Ruminations of an Irascible Hermit.: You have inviolable dignity

Tuesday, April 9, 2024

You have inviolable dignity

You have inviolable dignity. You are loved and worthy of love, you were made for love. Jesus restores our dignity to us no matter how often we trample upon it and misuse it. Jesus always offers his hand out to us in love to free us from the dominion and slavery of sin that tries to disfigure and destroy us.

Many of you may be currently inundated with news articles, stories, and online stories regarding the new document from the Dicastry for the Doctrine of Faith on human dignity. As always, people will try to cherry pick only one or two points out of context and misinterpret or misrepresent what it says. Many of you might feel overwhelmed with all the media responses and not had the chance to read the document for yourselves.

Without getting into the specific content that easily falls into debates around topics in the current culture wars - I wanted to highlight for you some of the passages that really stood out for me. Overall it’s a very good document and it beautifully puts the dignity of the human person within the historical theological context of the Church, whilst engaging with modern terminology as well.

I have created these quotes for you all to help highlight the particularly important and beautiful parts of this document. Understanding our own dignity and the dignity of others is vital for is to live the power of the Gospel in our life and to share that with all those around us.

The reality of sin is that no only is it an offends against God, but it is also an offence against our own dignity as given to us by God. The misuse of our freedom when we sin is ultimately a perversion of our dignity given to us by the Holy Trinity. The deeper I come to understand this truth, the more I begin to understand my struggles with habitual sins and my woundedness. But Christ restores to us our dignity that we have disfigured through sin, he washes us and cleanses us, he restores and elevates us, enlightening us and glorifying us as he transforms us into his likeness.

If you get the chance, I recommend as always that you read the full documents of the church yourself. Never let other people’s opinions or the media “interpret” the doctrine of the Church for you. You have a responsibility to learn your faith so that you can live it out and teach others the saving power of the Gospel.

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Disclaimer

Please note. I am a Catholic layman, not a qualified theologian or philosopher. What I say and write here are my own personal thoughts and ideas, although I always try to conform my writings to the Magisterium of the Church.

I- with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the symbol of faith: namely,

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in the one holy catholic and apostolic church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith I believe as well everything contained in God's word, written or handed down in tradition and proposed by the church--whether in solemn judgment or in the ordinary and universal Magisterium--as divinely revealed and called for faith.

I also firmly accept and hold each and every thing that is proposed by that same church definitively with regard to teaching concerning faith or morals.

What is more, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate when they exercise the authentic Magisterium even if they proclaim those teachings in an act that is not definitive.