Monday, August 3, 2015
Youcat commented through CCC - Question n. 58.
(Youcat answer) Unlike inanimate
objects, plants, and animals, man is a person endowed with a spirit. This characteristic
unites him with God more than with his visible fellow creatures.
A
deepening through CCC
(CCC 355) "God created man in his own
image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created
them" (Gen 1:27). Man occupies a unique place in creation: he is "in
the image of God"; in his own nature he unites the spiritual and material
worlds; he is created "male and female"; God established him in his
friendship. (CCC 357) Being in the image of God the human individual possesses
the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable
of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering
into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with
his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature
can give in his stead. (CCC 380) "Father,… you formed man in your own
likeness and set him over the whole world to serve you, his creator, and to
rule over all creatures" (Roman
Missal, EP IV 118).
Reflecting
and meditating
(Youcat comment)
Man is not a something but rather a
someone. Just as we say about God that he is person, so too we say this about
man. Man can think beyond his immediate horizon and measure the whole breadth
of being; he can even know himself with critical objectivity and work to
improve himself; he can perceive others as persons, understand them in their
dignity, and love them. Of all the visible creatures, man alone is “able to
know and love his creator” (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes [GS] 12,
3). Man is destined to live with him in friendship (Jn 15:15).
(CCC
Comment)
(CCC 356) Of all visible creatures only man
is "able to know and love his creator" (GS 12 § 3). He is "the
only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake" (GS 24 § 3),
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: What made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the
incalculable love by which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You
are taken with love for her; for by love indeed you created her, by love you
have given her a being capable of tasting your eternal Good (St. Catherine of
Siena, Dialogue 4, 13 "On Divine
Providence": LH, Sunday, week
19, OR).
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