In the Christian vision of faith, humans
are rational beings. The relational dimension of humans is seen in their being
the image of God, being male and female as well as embodied and Sexual, being
1.
In Christian vision of faith, humans are relational beings.
·
Trinity is a communion of persons.
Therefore when we say that human person is created in the image and likeness of
God, it implies that human person is relational.
·
Imago Dei evokes the central truth that
human person is relational by nature.
·
Genesis places the human being in the
cosmic context as related to nature.
HP has 3 dimensional relations – God – Other
HB – Cosmos.
Or
i). We are rooted in the world.
ii). Dependent on god(gen 2,7)
iii) To be related with others.
Image of God – Imago Dei :
·
Image refers to the external
similarities – co- partners with God.
·
Likeness refers to internal similarity.
·
Compassion, Love, Mercy, Joy
·
God shares the Trinitarian life with us
and our ability to encounter trinity is the meaning of being in the image of
god.
Image of God can be understood in 3 ways.
a.
Ontological understanding: Focuses on
essential nature of HB.
IOG
is manifested in spiritual faculties – Intellect
–will- memory
b.
Functional Understanding: Participating
in the dominical care of the earth.
c.
Relational Understanding: Triple
dimensional dialogical relationship – With
God, With Others, With World.
Male and Female:
·
No human is an island. Male and female
presupposes community/ social beings.
·
They represent a human communion and
this takes place within the context of a community.
·
Therefore GS 12 : “Communion among
persons is a necessary condition to develop his/her gifts.
Embodied:
·
Human beings exist as body – Self.
·
Without embodiment one has no existence
in the world – no identity – no relation.
·
Embodiment enables the human person to
locate oneself in the world, find one’s identity, and reach out in relationship
to others.
·
Integral part, of the cosmos –
ecological being.
Human Peron is sexual
·
Sexuality is the power that moves us out
of ourselves, towards others.
·
GS 12: “God did not create HB as
solitary being.”
·
Human sexuality symbolizes the truth of
the human orientation towards others, world and God in intimacy, communication
and communion.
Being able to exercise dominion over creation through work
Dominion refers to : Sharing activity – Caring for the earth
Being
guardians
Stewards of
the earth.
-The power to nurture the earth(in terms
of humanization.)
·
We are called to humanize the earth.
·
It is a power for and not power over.
Work:
·
HB exercise dominion over creation
through work.
·
Work is the expression of the body –
person’s openness to the world.
·
Work is concretization of human freedom.
·
In dialogical relationship with the
trinity, we become co-creatures with God in refashioning the world through
work.
·
JPII in LE 4 stated that -work
constitutes a fundamental dimension of human existence in the world.
·
Work ensures solidarity with the past
and the future generations and contributes to the present society itself in the
incarnation of human labour.
There are two ways of understanding work.
a.
Objective
sense:
·
Dignity of work on the basis of what is
dine
·
You are paid for what you do.
b.
Subjective
sense: Work get dignity because human person’s do it.
Human person graced and capable of
exercising freedom or against god and God’s creatures.(Therefore sin)
Human person is graced
(Grace refers to the freedom God bestows
on us.)
The divine – human relationship is
expressed – by the notion of grace.
·
The divine – human communion is grace.
·
Grace is God’s self giving.
·
Grace is the very dharma of God and was
(is) manifested in the incarnation.
·
Grace is a gratuitous love of god given
in the person of Christ.
Human freedom and Sin:
·
Freedom: with grace – freedom is
empowered.
·
Freedom is the capacity to become what
we are called to be – communion with the trinity, fullness of life.
·
The self actualization of the HP depends
on freely conforming one’s ways to to the intention of the creator.
·
The ability and the capacity to conform
oneself to the finality of creation is freedom.
·
It manifests in loving service to the
other.
·
Freedom is the radical capacity to be
able to choose oneself in the direction of God or act of self donation.
Gal 5, 13: (Speaking
of Individual freedom)
·
“We are called to be slaves, slaves to
one another. – before and into god. It’s a self realization in the direction of
God or radical self refusal towards God.
·
Therefore freedom is a capacity to
desire.
·
Desire to Life and Love.
·
God is life and love, thus by freedom we
are choosing God indirectly.
·
(Ultimately freedom is our capacity or
god).
Sin
·
Refusal of relationships with – God,
others and World
·
Absence of god
·
Going against god’s will
·
Turning away from God.
·
Missing the mark.
Therefore when one goes away from God (Sins),
he or she cuts off from life source.
Sin
(Rom 5,12) : Image of god would imply that human sinfulness is
primarily a failure to grow into the
image of God through authentic relationship with God, humans and Cosmos.
Gen 2, 4- 3, 24
·
Second creation story considers Adam and
eve as historical persons.
·
The mistranslation of Rom 5,12 is in him
all have sinned. It should be because of him all have sinned.
Jesus is the real symbol of the encounter
between God and humans and reveals the mystery of being as authentic human
person.(GS 10)
Jesus is the real symbol
·
It means Jesus is the manifestation or epiphany
of the authentic human person. In him we know who god is, “ but also who we
are”
·
Mk 1,14 = You are my beloved son, with
whom I am well pleased.
GS 10: HB doesn’t understand fully,
because he/she is the meeting point of many conflicting forces.
·
In spite of all modern progress human
beings are still not able to find adequate answer to the suffering, death, evil
and life after death.
·
The church firmly believes that the
Christ who died and who was raised up for all can through his spirit, can give
the light and strength to measure up to his supreme destiny.
·
Church also holds that in her most
benign Lord and master can be found the focal point and the goal of man as well
as of all human history.
·
The ultimate vocation of the human
person is to share in the Trinitarian life and love which began in creation.
·
Christ made it possible for us and
showed us by his example how to partake in the Trinitarian life and love.
The church’s approach to various
issues affecting human existence is based on the distinctive theological
understanding of the human person.
·
GS 12-17,22
·
LE – 9,25,27
·
SRS – 29,40.
G
12
·
Man was created to the image of God, as
able to to know and love his creator and
a set him over all earthly creatures that he might rule them and make
use of them while glorifying God.
·
This partnership of man and woman
constitutes the first form of communion between persons.
GS
13 speaks of Sin
·
Man abused freedom – sought to attain his goal apart from God.
·
Raptured his relationship with God –
other men and creatures.
·
But the Lord himself came to – “free” or
strengthen man.
GS
14 – Essential nature of Man
·
Man’s dignity requires that he should
glorify god in his body and not
allow it to serve the evil inclinations
of his heart.
GS
15
·
Dignity of the Intellect,, of truth and
Wisdom.
·
The intellectual nature of man in widom
draws the human mind to look for and to love what is true and good.
GS
16
·
Dignity of Moral Conscience: in his
conscience man is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths calling him
to love and do what is good and to avoid evil.
GS
17
·
The excellence of freedom
·
Only in freedom man can turn himself
towards what is good.
·
God willed that man should be left in
the hand of his own counel so that he might of his own accord seek his creator
and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him.
GS
22 :
·
Christ – the New man.
·
The truth is that only in the mystery of
incarnation word does the mystery of man take on light.
·
He who is in the image of the invisible
God I himself the perfect man.
·
He restores the divine likeness which had
been disfigured from first sin onward.
·
In HIM god reconciled us himself and
among ourelves.
LE
19,25 : Affirms the dignity of work based on
the dignity of worker.(Laborem Exerces – JP II , 1981)
SRS(
Solicitudo Rei Socialis – social concern of the church) – 29,40(JP II, 1987)
-
The document speaks of spreading the church’s
teaching, especially the option for the poor.
-
Recognizes the injustice of the few
having so much and the many having nothing.
LE
27 –
The recent discoveries in the natural and
human science provide new opportunities to deepen the Christian understanding
of human person while also raising serious questions in the realm of faith.
·
Genetic engineering, Neuro science,
brain study, astro physics give a deeper knowledge of what we are, what we made
up off; it also helps to go deeper in the mystery of God’s creation and pause a
serious question in the realm of faith.
·
Neither theology nor science can provide
an adequate understanding of the paradox and mystery of human person. Because
theology tries answer the question “Why” we are created for and science tries to answer the question – how we are created.
Genetic
Engineering:
·
We behave according to Genetic
information.
·
So are we Free?
·
If there is no freedom, how can we in?
Neuro
Science:
·
Shows how the organization of the matter
of the brain influences the mind and how
the mind influences the brain.
·
Qn: What is soul/mind? Is spiritual
experience the result of chemical reaction in the brain?
Brain
study: Studies the influence of brain in the human
behavior.
Astrophysics
studies the origin of the universe.
·
Is biblical creation story a fiction? Are
human results of evolution?
Psychology
and Freud : neuron, forces, motives that influence, determine
our choices and behavior.
Thus the recent discourses in the
natural and human sciences give a deeper understanding/knowledge of what we
are, what we are made of, while at the same time raising serious questions to
the realm of faith.
