Theme #1: Life & Dignity of the Human Person
-
-
Themes of Catholic Social Teaching
- Life and Dignity of the Human Person
- Call to Family, Community, and Participation
- Rights and Responsibilities
- Option for the Poor and Vulnerable
- The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers
- Solidarity
- Care for God’s Creation
In Deuteronomy, God calls us to choose life. "I have set before you life or death... choose life" Deut. 30:19
Only love inspires us to choose life over self-interest. How often are we personally faced with choices such as war, the death penalty, euthanasia or abortion? Such dramatic choices give way to daily life choices. Do we seek to improve the lives of the people we encounter: a disabled neighbor, a struggling single mother, a relative-less elder, a lonely or misunderstood child or teen, a stranger in the store? Do we seek, regarding unjust systems, to improve the lives of the poor, the mentally ill, those of minority races and religions, the gender challenged? Quality matters.
Life is beautiful when we work with God to value the God alive in every individual we meet. Is this the reason God encourages us to "choose life?"
Loving others comes first from abiding in our relationship with God. As Christians, our care for the other is not just a social good, but it is integral to the relationship with Jesus. If you take out the relationship to Jesus, we are like any organization that seeks to help others. Without Christ we become humanitarians. With Christ we become Christians in the truest sense of the word. And that reality is what transforms the world.
-
-
-