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The Human Person

“He bears within himself a source of wonder, a source of infinite self-transcendence. And that, in the last analysis, is what allows him to know God in truth. ‘Abyssus abyssum invocat’ (Abyss calls to abyss)”

The Human Person – Made in the Image and Likeness of God

  • CCC 1704 The human person participates in the light and power of the divine Spirit. By his reason, he is capable of understanding the order of things established by the Creator. By free will, he is capable of directing himself toward his true good. He finds his perfection "in seeking and loving what is true and good."
    • The powers of the soul: Intellect and Will
    • The intellect is ordered to knowing Truth
    • The will is ordered to choosing/loving the Good
      • All will/choose the good (in general) by necessity, all desire happiness by necessity → Does this mean we are not free?
      • The interior sense of what is good moves us to choose.
      • The goodness of creation is the precondition for delighting in it. Ultimately the goodness of God is responsible for the goodness of creation.
  • CCC 1705 By virtue of his soul and his spiritual powers of intellect and will, man is endowed with freedom, an "outstanding manifestation of the divine image."
    • We image God by our freedom because we God is love, and love is a function of freedom.
    • God freely chooses to create out of love, and we can freely choose to respond with love.
  • CCC 1706 By his reason, man recognizes the voice of God which urges him "to do what is good and avoid what is evil." Everyone is obliged to follow this law, which makes itself heard in conscience and is fulfilled in the love of God and of neighbor. Living a moral life bears witness to the dignity of the person.
    • Do good and avoid evil is a basic principle of the natural law
    • CCC 1954 Man participates in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to govern himself with a view to the true and the good.
      • The natural law expresses the original moral sense which enables man to discern by reason the good and the evil, the truth and the lie:
      • The natural law is written and engraved in the soul of each and every man, because it is human reason ordaining him to do good and forbidding him to sin . . . But this command of human reason would not have the force of law if it were not the voice and interpreter of a higher reason to which our spirit and our freedom must be submitted.

Body and Soul Union

  • “Soul” signifies the spiritual principle of man → it is the form of the body potentially alive.
  • CCC 364 The human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:
    • Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.
  • Every soul is created immediately by God → not produced by parents.
  • Every soul is also immortal → it subsists, meaning it exists in itself, because it has an operation proper to it without the need of the body → knowing and loving are immaterial operations, therefore they do not depend on a body strictly speaking.

Male and Female

  • Male and Female He Created Them → equality and difference willed by God. Both created in perfect equality as human persons, in their respective beings as man and woman. Man and woman are both with one and the same dignity "in the image of God" Being man or being woman is a reality which is good and willed by God.
    • Equal dignity but different. The difference between male and female allows for complementarity → they serve one another in a proper and unique way.
    • They are equal as persons and complementary as masculine and feminine.
    • In marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents cooperate in a unique way in the Creator's work.
    • In no way is God man’s image. God is pure spirit → there is no place for the difference between sexes as applied to God. The perfections of motherhood/fatherhood reflect something of the infinite perfection of God

Genesis 2

  • God creates the heavens and the earth and forms man from the dust of the ground and breathes life into him.
    • Body/Soul, Heaven/Earth. Man is a microcosm of the all creation.
  • Man put in the garden to till and keep it
    • Care for creation/Give it back to God
    • Naming animals → reflects God, rethinking/recognizing creation that has been thought
  • Man and Woman created for one another → God is the author of marriage

Man in Paradise – Original Justice/Integrity

  • Man existed in harmony with God, in friendship with God.
    • Proper love of God
  • Man and Woman lived as a community of persons, in harmony.
    • Proper love of Neighbor
  • Man’s intellect, will, desires/passions, were rightly ordered to God.
    • Proper love of Self. Self-mastery → Higher powers (intellect/will) submitted to God, lower powers(desires/passions) submitted to higher powers
  • Free from suffering and death, toil of work.
  • Called to “till the ground” → give/lead creation back to God, respecting His eternal law/design, out of love.

The Law and Freedom

  • Two views of freedom → Freedom of Indifference vs. Freedom for Excellence
  • Nomos: Law
    • “Auto”nomy → self-law (freedom of indifference, radical individuality)
    • “Hetero”nomy → other-law (the law is totally alien to ourselves, law is an enemy of freedom)
    • Theonomy → God’s law. (Freedom for excellence, accept God’s law, according to which we were created, accept the design, allows for true self-expression, the mystery of the person is revealed)
  • When we accept God as Lord, as the center of our heart, we become fully alive, fully ourselves → recall the Rose Window/the burning bush scene.
  • The intrinsic harmony between freedom, the law, and the good, are revealed in participated theonomy.
  • The Good orients and gives our Freedom direction, and the law aids and supports our freedom to make the good attainable. Examples?
  • The Christian life is a life of participation, harmony between what/who we are and what/who God is and what He calls us to.
    • Sin is not the genuine exercise of freedom for this reason, it is enslavement, it diminishes our freedom → become a slave of passions, impulses, created goods.