Evening star., 1953-11-22
Dignity of Mon

OHIOeTSlty, JOuO1DS:
Dignity of Mon
Every man knows instinc-
lively that he is, somehow, a
superior being. He knows he
is superior to the land he tills,
the machine he operates or the
animals which are at his serv-
ice. Even when unable to de-
fine this superiority in terms
of ''honor and dignity" If a
man enjoys the fruits OF his
nobility, he is content and ac-
cepts that status as his due;
lacking honor and dignity for
any cause, a man is restless,
depressed, even rebelliouS be-
cause something proper to him,
as a man, is withheld or de-
MED.
The Catholic church has al
ways taught and defended the
natural dignity of every hui
man being. She has preached
the burden of individual re-
sponSibility and has insisted
upon the Importance of per-
sonal conscience. She has re-
minded mankind that there is
a great division between
"things" and "men." She has
never forgotten that things"
were made for men and that
"men" were made for God.
In thus holding up a mirror
to men that they may see their
own greatness and realize their
personal dignity. the Catholic
church has taught that mans
true honor is from God, has
been enhanced spiritually by
divine grace and is preserved
without degradation only when
the honor and dignity of God
Himself are first maintained.
Often in times past men
have 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, injus-
stice and oppression or any
other assaults on human dig
nifty were recognized as abom-
nations and were so abhorred.
1t has remained for our day to
attempt to disregard human
personality and to fortify such
disregard with the force of
legislation or the appreciation
of custom, as if a man were
only a thing" The present
has been described as a ra-
tionally established inhuman-
ity working with all the ex-
pedients of administrative and
mechanical techniques. Our
Holy Father, Pope Plus XII, in
his 1852 Christmas ALLEGATION,
gave warning of the attempted
:mechanization of mankind
and protested the stripping of
personality from men by legal
or social devices. The bishops
of the United States, conscious
OF the growing depersonaliza-
ton of man, reaffirm mans es-
sential dignity and reassert
the rights which flow from it.
Roots of Human Dignity
Mans essential worth de-
.rives from a threefold source:
From the fact of his creation,
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 ex-
5erciSes this power to summon
any possible reality into ac-
.tual existence, that reality is
thereby sealed with value from
within. Such a dignity man
shares with the animal and
material world around him.
But his special type of ex-
istence confers on man spe-
clal claim to honor. Though
immersed in a universe of
fieetIng and random Sensa-
tions, he is endowed with an
intellect able to pierce the f1ux
OF passing images and discover
beneath them enduring pat
terms of truth. Though sub
jected to the preSSures of his
environment, and a prey to
unthinking appetites, he is en-
doWed with a self-determining
will capable of choosing wisely
within the framework of law.
Intellect and will, then, are
mans distinctive adornments.
1t is their distinctive role to
allow a finite creature to grasp
truth consciously and to
choose goodness freely, and
thus to mirror the Infinite
Creator who is conscious
truth and absolute goodness.
Mans natural honor, how
ever, has been enhanced by
grace, conferred at creation,
lost through sin, but, restored
through the incarnation and
redemption of our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ. When
the Son of God took human
flesh as an instrument of SAL
walton, 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 lays of
Christ on earth, no man lives
by his body alone, nor by the
natural powers of his soul
1M