From our previous lecture we learned the Natural Law is an application of the capacities of intellect, freedom, and will. In the protestant view human-kind has been totally corrupted by sin, and God's grace is a white covering like snow covering the corruption. In the Catholic view human-kind has been distorted by sin, but God’s grace can be found within the distortion as the image of God. Human nature is not destroyed by sin, although our true nature is distorted, and Grace restores our nature and brings us to redemption. To put it another way, within Natural Law we find Grace which leads us to Redemption.
Protestants say you cannot trust natural law; and if you can't trust natural law you must trust scripture or you trust the command of God. We would agree that, whether we're totally destroyed by sin or we're struggling to overcome sin, we journey through life and walk on the path in the presence of community. The "Command of God" is the continual influence and guidance of God in our lives.
We cannot build the kingdom of God by ourselves but we are called to participate in and bring about the kingdom of God. How do we do that? How does the church exert an influence in secular society or in a pluralistic world? Natural Law lets us build on common ground and common experiences. What we have in common that allows us to communicate our belief to a pluralistic society is that we are all created in the image of God, with the capacities of intellect, freedom and will. Natural law allows us to go into a pluralistic society and make a coherent argument that human kind is due respect. Although The Golden Rule is a good starting place, the problem requires a much more complex argument.
In hermeneutics we understand that we are born with a world view influenced by our cultural understanding of the world. With education we are able to cast off our limited world view and go beyond our cultural understanding of the world. St. Paul spoke of a radical equality in Christ Jesus that we must all understand. Our instructor provided the extreme example of his own godchild, who is developmentally challenged. He and her parents love this child, as all families love and cherish their children. He admitted that his godchild can be a handful at times and is often difficult for all involved. His point is that developmentally challenged children have dignity not because of what they can do but because of who they are.
This is the kind of radical equality that Jesus taught. We find the basis for human dignity in Genesis, which tells us that all life comes from God. English is a limited language, however, so we have to be careful as we read this account of creation. Adam evidently means “mud person” and after God put Adam into a deep sleep he separated Adam (mud person) into Man and Woman. I really like the concept that God created humankind in his likeness and image, and after that separating humankind into man and woman.
Rights language comes from the secular world and includes life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. The West vs the East (plus the Middle East) is a concept from the cold war. In World War II the US (a democratic society that promoted the individual) with the Soviet Block (a Marxist society that promoted the collective) defeated Germany, Japan, and Italy. Individual rights tend to be negative rights (leave me alone) that include the right of assembly, speech, religion and the right to bear arms. Collective rights tend to be positive rights (we deserve) to food, health, and safety. Surprisingly the UN Declaration on Human Rights contains both views. However, the language is not adequate to understand what this means, and the interpretation of these rights has proven difficult.
One problem is that there is no responsibility. Although it might be easy to talk about the right to life, it is harder to talk about what it's like to have children that are not wanted or can’t be cared for. If society wants to control the right to limit abortion then society must accept the responsibility to raise the children. If someone who is hungry and has a family to feed takes a loaf of bread, the crime is not that he stole the bread but that it wasn't shared with him in the first place. Thomas Aquinas said that the hungry person has a right to the bread and he simply took what was rightfully his. This is the view of Marxist society so you can see how this gets very complicated very quickly.
Pope John XXIII defined the common good as “The sum of all social conditions that enable men and women to achieve their own perfection". He was reacting to the Cuban Missile Crisis when he talked to both Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev; after which the Russian’s abruptly left the blockade. Essentially he was responsible for the US and Russia backing away from the brink of war. He used natural law to convince them that war was not beneficial to mankind. He used the sense of the common good.
Participation is to have a share in the formation of the common good in society. There have been many times in the US where various groups have not had a say in the common good. There is always a resistance when those without a share demand the right of participation. The model of family, with a mother, father, and children, is used to understand the purpose of society. Catholic values teach that as humans we have a responsibility to society, not just to raise good humans (procreation) but to "pass on the faith". Our responsibility as Christian disciples is to create the domestic church.
Subsidiarity is solving the problem at the lowest possible level, because those are the people closest to the problem. The church realizes that the world is a complex place; science, theology, and cosmology have all changed. We need to listen to the wisdom of the people, especially to those who are specialists, because no single entity can understand the entire world. Even then it's easy to talk about the values but it's harder to talk about the solutions. Private property is not an absolute right but is, nevertheless, for the common good.
In classic theology, the result of original sin is human toil, labor pains, and death. Experience taught humans that life was full of pain and punishment. Later, this led to the idea that Labor was being punished by God while at the same time it seemed that Management was being blessed by God. Dignity of work recognizes that in labor we create and participate in creation, and spending our entire life doing what we do changes us too. What we do is what we become, because we are self-forming creatures. We are the only self-creating creatures on earth because we are created in the likeness and image of God. This is incredibly scary because in some ways we are simply not paying attention to what we are going!
Originally colonialism was seen as an exercise in economic development, but now it’s seen as building Cultural Exceptionalism. For a long time American's believed that we not only are the best, but that we have a right to be the best, even to the subjugation of other nations. The argument that we have the right to exploit the natural resources, labor, and politics of other nations also raises questions about religious liberty. Luckily, the right to establish our beliefs and culture on other nations is being seriously questioned today.
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