LESSON C:

JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND

DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

1.Created in the Image and Likeness of God

2.Redeemed by the Blood of Christ
3.Made Holy by the Presence of the Spirit
4.Christ as the One who Sheds Light on the
Dignity of the Human Person
The only child of Dr. Scott Berns, a
pediatrician, and Dr. Leslie Gordon,
then a pediatric intern, Sampson
Gordon Berns was born in
Providence, R.I., on Oct. 23, 1996.
He received a diagnosis of progeria
shortly before his second birthday.
“No matter what I choose to
become, I believe that I can change
the world,” he said in his TEDx talk
last year. “And as I’m striving to
change the world, I will be happy.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/14/us/sam-
berns-17-public-face-of-a-rare-illness-is-
dead.html

Finding little medical literature

about progeria, his parents, with Dr.
Gordon’s sister Audrey Gordon,
started the research foundation. As
a result of its work, clinical trials of a
drug, lonafarnib, which appears to
ameliorate some effects of progeria,
began in 2007. Though preliminary
results are considered encouraging,
the drug does not constitute a cure.
 QUESTION:
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE?
 Together with the rest of
humanity, the Church,
following Christ as her
model, has made it her
mission to uplift the lives
of everyone in this world.
To do this, the Church
teaches that it is only in
knowing Christ that the
human person can arrive
at a full understanding of
who He really is.
 Being in full solidarity with
humankind, our Lord showed us
how to be fully human and fully
alive.

Christ primarily revealed how

the essential dignity of all
persons is grounded directly
on their origin, meaning and
destiny.
In the light of Christian revelation, it was understood that all persons,
endowed with inviolable dignity, are:

▪ CREATED by God in His image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26) through our Lord
Jesus Christ, “through whom everything was made and through whom we
live” (1 Cor 8:6).

▪ REDEEMED by the blood of Christ (cf. Eph 1:7; Col 1:14); and are sanctified by
the indwelling Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:14-16; 1 Cor 6:19).

▪ CALLED to be children of God (cf. 1 Jn 3:1), destined for eternal life of

blessed communion with the Father, His Risen-Incarnate Son, and their
Holy Spirit.
LESSON C:
JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND
DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

1.Created in the Image and Likeness of God

Man is the only creature on
earth that God has willed for its
own sake, and he alone is called
to share, by knowledge and love,
in God's own life. It was for this
end that he was created, and this
is the fundamental reason for his
dignity.
CCC
The doctrine that man is
created in the image and
likeness of God provides
the theological grounding
that upholds the
sacredness of the human
person and guarantees
the respect to be given
him.
a. Able to Know and Love his Creator

• He is an image of God by virtue of

his/her possession of the distinctive
faculties of intellect and freewill, that
on account of which, he/she is capable
of self-determination.

• Because of the spiritual character of

his/her soul, man possesses freedom,
an eminent sign of divine image.

• Man’s reason enables him/her to know

the voice of God compelling him/her to
do good and avoid evil.
b. Willed by God for His own Sake

• Every human being is an

irreplaceable and non-
substitutable person, a kind of
good that cannot be treated as
an object of use or as a means
to an end.

• As a subject, he/she is the one

in charge of his/her life as
he/she can act according to
his/her conscience, in freedom
and with sufficient knowledge.

Karol Wojtyla, Love and Responsibility (New York:

Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1981), 41.
c. Called to be Stewards of Creation

▪ The companionship between

man and woman is not of
dominance but solidarity, not
inferiority but complementarity,
equity and not equality.

▪ As stewards of creation both

man and woman were equally
ordered to "subdue" the
earth as His stewards.

▪ This sovereignty is not

destructive domination. God
calls man and woman, to share
in his providence toward other
creatures; hence their
responsibility for the world God
has entrusted to them. CCC,
373.
d. Called to Communion
• As images of the self-giving love of
God, human beings are capable of
self-giving love as well.

• As products of a divine self-gift,

human beings should respond to
God by giving themselves to others.

• To give oneself to others as much

as possible in imitation of the self-
giving of God in the Trinity is the
concrete living out of our being an
image of God.
Therefore, being created in
the image and likeness of God
is both a gift and a task.

The challenge to be true to

who and what we are is an
endless task – it never expires.

We always look at Jesus Christ

and strive to always model our
lives to his, for we are not just
any slave or servant who
follows the will of his/her
master but we are raised to
the status of being adopted
sons and daughters of God.
LESSON C:
JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND
DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

2. Redeemed by the Blood of Christ

 God elevated man to
participation in the divine
life and live in communion
and belongingness with the
Trinity.

But with the entry of sin, this

communion and
belongingness was
shattered, as well as their
communion among
themselves.
Yet God did not abandon
man altogether; instead,
He held out the means of
saving them by gathering
men together to counter
the chaos which was the
consequence of sin.
“That all of them maybe
one, as You, are in Me, and I
am in You. May they also be
in Us, so that the world may
believe that you sent me. I
have given them the glory
You gave Me, so that they
may be one as we are one.”
Man's sins, following on original sin,
are punishable by death.

By sending his own Son in the form of

a slave, in the form of a fallen
humanity, on account of sin, God
"made him to be sin who knew no sin,
so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.
“For in Christ and through
Christ, we have acquired
full awareness of our
dignity, of the heights to
which we are raised, of
the surpassing worth of
our humanity and of the
meaning of our
existence.” CCC, 602.
“Praise be to the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
in the heavenly realms with every
spiritual blessing in Christ. For He
chose us in Him before the creation of
the world to be holy and blameless in
His sight. In love, He predestined us for
adoption to Sonship through Jesus
Christ, in accordance with His
pleasure and will—to the praise of his
glorious grace, which He has freely
given us in the One He loves. In Him
we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins, in
accordance with the riches of God’s
grace.” Ephesians 1:3-7.
Healing the wounds
of sin, the Holy Spirit
renews us interiorly
through a spiritual
transformation.
He enlightens and
strengthens us to live
as "children of light"
through "all that is
good and right and
true." CCC, 1695.
LESSON C:
JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND
DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

3. Made Holy by the Presence of the Spirit

 When God touches man's
heart through the
illumination of the Holy
Spirit, man himself is not
inactive while receiving that
inspiration, since he could
reject it; and yet, without
God's grace, he cannot by
his own free will move
himself toward justice in
God's sight. CCC, 1993.
 The merit of good works is to
be attributed in the first place
to the grace of God, then to
the faithful. Man's merit itself,
moreover, is due to God, for
his/her good actions proceed
in Christ, from the
predispositions and assistance
given by the Holy Spirit.
CCC, 2008.
Being a witness of Christ, as in leading a life worthy of the Gospel
of Christ is made capable of doing so by the gift of his Spirit which
we can obtain through prayer, though the impulse to pray is still
permeated with the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Healing the wounds of sin, the
Holy Spirit renews us interiorly
through a spiritual
transformation. He enlightens
and strengthens us to live as
"children of light" through "all
that is good and right and true.
LESSON C:
JESUS SHEDS LIGHT ON THE MYSTERY AND
DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

4. Christ as the One who Sheds Light on the

Dignity of the Human Person
 To understand
man as a person
is to point out
that man is
created by God
with inviolable
dignity.
 The Human Person in the
Aristotelian-Thomistic Hierarchy
of Beings
The Aristotelian-Thomistic
hierarchy of beings (scala
naturae) provides a backdrop for
the Christian understanding of
man. It gives is a view of human
beings both in relation to God (as
creator) and other created beings.
▪ In the ecology of the
visible world, only human
beings possess rationality,
i.e., intellect and freewill,
while possessing
altogether the excellent
traits of the beings in the
lower strata of the
hierarchy, to wit: motion
(animals), and life (plants).

▪ Hence, we define human

beings as individual
substance of rational
nature (Individua
Substantia Naturae
Rationalis).
 • Open and Relational. Persons are open and
The Human Person relational by nature. No one exists by oneself, but
According to the only in relationship with others. Human existence
Catechism for Filipino does not precede relationship but born of
Catholics CFC, 687-692. relationship and is nurtured by it. We grow into our
full selves as persons only in relating with others.
 Being a person means being by others
(our conception, birth, upbringing),
being with others (our family, friends,
neighbors, business associates), and
being for others (love, service).

Our Trinitarian origin infers that this is

how we have been created by God — as
social beings. This is how we have been
redeemed by Christ — as a people. This
is how the Holy Spirit works not only
within but among us as the people of
God, journeying towards our common
destiny in God. CFC 687.
• Conscious Beings. Persons are conscious
beings, aware of themselves in their outgoing
acts. We possess this self-awareness through
our knowing and free willing.

By his reason, human beings:

o Know the order of things established by God;
o Understand how and what things should be.
o Is imbued with the instinctive awareness of the
unwritten decree inscribed in his heart.
o Recognizes this as the voice of God constantly
urging him to do the good and avoid evil.
CFC, 688.
• Embodied Spirits
o This stresses the unity
between our “body and
soul.”
o This substantial unity of our
body and soul is known as
“hylemorphism.”
o Our body is an essential
part of our being human
and not merely an
“instrument” we “use” as
we please.
The Body
• Christian Faith regards the BODY as
“good and honorable since God has
created it and will raise it up on the last
day” (GS 14).
• God the Son further dignified the body
through his Incarnation: “the Word
became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn.
1:14).
• St. Paul admonishes us: “You must know
that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit, who is within — the Spirit you
have received from God. . . . So, glorify
God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19-20).
The SOUL
• Serves as the form (the
nature or essence of a
thing that makes it what it
is) of the body.
• Functions as the unifying
principle that forms the
one unique human being.
• Needs embodiment, i.e.,
assistance of the senses for
the fulfillment of the soul’s
vital task.
• Historical Realities
o As Persons, we are:
▪ Pilgrims on-the-way, who
gradually, through time,
become our full selves.
▪ Free to decide for ourselves
and form ourselves; in this
sense we are our own
cause.
▪ Developing in discernible
stages, described in great
detail by modern
psychology. CFC, 690.
▪ Integrating our past to our
present existence to makes
us move into our future
with a sense of integrity
and a coherent sense of
direction. R. M. Gula, S.S.
Unique yet Fundamentally Equal

▪ All men are endowed with a

rational soul and are created in
God’s image; they have the same
nature and origin and, being
redeemed by Christ, they enjoy the
same divine calling and destiny;
there is here a basic equality
between all men.” GS, 29

▪ But despite sharing common

features of humanity, we do things
differently. This implies therefore
that we seriously consider each
person’s uniqueness and
originality. Each of us is called to
“image” God in a unique way — no
one can “take our place.
Create a descriptive portrait of Jesus Christ
as the One who sheds light on our dignity as
human persons and calls us to discipleship
(through song, illustration, poem) on how
Jesus as the Ultimate Revelation of the
Father.
Required Reading:

•Veritatis Splendor
•Nos. 1-34