MORAL THEOLOGY Notes: The Human Person:

Human Person: Agent of Morality A

Question: Who is Man? What is man? Who am I?

The Human Person is viewed from 2 viewpoints:

1. FAITH (Revelation), and 2. REASON (Experience)

A. The Human Person viewed from the Level of Revelation (Faith)

The answer to the question “Who is man?” or who am I?” can only be grounded
IN CHRIST AND THROUGH CHRIST, from whom we have acquired full awareness of who we are as
human beings,
* Our dignity;
* The heights to which we are raised;
* The surpassing worth of our humanity; and
* The meaning of our existence
(RH 11)
1. Our Dignity
A creature- created by God in His image and likeness

2. of the heights to which we are raised

- Sinners yet redeemed by the blood of Christ.
- In Jesus, we become children of God

3. of the surpassing worth of our humanity

- Through Christ, we have become Temple of the Holy Spirit

4. of the meaning of our existence

- We are destined for eternal life

Who we are as human beings and therefore our dignity does lie on the following:
Relationships…… parents, whom we know, our friends, etc
Material possessions------ wealth or riches, bank accounts, house, cars, land, business, etc
power/influence—position, education, social status etc

These are not the sources of our dignity (HUMAN DIGNITY) but lies in the fact (TRUTH) that Human
Beings/Persons:

* Possesses the Semblance and Image of th e Creator

- in the Spiritual Faculty of Intellect and Free Will
* Dignity of Purpose - happiness with God
* Transcendent in Nature- NOT LIMITED by time & space -
- Operation- our free acts have eternal value
- End- not death but eternal life with God
 * Using the faculty of Intellect------ to know the TRUTH, WHAT IS RIGHT, and WHAT IS GOOD!
- GOD, MAN, WORLD
* By free acts to choose WHAT WE KNOW is Truth, RIGHT, and GOOD.

(Our acts must conform to our nature as human beings, image of God)

See: Heartwarming Thai Commercial

Questions for reflection;
1. In what do you spend most your time knowing?
2. In your life, do most of your acts dignify you, or do not dignify you?
3. In your life, what are some of the most dignifying acts have you done?

B. The Human Person: From the Level of Reason or Experience

1. Open and Relational

-placed in the world with others. “No man is an island”
- we grow into our full selves as persons only in relating with others.
- open to God; man tends towards God
To be a person means…
* * being by others ( our conception, birth, upbringing,
** being with others (family, friends, neighbors,
** being for others (love and service)

Whatever you do to the least of your brothers, you did it to me….

** This is how God created us- .SOCIAL BEINGS.
** This is how we have been redeemed by Christ… AS A PEOPLE
* * This is how the Holy Spirit works … NOT ONLY WITHIN US BUT AMONG US…
2. Conscious beings
** aware of ourselves in our outgoing acts
** we possess this self awareness through our knowing and free willing.
** we are endowed with intelligence, will and power, capable of knowing our Creator
Thus, we IMAGE GOD in our small way our CREATOR’S infinite knowing and loving… This is the basis of
our moral life
 Why do animals don’t laugh?
 Why do animals don’t write notes?
 Why do animals don’t make culture or civilization?

3. Embodied Spirit
* Man is a unity of body (organized matter) and soul (immaterial reality)
* Our body is essential part of being human not merely an “instrument” we “use” according to
our whims.
* Jesus dignified the body through his Incarnation “And the Word was made flesh.”
* Temple of the Holy Spirit
.
All our relationships with others and with God are expressed through our bodies, which are the “natural
sacrament” of our spiritual depth
Man is open to transcendence….
- because of man’s spiritual reality, man is open to the infinite (God) and to all created beings.
With his intellect and will, ma raises himself above all the created order and above himself,
he becomes independent from creatures and is free in relation
to created things and tends to towards TOTAL TRUTH and the
ABSOLUTE GOOD (CSDC 130)

4. Historical beings
* We are pilgrims-on-the-way, gradually through time become our full selves. We undergo process
of growth or personality development (from conception –death)
* In exercising our freedom, we decide for ourselves and form ourselves.

5. Unique yet fundamentally equal

* Each one of us is a unique reality, singular, distinct from one another. Each one has his own
individuality.
* Despite our individuality, uniqueness we instinctively realized that in some basic way, we are
equal.

The Quest for Individuality

1. What’s wrong with this quest?

2. What’s the right way in this quest?

A Chameleon
- is a lizard whose skin changes color to match his environment. If it is sitting in the sand, its skin turns
a sandy color. If it is on a dark grey rock, its skin turns dark grey. Many of us are like the chameleon,
changing ourselves to fit invisibly into our environment. Afraid to be different, we become like the
person we happen to be around at the time, losing a sense of who really we are.

Reflection Questions

1. Can you think of a time when you changed your behavior to fit the people around you, so that they
wouldn’t see you as different?
2. What did you gain?
3. What did you give up?

Where does our fundamental equality lie?

* All men share the same nature, “HUMAN NATURE”
* Essence of man, that which makes man what he is.
• Creature of God
• Children of God