HUMAN DIGNITY

No credible system of ethics exists without accounting for why we must not defame, defile, and destroy each other.  That account starts with the dignity each and every one of us possesses.  Today Fr. Neuhaus of First Things puts forth a fine definition of human dignity:

In this view, the dignity of the human person means at least this: A human being is a person possessed of a dignity we are obliged to respect at every point of development, debilitation, or decline by virtue of being created in the image and likeness of God. Endowed with the spiritual principle of the soul, and—however healthy or impaired—with reason, and with free will, the destiny of the person who acts in accord with moral conscience in obedience to the truth is nothing less than eternal union with God. This is the dignity of the human person that is to be respected, defended, and indeed revered.

Amen.

Unfortunately, this eludes so many of us in this nominalistic age of ours in which we have discarded the hard-won knowledge of human essence, thus purpose, and so have let Will triumph over the Word written on all of our hearts.