RS 402

• the catholic social teachings are the concrete expression of Robert Johann's understanding of freedom as responsibility, responding to the objective needs of the situation
• Papal Encyclicals are materials to reflect on by presenting the reality, reading the signs of the times in light of the Gospels and Church Traditions, and providing an appropriate response using Christian morality
• social issues are moral issues as these affect real communities, real lives, and real people with names and faces
• CST not only fights for the rights of people but ultimately, it defends the dignity of each human person
• The Image of God is the basis for the theme of human dignity, the bedrock of Catholic Social Teaching, is that humans were created in the image and likeness of God
• Regardless of any factors or reasons we can think of, individuals have inherent and immeasurable worth and dignity; each human life is considered sacred
• Richard Gulla explains that the human person is considered a norm of morality because each person mirrors the sanctity of God
• Gulla states, “To say that the human person is the ‘image of God’ is first a theological statement before it is an anthropological one."
• The image of God is a theological statement first because it expresses that our relationship with God is what makes us human
• Gulla states, “As long as God offers divine love, humans will ever remain in God’s image and enjoy a sacred dignity whether in sin or not, whether acting humanly or not."
• The biblical truth about the human person is that the image of God is irreversible
• human dignity is found in the divinity that is the human person as God’s love sustains each person
• God’s love is seen in the Trinitarian bond found in the Catholic faith: the relationship between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. This adds another important dimension to the image of God, that is, that communal aspect of being a human person.
• Community is essential to growing in God’s image
• Hidden Treasures call for moral responsibility towards one’s neighbor and is the call of Christian morality because, through faith, one sees that the other is sacred because of God’s divinity
• Those who respond authentically to these hidden treasures are seen with this threefold profile of a moral character: reverence, conversion, and responsibility
• Matthew 13 : 44 states, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”
• predisposition for openness is reverence
• Reverence entails a mindful disposition that the divine is present in each person, in every situation
• Conversion is the re-orientation of our disposition. Once we are aware that the divine is truly present in each person, then it challenges us to go beyond our preconceived notions of what a human person is and direct it to our fundamental relationship with God
• Responsibility is seen in the Parable of the Good Samaritan
• all people have inherent dignity that the themes of ‘Preferential Option for the Poor’ and ‘Authentic Human Development’ develop within CST
• recognizing that each person holds the divine, we are immediately called to be responsible for each person