Unit 3: JESUS CHRIST AS THE ONE WHO SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

The Human Person: Biological Perspective

• A bipedal primate belonging to the genus homo, particularly homo sapiens

• Opposable/prehensile thumbs (grasping tools)

• More defined frontal lobe

• Larger cranium

• 3% DNA difference from apes

Soul

As such, it is the principle of life. Any being, therefore, that manifests life and thereby performs vital operations has a soul, or in the language of some philosophers, any living being is a besouled being.

Primus actus corporis physici organici

It is the first act of a physical organic body. (Soul)

Hierarchy of Being (Scala Naturae)

1. God

2. Angels

3. Humans

4. Animals

5. Plants

6. Minerals

Operari Sequitur Esse

Operation follows Being

1. Nutrition

2. Growth

3. Reproduction

4. Sensation

5. Locomotion

6. Intellection

7. Volition

Nutrition

Refers to the operation by which the creature’s life is conserved.

• It is a vital operation that transforms food into nutritive substances by the process of metabolism and the ability to assimilate these nutritive materials into the different parts of the body.

Growth

• This operation refers to the augmentation and refers to the operation by which living beings acquire by nourishment the quantity characteristic to it (motis a minore ad majorem quantitatem).

  • It is a result of the assimilation of food. It is the vital operation by which, for example, the baby increases in size and obtains the developmental characteristics of the species to which it belongs

Reproduction

• This refers to the operation by which a new organism is generated from a previous organism (origo viventies a principio vivente conjuncto in similitudinem naturae).

• It is the vital process whereby living beings, after reaching maturity, perpetuate their species.

Sensation

This operation manifests the capacity to perceive accidental properties of things.

Locomotion

The operation that manifests the capacity to move from one place to another.

Intellection

Considered an immaterial operation because its object is the idea, which is an immaterial presentation of reality.

Volition

This is an immaterial operation, and its object is the idea which is immaterial because it is a movement consequent upon the immaterial apprehension of the intellect.

Plants

• Vegitative Soul

• Consists of growth, nutrition, and reproduction

Animals

• Sensient Soul (capable of sensing/feeling)

• Consists of growth, nutrition, reproduction, sensation, and locomotion

Humans

• Rational Soul

• Consists of growth, nutrition, reproduction, sensation, locomotion, intellection, and volition

Capax Dei

• “Capable of God” 

• An individual substance of a rational nature

  • Individua, Substantia, Naturae, Rationalis

Obediential Potency

The natural facility given by God to us, enabling us to know God. That is to say that the human mind is in obediential potency to the knowledge of God.

Human Person in Experience

1. Created with Inviolable Dignity

2. Open and Relational by Nature

3. Individua, Substantia, Nature Rationalis: Conscious Beings, Embodied Spirits, Historical Realities

4. Unique yet, Fundamentally Equal

Open and Relational by Nature

• Social and gregarious by nature

• We are being by, with, and for others

• Trinitarian in origin

• Social Well-being and Common Good

• God is the source and fulfillment of all human persons’ relationships.

Conscious Beings

• Possess self-awareness through our knowing and free will

• We “image” in our small way the Creator’s infinite knowing and loving

• Reason understands the order of things and recognizes the voice of God.

Embodied Spirits

• Hylemorphic: Stresses the unity between our Body and soul

• Body: The matter, the essential part of our being human, not merely an instrument that we use according to our whims, good and honorable.

• Soul: The form; the nature or essence of a thing; the unifying principle that forms one unique human being.

Historical Realities

• Pilgrims on-the-way

• We are our own cause

• Live in the middle of “Now and Here”

• Dynamism in moral reflections

Unique yet Fundamentally Equal

Despite differences in physical, intellectual, and moral powers, we are all equal:

• Same nature and origin, and same divine calling and destiny;

• Each of us is called to “image” God in a unique way;

• Within the fundamental equality of all persons, we recognize the unique identity of each person

Understanding the Meaning of Dignity in Relation to Man

• 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 in 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 through our Lord Jesus Christ, “through whom everything was made and through whom we live.”

• Redeemed by the blood of Christ and are sanctified by the indwelling Holy Spirit

• Called to be children of God, destined for eternal life of blessed communion with the Father, His Risen-Incarnate Son, and their Holy Spirit.

Created in the Image and likeness of God

1. Able to know and love his creator

• Created with Intellect and Freewill: to recognize the voice of God to “do good and avoid evil.”

• Hence, referred to as Moral Being.

2. Willed by God for its own sake

• Irreplaceable and Non-Substitutable: Human beings are not objects of use or means to an end. We must treat our fellow human beings as equals.

• Called to Responsibility and Stewardship: According to Pope Francis’s Laudato Si, both man and woman are equally ordered to “subdue” the earth.

3. Called to share, by knowledge and love, in God’s own life

• Destined to be in Communion with God: Pilgrims on the way

4. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity

Redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ

• “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers… with the precious blood of Christ.”

• 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.” (CCC 602)

Sanctified by the Holy Spirit

• The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

• Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high.

• “Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man.” (CCC 1989)

Dignity

With the word Person, we express the fact that every human being has an inviolable dignity (DOCAT, 47)

Inviolable Dignity

• Man was created in God’s image (Imago Dei, Gen. 1:27). He is the one creature of God that represents the Creator himself in creation.

• He is the only creature on earth willed by God for its own sake (GS, 24). As a person created by God, a human being is not something but rather someone and hence, uniquely valuable.

• As a person, a human being is capable of self-knowledge and reflection of himself, of making free decisions and entering into community with others, and he is called to respond to God in faith.

• The fact that he is made in God’s image and likeness, therefore, means also that a human being always remains related to God and can develop his full personal potential only in God.

Dignity

1. Imago Dei: Intelligent and Free, Somebody, Transcendent

2. Redeemed: Saved by Christ