Catholic Anthropology - Part 3
The following series of articles serves as a very brief primer in some important aspects of Catholic anthropology, or the Catholic understanding of the human person, especially as a preface to understanding the moral life.
In the previous article, we raised an interesting question: why is it that man fails to live according to what is highest in him? If human beings were created as a harmonious unity of body and soul destined to share in a friendship of knowledge and love with God, why is it that we fail to uphold even some of our most basic and obvious moral commitments? The answer to this question is also only accessible to us through divine revelation. In Sacred Scripture we learn that from the beginning we were created in an elevated and intimate state of friendship with God. It is clear to us now that, even though we were created in this state of friendship with God, it is not something the human race continues to participate in and enjoy. So, in order to understand what makes a human being happy, good, or perfect, we also need to understand how we got into the state we are in and what obstacles might be in our way going forward.
The one word answer to the question, ‘why does man fail to live according to what is highest in him?’ is sin. The reality of sin is a third basic truth about human nature that is integral to understanding the Catholic approach to our moral lives. It is important when we speak of sin to be clear that sin refers to a problem, not with human nature in itself or how God created us (as if he created us defective - he did not), but with the history of human nature (or what has happened to us and continues to burden us). In Sacred Scripture it is revealed that, though we were created in a state of elevated friendship with God, we violated and forfeited that friendship with God through sin. It was God’s intention in creating us to sustain us in a friendship with him higher than anything we could achieve on our own power. He created and constituted us to be always in relationship with Himself in order to achieve our ultimate purpose and happiness (like the stained glass window in relation to the sun).
When we violated and abused this friendship, the results were truly disastrous and, from the side of the human race, beyond repair. The result of sin is a true separation from God and, therefore, deep and intractable wounds to the integrity of human nature. To understand why our separation from God wounded our human nature it is helpful to imagine the following scenario. You meet and bond with a new friend over tennis and you both become regular tennis partners. Now imagine that this new friendship, which is originally reserved and limited exclusively to tennis, blossoms into something much deeper and expansive. Your tennis partner becomes your best friend in life - he meets your family, is welcomed often into your home, and comes to know the most intimate details of your life. Now imagine that, after this elevation in friendship from tennis partners to best of friends, your friend betrays you by stealing your wife, moving into your home, taking your job, and otherwise betraying you at every level. Now, having been cast out of all you hold most dear by your closest friend, you sit alone and the phone rings. It is your former friend (and new enemy) asking whether you are up for a game of tennis!?! Â
What is wrong with this scenario? The answer is obvious: after the elevation in intimacy between you and your friend, and the subsequent violation and betrayal of that intimacy, there is no returning to the simple friendship of tennis partners. The same is true between the human race and God. God created us to live in an elevated state of continual friendship with himself and we violated this deeper union with God. Because of how and why God created us, to live in relationship with Him, when we fall out of that state of grace and friendship human nature does not simply return to a simple or casual relationship with God but is rather deeply compromised and wounded.
The wounds that human nature sustains as a result of sin originate from the alienation or estrangement that enters in between human beings and God. This estrangement from God penetrates human nature deep within its innermost faculties. St. Thomas Aquinas says that these wounds are fourfold: ignorance in our mind, malice in our wills, and weakness and concupiscence in our emotions. Ignorance in our minds means that we are sort of pathetic at reasoning coherently, especially about higher things and God. Malice in our wills means that we are prone to evil and pervasive selfishness. Weakness in our passions means that when we should be roused to mount a defense of the good we often give up and do evil. And concupiscence means that we are tormented by excessive and immoderate desires for pleasure. Taken together, the presence of these wounds in our nature answer the question of why man fails to live according to what is highest in him.Â
When human beings are separated from God by sin they enter a state of disorder, confusion, and broken relationships. An appreciation of the reality of sin is sobering but necessary to accurately take account of the human struggle for integrity and happiness.
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Great article, Gideon. Thanks for sharing.
Nice article Gideon