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.
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Congratulations, Fr. Mark!
ReplyDeleteI believe you are the first Pastoral Staff Person to have a blog!
Blessings and peace,
Sr. Eileen
Kazmierowicz
Thanks for the post. I appreciate the perspective.
ReplyDeleteOne question: You say that Paul 'seems to' say the body is evil. How would you process it when you come across such a text in personal reading.
Also, as we travel through life, who are we most likely to meet who would believe the body is evil? Is there a Wisconsin church that would teach this?
Thanks for blogging. I look forward to understanding better your thoughts.
-eric
Thanks for the question Eric. When I say that "Paul seems" to say the body is evil, I am refering to how Paul's letters are interpreted by his readers. Paul has two Greek terms that he uses in his writing. "Soma" is his word for the "body" and it generally means the body of our everyday existence. His term "Sarx" is translated to English and describes the "flesh" which can have several meanings. It usually refers to something as hostile to God.
ReplyDeleteHow one interprets or misinterprets the english translation can lead one to believe that Paul is always saying that the flesh is no good and evil. There are books written on these two words and it is not as easy as our english translations suggest to interpret what Paul means.
Evangelical Churches believe the flesh is hostile to God always, thus it has suggested to many of there followers, that they have no control over sin...moreover a license to sin as long as they believe they are covered in the blood of Jesus for their redemption. I don't know if you read the Journal-Sentinal series "The Preachers Mob" or not. I'm sure this gentleman preacher believed he was forgiven while he committed murder, torture, prostitution, etc... He was forgiven so why not sin seemed to be his attitude.