend and harm human dignity at the very same time. If a mother will die unless the baby is aborted, what is the answer? Unfortunately, there are no easy answers at times and I would step aside on this question to a moral theologian. However, many things we believe can be answered simply by applying the same respect to humanity as God does.

The Foundation

When it comes down to it, at the center of every Catholic social teaching are mainly two principles. When the Church takes a stance on any particular issue, it weighs these two principles in light of any dilemma. I will talk about these for the first couple weeks of this blog. It is very important to understand as Catholics because these ideas drive our understanding of the human person.

We were each created with a special dignity before God. Genesis 1:27 tells us that "God created man in his image, in the divine image he created him..." This tells us very specifically what God thinks of each one of us. A special dignity has been stamped in our being by God that we resemble the divine. That gives us a clue also about how God expects us to act in our dealings with other members of the human family. "The dignity of the human being" is a phrase that you will read in the Vatican II documents and so many papal encyclicals.

God also states in Genesis that when he saw what he created, he called it "very good."1:31 There are two schools of thought about the human body and this has been debated since the ancient philosophers. One either believes the body is good or evil. Even the Apostle Paul can seem to indicate that the body is of no use and causes nothing but evil. It is only the spirit that is good. The Catholic perspective is that God did not create humans bad but "very good." The Church believes that we are still very good, but wounded as people because of sin. It is this woundedness that Christ came to heal. It is with the eyes of seeing human beings as very good, only wounded, that the Church believes all human beings to be.

Created in the image of God is one of two primary reasons we as Church believe in the dignity of the human being. Mother Teresa witnessed this best as she saw the face of Jesus in every baby pulled out of the gutters of Calcutta and every person dying on the streets. She saw the face of Jesus in every human she encountered. If that attitude doesn't witness to the value of a human being, I don't know what does. Next week, we will see the other primary reason we as a Church believe in the value of every human being like we do.

Purpose

Ignorance will not free us from the civil law and ignorance will not free us from the responsibility of God's law. The hectic pace of our lives makes it difficult to pursue a relationship with God that includes learning all we can about our redeemer and savior. A loving relationship with Christ is not just for eternity. It is for the here and now and it is what is expected of us. Class and continuing education is sometimes not a reality for us so it is my wish to extend this opportunity to you via the web to learn more about God. As always, you have the option to spend as much or as little time as possible in this quest. I will post about once a week and the content of this site will be information that every confirmed Catholic should know. My goal is to help you deepen your relationship and understanding with God so that you can answer the tough questions in life when they arise. The more one knows about the way God works in the world, the easier it is to handle life's problems. Please take a few minutes every week and hit the favorites key for easy access to this forum. May God bless you.