ââ¦we cannot celebrate this free gift of the Lord's friendship unless we realize that our earthly life and our natural abilities are his gift. We need 'to acknowledge.
DON BOSCO CENTER OF STUDIES An Affiliate of the Pontifical Salesian University – Rome
THE HUMAN PERSON AND THE QUESTION ON GOODNESS: DEVELOPING A CHRISTIAN ETHICAL PERSONALISM
A Report Paper submitted to the Faculty of Institute of Theological Formation
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for BA029: Seminar on Moral Theology
By BRO. JOHN FRANCIS CELESTINO ABERION, RCJ
Parañaque City November 2018
2 I.
Introduction With the emerging technologies that can shape the future, the human person and the
question on goodness stand at a critical discussion. Where does the human person’s goodness rely on? Is it about an ethics based on his inherent dignity, or an ethics based on performance? In order to address the question of the human person’s goodness, it is important to develop a Christian Ethical Personalism. The author attempts to develop an “ethics of being” based on a theological anthropology proposed by the Vatican II, the Gaudete et Exsultate, and Theology of the Body.
II.
Elements of a Christian Ethical Personalism At this point, the author attempted developing an “ethics of being” which is a synthesis of
theological anthropologies from the Vatican II, Theology of the Body, and the Gaudete et Exsultate.
A.
The Human Person as a Being of Grace
Developing from the teachings of the Vatican II, Pope Francis considers the gift of grace as the Lord’s “friendship.” Grace, as unmerited gift independent of human efforts, is the Lord’s “friendship” which includes the gifts God gave to each: “…we cannot celebrate this free gift of the Lord’s friendship unless we realize that our earthly life and our natural abilities are his gift. We need ‘to acknowledge jubilantly that our life is essentially a gift, and recognize that our freedom is a grace. This is not easy today, in a world that thinks it can keep something for itself, the fruits of its own creativity or freedom.’”1 The language of “friendship” referring to the Lord’s grace is a language easily grasped when he exhorts on the “call to holiness” as people-situated, sharing with Christ’s prophetic office, and achievable in ordinary life by the gifts God bestowed on each person.
1
Pope Francis. Gaudete et Exsultate, Apostolic Exhortation of the Holy Father Francis on the Call to Holiness to Today’s World. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2018), 55. The paper adopts it as “GE.”
3 Meanwhile, approaching the theology of the body both as a dialogue of theology and philosophy, St. John Paul II proposed an answer to the question on man’s goodness: If creation is a gift given to man,…, then its fullness and deepest dimension is determined by grace, that is, participation in the inner life of God himself, in his holiness. In man, this holiness is also the inner foundation and source of his original innocence. With this concept – and more precisely with that of “original justice” – theology defines the state of man before original sin. 2
St. John Paul II appeals to the biblical understanding of the essential human person. He spoke of man’s essence based on God’s original plan. He writes:
The biblical texts contain the essential elements of such an anthropology [adequate anthropology referring to man’s original meaning to solitude, unity, and nakedness], which became clear in the theological context of the “image of God”. This concept contains in a hidden way the very root of the truth about man revealed by the ‘beginning’... when [Christ] speaks about the creation of man as male and female… Man, whom God created “male and female”, bears the divine image impressed in the body “from the beginning”; man and woman constitute, so to speak, two diverse ways of “being a body” that are proper to human nature in the unity of this image. 3 Man bears the divine “image of God”, who is called to conform His life according to God’s plan. He/she is called to follow the path of holiness proper to him/her. Holiness completes every human person – growth in the understanding and living in the “image and likeness of God”. Therefore, the human person as a being of grace, must learn to recognize one’s goodness by accepting God’s grace and him/her being His image. It allows a person to trust God because he/she knows that his/her way of doing things must come from God’s plan. Being and doing comes from and culminates in God’s grace, who fulfills the being of a person as the “image of God.”
2
John Paul II. Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. Trans. Michael Waldstein. (Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2006), 191. 3 Ibid. 179.
4 B.
The Human Person as a Being for Vocation and Mission
Pope Francis writes, quoting Lumen Gentium number 9, The Holy Spirit bestows holiness in abundance among God’s holy and faithful people, for ‘it has pleased God to makes men and women holy to save them, not as individuals without any bond between them, but rather as a people who might acknowledge him in truth and serve him in holiness.’4
First, when God calls an individual, he wants him/her to be saved through a people. A person cannot discover his calling to holiness without the community. He must be in a community, where he can acknowledge God in truth and serve him in holiness. Second, the calling presupposes following and sharing in the prophetic office of Christ. The Pope also quotes Lumen Gentium, which talks about holiness coming from the humblest members. “Let us be spurred on by the signs of holiness that the Lord shows us through the humblest members of that people which ‘shares also in Christ’s prophetic office, spreading abroad a living witness to him, especially by means of a life of faith and charity’. [Here the Pope quoted no. 12 of Lumen Gentium.]5” Christ’s prophetic office refers to His proclamation of the Kingdom of God, shared by believers. When God calls, he situates the person in the community, makes him/her share in the prophetic office of Christ, and make him/her discern his/her gifts for his/her own good. Mission, therefore, in the Pope’s mind, follows Christ’s prophetic office in this way:
A Christian cannot think of his or her mission on earth without seeing it as a path of holiness, for ‘this is the will of God, your sanctification’ (1 Thess 4:3)… That mission has its fullest meaning in Christ, and can only be understood through him. At its core, holiness is experiencing, in union with Christ, the mysteries of his life. It consists in uniting ourselves to the Lord’s death and resurrection in a unique and personal way, constantly dying and rising anew with him. But it can also entail reproducing in our own lives various aspects of Jesus’ earthly life: his hidden life, his life in community, his closeness to the outcast, his poverty and other ways in which he showed his self-sacrificing love.”6
4 5 6
GE 6, quoting Lumen Gentium no. 9. GE 8. GE 19-20.
5 Mission refers to unity with Christ’s Paschal mystery, “reproduces” his self-sacrificial love, and shares in the building of God’s kingdom by means of love, justice, and peace. The Pope says, “Your identification with Christ and his will involves a commitment to build with him that kingdom of love, justice and universal peace. Christ himself wants to experience this with you, in all the efforts and sacrifices that it entails, but also in all the joy and enrichment it brings…”7 Every human person is a being and called for holiness. It also refers to the guiding grace of God, which is the expression and initiative of “friendship”. The essential understanding of Christian morality, begins with the understanding of God’s friendship by His grace, cooperation, and trust with God’s will. Both vocation and mission completes the calling to holiness.
C.
The Human Person as Being of Discernment
Pope Francis appropriated Vatican II’s teaching on the call to holiness by affirming that “all the faithful, whatever their condition or state, are called by the Lord – each in his or her own way – to that perfect holiness by which the Father himself is perfect.” 8 Specifically, he reflected on “each in his or her own way” as part of the discernment of the gifts for the believer to be the best according to how God called him/her. The Pope says, Each in his or her own way,” the Council says. We should not grow discouraged before examples of holiness that appear unattainable. There are some testimonies that may prove helpful and inspiring, but that we are not meant to copy, for that could even lead us astray from the one specific path that the Lord has in mind for us. The important thing is that each believer discern his or her own path, that they bring out the very best of themselves, the most personal gifts that God has placed in their hearts (cf. 1 Cor. 12:7), rather than hopelessly trying to imitate something not meant for them. We are called to be witness, but there are many actual ways of bearing witness.9
7 8 9
GE 25. GE 10, Lumen Gentium 11. GE 11.
6 Pope Francis’ encouragement that “holiness is for everyone” is a reaction to what Fr. Wilkie Au observed among Christians who conceived holiness as something “esoteric.” This view means that holiness is something mysterious, obscure, impenetrable, and makes people “shrugoff” because they simply cannot relate it with their own lives. 10 Fr. Au continues that, “While we admire these people, their acts of heroic virtue seem beyond our reach, and we find ourselves in search of contemporary models of holiness who are ordinary Christians like ourselves.”11 If “holiness” is meant to be like what the Pope proposes in the modern world, then Fr. Au is precise when he argued that, “thus, it is important to claim our vocation to holiness and to view our lives as a process in which God is transforming us in ‘ordinary’ ways.” Discernment, as key to moral matters, is a spiritual activity, “a means of spiritual combat for helping us to follow the Lord more faithfully.” 12 It becomes an “exercise in small and apparently irrelevant things, since greatness of spirit is manifested in simple everyday realities.” 13 It also enables one to “recognize the concrete means that the Lord provides in his mysterious and loving plan, to make us move beyond mere good intentions.”14
III.
Pastoral Applications Two significant pastoral applications are worth exploring, that is, Catechesis on Vocations
and the renewed real humanism for the fourth industrial revolution. There are also some of the suggestions arising from the class discussions on this last October 17, 2018. Catechesis on Vocations as a Pastoral Project. In rediscovering an “ethics of being,” a Catechesis on Vocations is proposed by emphasizing “vocation” as God’s gift to all. With this
10
Wilkie Au S.J., By Way of the Heart: Towards a Holistic Christian Spirituality, (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press), 1989, 13. 11 Ibid. 15. 12 GE 169. 13 Cf. GE 169. 14 Ibid.
7 kind of approach in catechesis, a new approach to evangelization enriches “missio ad gentes”. It evangelizes ordinary affairs, beginning with unity in Christ’s paschal mystery and self-sacrificial love, with particular attention to one’s collaboration in building the Kingdom of God. In the class discussions on the Seminar on Moral Theology last October 17, 2018, Bros. Michael Gem Dela Cruz (OSM) and Kenton Congson (RMMS) shared their reflections and experiences when meeting the ordinary working people. Favoring the “ethics of being” than the “ethics of doing,” Bro. Congson reflected that more than accomplishments, man’s identity as called to be holy is what counts. As an application of pastoral implications, Bro. Edward Molina (RMMS) said that the proposal to strengthen the Catechesis on Vocations must be based on faith. To teach “vocations” remains to be in the sphere of the Christian faith simply because each Christian is called to be holy. Such catechesis that is founded on faith contributes in making “vocations” relevant in the sphere of the forum of faith formation. Meanwhile, Bro. Erwin Joey Cabilan (SDB) suggested that a philosophical approach to the catechesis is needed because man remains to be at the point of self-discovery: “What is the vocation of the human person?” Working Narrative of “Real Humanism” for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The theological anthropologies collectively laid out in the discussions are capable of a pastoral vision that anticipates the emerging ethical issues that the Fourth Industrial Revolution brings. Emerging technologies such as the artificial intelligence, smart cities, 3D printing, neurotechnologies, driverless cars, blockchain technology, and cybersecurity need to be oriented and shaped towards the real empowerment and betterment of the human person. In the class discussions on the Seminar on Moral Theology last October 17, 2018, Bro. Petrus Marianus (RCJ) shared that among some politicians and leaders, who graduated from Catholic schools and universities, peddle corruption. As a response, Bro. Erwin Joey Cabilan (SDB) stressed that an application of a real humanism in programs and institutions must emphasize formation of consciences of students. Bro. Edward Molina (RMMS) also proposed promoting a
8 holistic and integral education that addresses widespread dichotomization of the intellectual and practical formation in schools. Bro. Michael Gem Dela Cruz (OSM) pointed that theology must address the concerns of the ordinary people who struggle to earn a living.
IV.
Conclusion The study began with the Gaudete et Exsultate, Vatican II, and the Theology of the Body
as a point of departure in developing an “ethics of being” that are expressed in “joyful gratitude”, sensitivity to God’s movements in ordinary affairs, and growth in relationship with God, neighbor and self through “spiritual discernment”. The human person, as a being of grace, is capable of recognizing his/her goodness as God’s gift, and dependence on God’s graces. As a being for vocation and mission, man also discovers that even in ordinary matters, he/she can grow in holiness according to the gifts God bestowed on him/her. As a being of discernment, the human person is capable of a spiritual discernment, allowing him/her to disceover his/her gifts given by God to make him/her contribute in the building of His Kingdom. A pastoral vision that the Church may be adopted by a pastoral project of a vocationcentered catechesis which identifies and helps discern God’s plan through the person’s gifts. Now, evangelization also involves with the mission to ordinary affairs as means to cooperate in God’s friendship. Second, the theological anthropologies must be reworked to address ethical risks that a human person will experience even before the Fourth Industrial Revolution is at its full extent.
V.
Bibliography
Au, Wilkie S.J., By Way of the Heart: Towards a Holistic Christian Spirituality, New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1989. John Paul II. Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body. Trans. Michael Waldstein. Boston: Pauline Books and Media, 2006. Pope Francis. Gaudete et Exsultate, Apostolic Exhortation of the Holy Father Francis on the Call to Holiness to Today’s World. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2018.
