The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1953-11-27

failed to live up to the honor of
their state. They have degraded
their dignity in many ways. But,
always till now, violence and vice,
injustice and oppression or any
other assaults on human dignity
were recognized as denominations
and were so abhorred. It has re-
mained for our day to attempt to
disregard human personality and
to fortify such disregard with the
force of legislation or the appro-
baton of custom, as il man
we're only thing. The present
has been described as a nationally
established inhumanity working
with all the expedients of admin
istrative and mechanical tech
niques. Our Holy Father, Pope Plus
XII, in his 1852 Christmas allocu-
ton, gave warning of the attempt
ed mechanization of mankind and
protested the stripping Of person
ality from men by legal or social
devices. The Bishops of the United
States, conscious of the growing
Representation of man, reaffirm
mans essential dignity and reassert
the rights which flow from it.
: True Roots of Human Dignity
Mans essential worth derives
from a threefold source: from
the fact of his creationy from the
mode of his existence, and from
the nobility Of his destiny.
The mere fact that any creature
exists at all requires the creative
and sustaining power of God. When
God exercises this power to sum
mon any possible reality into &C
tual existence, that reality is there
by sealed with value from within.
Such a dignity man shares with the
animal and material world around /
him.
But his special type of existence /
confers on man special claim to
honor. Though immersed IN uni |
verse of fleeting and random SEN
sations, he is endowed with an in
tellect able to pierce the flnx of I
passing images and discover be |
meath them enduring patterns of |
truth. Though subjected TO the |
pressures of his environment, and
a prey to unthinking appetites, he
is endowed with a self-determining
will capable of choosing wisely
within the framework of law.
Intellect and will, then are
mans distinctive adornmensS. II
is their distinctive role to allow
q finite creature to grasp truth
consciously and TO choose good
ness freely, and thus 10 mirror
the Infinite Creator Who is con-
seioux Truth and absolute Good
ness.
Mans natural honor, however,
has been enhanced by grace, CON
ferred at creation, lost through sin, I
but restored through the Incarna-
ton and Redemption of our Lord /
and Saviour, Jesus Christ. When
the Son of God took human flesh
as an instrument of salvation, all
human flesh was honored by His
association with it. Through His
death and resurrection Christ dem
onstrated the role and destiny, the
honor and dignity of every man
for whom He lived and suffered.
Since those days of Christ on
earth, no man lives by his body
alone, nor by the natural powers
of his soul alone; every man is
sanctified, made holy, made more
worthy and more honorable by
the enjoyment of the special spir-
itual life which flows from the
Cross, or by the possibility that this
life will one day be his, to raise
him above the limitations of ma
ture, to honor him in unending un-
ion with the God Who became man.
DuNn IL A1G Al1p1E AdIAAAuitA III 4
mans dignity. To the extent these
truths cease TO energize the sense |
of reverence in every man, assaults
upon the majesty of the human
person must increase and intensi-
fy. Needless that his nature has |
God for its origin and destiny, and |
reason and revelation for its di-
vinely commissioned guide, man
will do what no other creature can
he will deny his true nature and
will destroy all that is good within
himself.
Mans Dignity And The Body
Such process of degradation is
viciously at work in our own coun-
try, where the deification of the
flesh continues TO enlist new de
votees. Through its liturgy of adj
vertisement, entertainment, and
literature, this cult bids fair to cor
rode our national sense of decency.
When reason abdicates its sover-
eighty over bodily energies, their
purpose is destroyed; and, by