If we turn to revelation, to cast further light on this picture, we find that the Book of Genesis refers to this fact of human dignity by speaking of man as God's image. It is because he is God's image, because, being intelligent and free, he is somehow like God, that man can attain God, and can know and love him. It is for the same reason that man is pictured there as charged by God to exercise a kind of providence over creation, modelled on God's own Providence. Returning now to what reason shows us, we find that man is also social by nature. That is to say, he is a being who can find his development and fulfilment only in community.
Human life is really only human life when lived in community.
Not only does man require others in order to satisfy his basic physical needs, but there is radical generosity to human nature which drives man to share his knowledge and love with others. It is precisely in reaching out to others that he develops his own possibilities. The common conditions of social life, which guarantee and promote the recognition and fulfilment of man's individual and social rights are referred to as the common good. When the common good is in place, then those great human exchanges of knowledge and love can take place in a fruitful way. The principles of social justice are the principles that support the common good, and thereby serve human rights.