A Sensible Life

Tag: dignity

  • Supernatural Freedom

    First Things MagazineI wrote the following comments in response to a great article by Fr. Anthony Anderson in a recent edition of First Things Magazine.  The Magazine was kind enough to publish my comments in the “Letters” section of its August/September Issue…

    Antonio Anderson’s “Bullets and Beatitudes” published in the May issue of First Things strikes me as essentially a study of freedom. In contrasting the lives and choices of Antonia and Antonio, Fr. Anderson addresses some fundamental questions of freedom that dominate the South-of-the-Border world where he lives and works but north of the border we would do well to understand and address these same questions.

    I find it useful to draw a distinction between two orders of freedom: supernatural freedom and temporal freedom. The first sort allows us to make choices directed toward the good the true and the beautiful even though the other sort of freedom may be partially or completely lacking. Clearly, many conditions relating to economics and justice (temporal affairs) place significant limitations on the freedom of the inhabitants of the Fr. Anderson’s world. Notwithstanding severe restrictions to this temporal freedom, however, individuals still retain their supernatural (moral) freedom. This sort of freedom can never be taken away by men or by economic or political structures. It is our Creator’s free gift and is not withdrawn or removed while we yet live. This freedom allows us, when faced with restrictions to our temporal freedom to live heroically as Antonia did; living joy in the face of poverty and suffering. This freedom acts upon hope; that certain capacity (based on trust in our Creator’s good designs for us) that brings divine perspective to every event, act, word, thought of our lives.

    Of course, another reaction when faced with limitations to temporal freedom is that chosen by Antonio. Antonio chooses to respond to a very real attack on his temporal freedom by embracing and perpetuating the abuse of freedom. He reacts to the limitations placed on his economic freedom by abusing the freedom of others; in the process also abusing his own moral freedom. Ultimately, his lack of hope leads him to this action. He fails to value the enduring good promised by the Creator, choosing rather to seek that good that abides only in this temporal reality. He fails to hope and, ironically, his very temporal response carries with it the very really possibility that he will cut short his time. Hence, Fr. Anderson’s conclusion is perfect. The only solution for the problem of the mafia in his world is the conversion of the mafia; the gift of Hope, the canvas for supernatural freedom.

    We should employ this same framework in our efforts to address the erosion of freedom in our own world. I suggest a third way to address attacks upon the freedom of the individual; fight back in a selfless manly way, employing all the reason and courage at our disposal – keeping in mind that this fight for temporal freedom must be accompanied by conversion and growth in Hope so that we not give undo importance to our own will and that we not grow desperate (and selfish) when our Creator permits successful attacks on our temporal freedoms.

  • Are we "Human Capital" or are we Actors Working Out our Own Destiny?

    Are we "Human Capital" or are we Actors Working Out our Own Destiny?

    The Vatican (via the VIS – can be found at www.news.va) released today comments from the Holy Father treating directly with one of the core principles of A Sensible Life: human dignity. I have not yet completed my article on the Six Principles for a Sensible Life but it is in the works and you can be sure that human dignity will be there.

    Following are the words of the Holy Father. Emphases are mine as are italicized comments.

    “Man is nowadays considered in predominantly biological terms or as ‘human capital’, a ‘resource’, part of a dominant productive or financial mechanism. Although we continue to proclaim the dignity of the person, new ideologies – the hedonistic and egotistic claim to sexual and reproductive rights, or unregulated financial capitalism that abuses politics and derails the true economy – contribute to a concept of the worker and his or her labour as ‘minor’ commodities and undermine the natural foundations of society, especially the family. In fact, the human being, …. transcendent by comparison to other beings or earthly goods, enjoys true supremacy and responsibility for himself and for creation. … For Christianity, work is fundamental for man, for his identity, socialisation, the creation of a family and his contribution to peace and the common good. For precisely this reason, the aim of access to work for all is always a priority, even in periods of economic recession.

    Responsibility is another of the Six Principles for a Sensible Life!

    “From new evangelisation of the social sphere, we can derive a new humanism and renewed cultural and prospective commitment”, the Pope continued. The new evangelisation “helps to dethrone modern idols, replacing individualism, materialistic consumerism and technocracy with a culture of fraternity and gratuity, and with mutual love. Jesus Christ summarised these precepts and gave them the form of a new commandment – ‘Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another’ – and here lies the secret of every fully human and pacific social life, as well as the renewal of politics and of national and global institutions. Blessed John XXIII motivated efforts to build a world community, with a corresponding authority precisely on love for the common good of the human family”.

    I have already written elsewhere at A Sensible Life about the central theme of gratuitousness and its importance in understanding ordered relationships between man and man and between man and God. We uphold the dignity of our brothers and sisters by working to ensure they have jobs, by helping them when they are in need, by giving without expectation of return – in this way we live a culture of fraternity and gratuity. We do not live fraternity or gratuity when we abdicate our responsibility to take care of our brothers and sisters or when we attempt to pass this responsibility along to government.

    “The Church certainly does not have the task of suggesting, from a judicial or political point of view, the precise configuration of an international system of this type, but rather offers a set of principles for reflection, criteria for judgement and practical guidelines able to guarantee an anthropological and ethical structure for the common good. However, it is important to note that one should not envisage a superpower, concentrated in the hands of the few, dominating all peoples and exploiting the weakest among them, but rather that such an authority should be understood primarily as a moral force, a power to influence according to reason, or rather as a participatory authority, limited in competence and by law”, concluded the Holy Father.

    Confirmation! No superpower government is going to take on our responsibility for upholding the dignity of our brothers and sisters. We must do it. We must work to teach and convert those around us; convince our culture of the need to take human dignity seriously and, in the U.S., work to restore to individuals those freedoms and responsibilities that will allow individuals to serve each other in fraternity and gratuity.

  • Letter to Women: A Word Regarding the Real War on Women

    Letter to Women: A Word Regarding the Real War on Women

    In the 2012 presidential election cycle one of the parties (need I name names?) continues to accuse the other of waging a war on women. I recently came across an unbelievably insightful letter written by the superior of a community of Catholic religious sisters wherein the author, Sr. Anne Marie Walsh, SOLT, discusses the real war on women. The real war on women is not the one described by the Democratic Party:  the “war on women” in which the “right” of women to kill their babies is under attack and the “war on women” wherein the “antagonist” wants to withhold federal funding for contraceptives and sterilization.

    Sr. Anne Marie writes movingly of the gift that women are to our culture and she describes the real war on women:

    “There’s another country where women have been victimized by a powerful propaganda that has brought them to be ashamed of their bodies and the meaning of their bodies. Because of this propaganda, they have sterilized themselves in great numbers and had 50 million of their babies killed in the last 40 years.”

    This country is the United States of America, a country wherein a dangerously high number of citizens are coming to believe the lie “that women cannot have control of their destiny unless they can get rid of actually what makes them women.”

    “The current propaganda has been just as lethal to women and children in the US as anything that goes on in any country in Asia or Africa or Latin America. Any man (or woman) who encourages a woman to think that access to sterilization and abortion will make her equal to men, has rejected her womanhood, and therefore has rejected her as a real person.”

    Sr. Anne Marie’s letter is full of hope and optimism and serves as a call to women and men to take heart and work to rid our culture of the deceptions perpetrated against women so that “the feminine genius can then be unleashed for the building up of a true civilization of life and love.”

    Please read Sr. Ann Marie’s full letter here. I have most assuredly not adequately conveyed the importance and wisdom of her words.