Bridging the Gap
by Joe Tremblay
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Introduction
A World without Christ:
The year was 60 A.D. Seneca, a Roman philosopher, decided to go to the show; not a play in the theatre but a show of a real life and death drama. He didn’t know what he was getting into. He had heard about the gladiator shows at the Coliseum, but he wanted to see for himself what the hype was all about. Thinking that he was going to be entertained and distracted from the burdens of everyday life, he instead witnessed something he would never forget. He discovered that his beloved Rome— the home of the most “civilized” empire yet to date —gave no thought to human dignity during its state-sponsored entertainment. In his own words:
“I come home more greedy, more cruel and inhuman, because I have been among human beings. By chance I attended a midday exhibition, expecting some fun, wit, and relaxation…But it was quite the contrary…These noon fighters are sent out with no armor of any kind; they are exposed to blows at all points, and no one ever strikes in vain…In the morning they throw men to the lions; at noon they throw them to the spectators.”1
Another prominent figure during that time was Petronius, a contemporary of Seneca, and a fellow advisor of the Emperor Nero, who had a different opinion of these shows. With a feverish anticipation, he wrote to a friend reminding him not to forget about the gladiator show; after all, there was a new shipment of fresh blood. He could barely contain his joy as he writes:
"Don't forget, there's a big gladiator show coming up the day after tomorrow. Not the same old fighters either. They've got a fresh shipment in. There's not a slave in that batch. Just wait. There'll be cold steel for the crowd, no quarter and the amphitheatre will end up looking like a slaughterhouse. There's even a girl who fights from a chariot."2
Seneca and Petronius were both products of their culture. Seneca was a refined gentleman who seemed to rise above the times, yet even he endorsed infanticide without the slightest hesitation. He once said, “We drown even children who at birth are weakly and abnormal. Yet it is not anger, but reason that separates the harmful from the sound.”3 As for Petronius, he was an unabashed sponsor of human cruelty through and through. He had no scruples about the moral decadence that surrounded him.
These two men failed to realize, as did most at the time, that when even one person’s human dignity is violated or ignored, then it is a loss for humanity; a loss that eventually finds its way to the indifferent. It should not be surprising then that the culture of death caught up with both of these men. Indeed, Seneca and Petronius were forced to commit suicide by their beloved Emperor Nero; an emperor whom they faithfully served.
This was the world without Christ; a place where cruelty was the rule, not the exception; a world where human dignity was but a dream.
Why We Must Bridge the Gap
The Truth of Human Dignity:
Bridging the gap between Faith and Human Dignity is a mission of great urgency for the Catholic Church today. The wider this gap, the more human dignity will be a dream of days gone-by rather than an everyday ethic of life. In the world of Seneca and Petronius the Gospel of Life was in its infancy and the culture of death and cruelty had yet to be contested. As we had just seen from firsthand witnesses, human dignity does not fare well in an unbaptized world. For that reason alone, it is a world worth avoiding.
The key to the preservation of human dignity is the same today as it was in the first-century: The Gospel of Jesus Christ. To the extent the Gospel fades from the public square, human dignity becomes unclear and more difficult to define. The only definition of human dignity that has withstood the test of time is the one that Christ gives through the Catholic Church. It is based on where we came from, who we are, and where we are going. This definition not only comes from the Author of our human existence but it fully corresponds to the truth of who we are. As James Cardinal Gibbons said, Instructed by His example, the Church deals with men as they really are.4
As history has shown, in order for human dignity to be universal, permanent, and practical, the following truths of the Gospel need to be acknowledged:
- That every human being was created by God;
- That every human being was created like God;
- That every human being was created for God.
It is also true that we were created for own sake and for no other person. Although every unborn person is utterly dependent on his or her mother, that baby does not exist for the mother. Second to God, the person— unborn or otherwise —exist for himself. The life that was given to him was a life he was meant to enjoy. Not even parents own their children. They are custodians, not owners. Ownership, properly speaking, belongs to our Creator. And because we belong to God and ourselves we can rightly complain if we are being used by others. From the beginning, human beings were meant to be loved for their own sake. This is why slavery or modern day human trafficking is such a travesty.
With regard to a person’s body, it is God who has the exclusive right to say, “Mine!” People talk about “my” body or “my” life as if they themselves created it. They forget that it was given to them by Someone else. We did not will ourselves into existence; it follows that we do not have the right to will ourselves out of existence. This is why abortion, murder, and even suicide are grave sins in the eyes of God. We are custodians of our body like a tenant who rents property. We have the responsibility to use it properly, but we do not have the right to do with it as we please.
If human rights are not founded on God’s rights, then there is no rational basis for respecting human life from conception to natural death. Humanistic or even humanitarian incentives are not enough. If God’s authority is not in the equation, or the definition, then someone else’s authority will be; the authority to decide who lives and who dies. When this kind of power is usurped from God by the State or by the medical community, then the value of human life is subject to revision. Let there be no doubt, the beneficiaries of this revision are far fewer than God would have it.
Therefore, in order for each person to benefit from his or her human dignity, the Christian definition of human dignity itself needs to be publicly recognized and accepted. Christ came to restore our human dignity on this side of eternity with the same force he used to save our souls for the other side. We sometimes forget that what our soul profited for eternity, our body benefited in time. That is, because of the example Christ left us, his Church became the benefactor of those in physical need. This is why Thomas Woods, author of How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, could write: It would take many large volumes to record the complete history of Catholic charitable work carried on by individuals, parishes, dioceses, monasteries, missionaries, friars, nuns, and lay organization. Suffice it to say that Catholic charity has had no peer in the amount and variety of good work it has done and the human suffering and misery it has alleviated…5
Bridge the Gap or Repeat History:
To safeguard human dignity means bridging the gap— that ever increasing gap — between faith and human dignity. The more intelligible and practical the Catholic Faith is to people, the more it will be loved and put to use for the common good. Jesus does not want us to wait until we die to discover the meaning of life. He doesn’t want to wait to give us eternal happiness. As St. Paul said, “now is the day of salvation.” What is Christ to me today? What does he have to say what I am going through now? These are the questions Vatican II exhorts us to answer. If we don’t communicate the Gospel in a meaningful, relevant way for each person, then what Christ has to say about our human dignity will fall on deaf ears. Hence, there will be little urgency to answer the question: Why should I care about bridging the gap between faith and human dignity?
It is worth recalling how uncivilized and how inhumane the world was before Christianity introduced the Gospel of Life. The value of a human person was defined by the powerful. The citizen was a dispensable tool for the State. Whether or not a person lived or died, whether they were respected or exploited, rested not on his or her inherent value; but on whether or not they were useful. Not only were blood sports and infanticide socially and legally acceptable, but human sacrifices, slavery and prostitution were universal as well. Even the Roman emperors— those powerful men who threw human beings to the lions for the sheer sake of entertainment —were themselves deprived of retiring from office or dying a natural death. Many of them were assassinated. As a matter of fact, in the third-century, out of 31 emperors, only 6 died a natural death.
These historical considerations alone should hasten our efforts to demonstrate how faith impacts human dignity. After all, the saying that “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” is no empty proverb. Human nature is not whatever we want it to be. It has its own laws and tendencies. Given certain circumstances, people behave in certain ways; and these behaviors are repeated time and time again. Hence, the notion that the human race has somehow civilized itself without God or outgrown barbarity by some evolutionary process is simply false. The Nazi concentration camps and the gulags of the Soviet Union are proof that human nature was the same in the twentieth-century as it was in the first-century. Without divine grace, man can be cruel and barbaric.
The Gap in America
Faith and human dignity is an issue of great urgency today because we are witnessing a return to— not only random cruelty in crime and juvenile delinquency —but an institutionalized and a systematic cruelty by civil authority; abortion, euthanasia , and the loss of religious liberty to name a few.
Roe vs. Wade was a big step backward for human dignity. The path we are headed down is an ominous one because when a baby is not protected by his or her own mother, then sooner or later the citizen will not be protected as he should by the State. To put it another way, if the womb is not a safe sanctuary for every human being, neither will be hospital beds or the privacy of the home.
The recent case of Terry Schiavo was yet another indicator that America is backsliding into the cruelty of an unbaptized world. She was not a victim of euthanasia in a traditional sense; in other words, she was not an elderly person who happened to be dying. This was a middle-aged woman of 41 years; a woman who was merely disabled. Like a pre-born human being, she could not speak for herself when someone else wanted her to die. What makes this case stand out is that the Federal and State government— whose purpose it is to protect citizens —chose not to respect and defend her inviolable right to life at all cost. Like Seneca and Petronius, too many Americans also failed to realize that if one person was arbitrarily eliminated, then the value and the longevity of the life of any citizen is opened to being defined by a third-party given the right circumstances.
Both Row vs. Wade and the Terry Schiavo case are highly symbolic. They are not only a moral indicator of where America is today, it very well may be a preview of things to come. As it stands right now— and this should cause considerable alarm —human life is no longer vulnerable merely during the dawn and evening phases of life. The culture of death has now closed in on the middle or prime of life. And who could say with confidence that if an unborn and a middle-aged disabled woman are game for eliminating, that a person like you or me are not next in line?
It is all too clear that when divine grace is absent then human dignity is replaced by the vices of fallen human nature. As such, human life not only loses its sacred character but the seriousness that should accompany it is trivialized. Materialism and sensuality may be pleasurable for the moment, but it has death as its legacy. Unexpected pregnancies, unforeseen illnesses, and the declining health of the elderly are formidable inconveniences for the pleasure-seeking. And when pleasure is the motive of life— the very reason for living —then that which is incompatible with it must be eliminated.
Faith and Human Dignity:
The sooner we realize that human dignity has its center in Jesus Christ,6 the more humanity will rest secure. We have to remember that Christ came to give us life to the full— in this life as well as the next. From this life flowed a new moral tone. The human person went from being treated according to status or how useful he or she was, to being seen as a value far surpassing the universe.7 As such, everyone, regardless of social status, class, race, sex, or physical ability, was regarded as one having fundamental human rights. It is no exaggeration to say that the very notion of human rights was borne from Christ.
This history lesson begs the question: Why is it that human dignity is given the highest respect under influence of the Faith? Why did Christians, in the early centuries of the Church, offer themselves as ransom for slaves; or protest infanticide and blood sports; or care for widows, or the infirmed? Christians were well known for relieving victims of plagues while the pagan citizens, including a well-known physician like Gallen, scurried out of town . There had to have been a cause for this new moral tone which sometimes required heroic sacrifices.
However, this charity and ethic of human life— unknown to previous civilizations —does not come from a Godless ideology. Atheistic regimes and dictators in the twentieth-century have been responsible for killing millions of their people; the very people they
are supposed to protect. When society does not take Christ as its Good Shepherd, then a heavy-handed master will take his place. As T.S. Eliot once said, if you will not have God, pay your respects to Hitler and Stalin!8
Practical Effects of Theological Belief:
Returning to the question: Why is it that human dignity is given the highest respect under the influence of the Faith? Or what does the Catholic Faith have to do with human dignity? Popes and Saints alike have traditionally identified three beliefs, or what may be called three basic doctrines which serve to magnify human dignity: 1. The immortality of the human soul. 2. The value of suffering. 3. The connection between morality and eternity. When these beliefs are commonly held by the people, goodwill towards our neighbor and compassion for the disadvantaged become integral to the social and political order.
The Human Soul: When human beings are believed to possess a soul that not only bears the image of God, but a soul that has the purpose of going to heaven, then each person is entitled to reverence and love. As such, we are no longer dealing with just another biological organism, but something sacred. And as with any sacred thing, there are rules to go by. We don’t just dispense with it as we please.
On the other hand, human dignity is inconceivable if people are thought to be nothing more than flesh and bones. If the treatment of animals is any indication of how we treat living things without a soul, then there is no reason to believe that human beings will not be subjected to manipulation, experimentation, and elimination. This is but a human response to biological organisms and matter: we use them for our own purposes. We put dogs to sleep, use cattle for food, capture and train dolphins for our entertainment because they do not have an immortal soul created in the image and likeness of God.
By virtue of its association with the soul, the human body takes on a sacred character as well. The body is the most sacred thing in the universe deserving of absolute respect. Even a human corpse is given a considerable amount of reverence. Driving by dead animals on the road is a casual everyday affair. But when a human corpse is discovered in the outdoors, a great deal of attention surrounds it; it is not business as usual. Such reverence can be traced to the idea that the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; one that destined to rise again on the Last Day.
Inspire the belief that every human being is endowed with an immortal soul then you will see human dignity in a sure position and beyond the reach of any human interest. Why? Because no one can touch it or lay hold of it but God and yourself! Due to the close unity the body has with the soul it too will share in the privilege of being perceived as belonging exclusively to God. After Christ revealed the great worth of the human soul, an untold amount of charitable initiatives proliferated throughout the world; serving the physically and mentally disadvantage to this very day.
Except for the Mystical Body of Christ, no institution— including the State —is gifted with immortality. This is why the Popes of the nineteenth and twentieth-centuries reminded us that society is for the individual, not the individual for society. Once the individual is made to exist for the common good or the State, people who are believed to be an inconvenience naturally become disposable. Historically, Godless ideologies such as Communism and Socialism were able to get away with the grossest violation of human rights in the name of serving the poor and the common good. Pagan Rome was no different. And sadly, the common practice of depriving the sick and the dying of nutrition and hydration in our hospitals across the country indicate that we have forgotten that a world which is blind to the immortality of the soul is a world given to cruelty.
The Value of Suffering: When Christ died on the cross, he gave a whole new meaning to suffering; which in turn shed light on human dignity. Central to the Gospel message is that his Passion merited eternal life for us. Hence, pain and suffering is not just a penalty of original sin, or something to be avoided at all cost, but it is a means to life, sanctification and perfection. The four Gospels, as well as the Epistles of St. Paul, make it clear that as his followers we partake in his sufferings. Indeed, we are baptized into his death and resurrection.9 Suffering is not only valuable to us because of what happened on Calvary; it is of value today because we share in the same Holy Spirit that was united to Christ during his trials!
If the Holy Spirit can make the sufferings of Jesus infinitely valuable for humankind, then the same Spirit can transform our sufferings into something very useful. This is why St. Peter can say that those who suffered have broken with sin; 10or why St. Paul can say that he rejoiced in his sufferings for the sake of others;11 or why our Lord himself said that those who lose their life will find it.12 To be sure, suffering was unintelligible and something to be cursed before Christ came; but on Calvary it took on a new dignity. What was once a cause of sorrow is now a cause of joy and a source of grace.
Seeing suffering as such, we not only bear our crosses more patiently, but we are more capable of loving the infirmed. Before Christ, we saw the infirmed as a burden. Under the light of the Gospel, however, we see the face of Jesus in the infirmed. One common trait among all the canonized Saints is their love for the poor. After all, Jesus identifies himself with the poor in a special way as he does with his Church.13 There is a fine illustration of this in the third-century: Three days after Pope St. Sixtus II was executed by the Roman authorities, St. Lawrence, his deacon, was ordered by a Roman official to gather up all the treasures and valuables of the Church and hand them over to the Roman authorities. St. Lawrence complied. But he didn’t bring them gold, silver and diamonds; he brought them the socially outcast, the infirmed, and the lowly. With this, he said that these are our treasures of the Church!14
Our Lord taught us that pain and suffering are not the worst of evils. It is what how we respond to it that will prove to be most decisive! The unborn with Downs Syndrome, or those who are in a Perpetual Vegetative State (PVS), or even the terminally ill are not the problem! It is the willingness to eliminate them that will be our undoing. And this willingness has become in part, and is becoming on a larger scale, legally and socially acceptable. The Seneca’s and the Petronius’ are multiplying. But let us hope and pray that God will give us many more St. Lawrence’s.
The Connection Between Morality and Eternity: The ability to see eternity on the other side of suffering and death is yet another important reinforcement to human dignity. Historically, if love of God and wanting go to heaven was not incentive enough to treat every person with respect, then the less noble motive of avoiding hell was. Undoubtedly, knowing how we treat the least among us will effect our eternal existence is a good incentive to be just and compassionate. For instance, Scripture says that love fulfills the law and covers a multitude of sins.15 Also, our Catholic Faith teaches us that we will be judged, not so much by how many people we loved, but how much we loved. Upon meeting Christ face to face, we can expect to be asked how much we loved those closest to us as well as those who were in need. Such truths of Divine Revelation bind self love (desire for happiness) with love of neighbor.
If we want eternal happiness, we must love. He who does not love, writes St. John, remains in death.16 He goes on to say that “anyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”17 The message is this: If you want eternal life with Christ you must love your neighbor.
Ancient paganism never established a close relationship between morality and the afterlife. For the pagans, the afterlife remained in obscurity and many of the gods they worshiped were just as vicious as the cruelest Roman emperors. Eternity for them had little to no bearing on the quality of their moral life. Why is this important? Because modern day Secularism, a growing phenomenon in America, suffers from a similar weakness: It denies or at least ignores the importance of eternity. If our earthly life is all we got, morality ceases to have eternal significance. The incentive to be good is weakened and the desire for pleasures of this life and material goods intensifies. Pope Pius XI said it best: It is in the very nature of material objects that an inordinate desire for them becomes the root of every evil, of every discord, and in particular, of a lowering of the moral sense.18
In the Christian era the cause for human dignity has been greatly aided by the day to day consideration of eternity. It fostered a heightened sensitivity to consequences and the ability to see the long term benefits beyond the horizon of short term sacrifices.
On the other hand, to be unmindful of eternity is to live in the here and now. About a century before Materialism and Secularism became prominent in America, Tocqueville— a man schooled in Catholic thought and a man gifted with the foresight of future trends —had this to say about the ignorance of eternity and its practical effects upon society:
In proportion as the light of faith grows dim, the range of man’s sight is shortened, as if the goal of his actions is before him. When men have once allowed themselves to think no more of what is to befall them after life, they readily lapse into that complete and brutal indifference to the future. As soon as they lost the habit of placing their hopes upon remote events [death and heaven], they naturally seek to gratify without delay their smallest desires; and no sooner do they despair of living forever, than they are disposed to act as if they were to exist but for a single day. In skeptical ages it is always therefore to be feared that men may perpetually give way to their daily casual desires; and that, wholly renouncing whatever cannot be acquired without great effort, they may establish nothing great, permanent, and calm.19
Do Americans still have the ability to look down the road and appreciate the long term advantages of self-denial and sacrifice? Or better yet, do we even remember that in a world without Christ self-denial and sacrifice were unintelligible? The Catholic Church for two thousand years has toiled to preach the Gospel of Life; it is hard work! Wherever its light shined, the legacy of human dignity fared well. This is the practical effect of theological belief. When the immortality of the soul, the sanctity of suffering, and eternal reward or punishment are doctrines commonly held by the people, more and more people will benefit from their own human dignity.
How to Bridge That Gap
Before the culture of death became widespread through the sexual revolution, the Holy Spirit spoke through the Catholic Church at the Second Vatican Council. It was one of the few times that a General Council did not react to a crisis but rather, in a kind of prophetic way, anticipated it. Vatican II was held from 1962-65. Perhaps, it is no coincidence that American culture manifestly changed from 1965-70. Hence the America of 1965 was decidedly different from the America of 1970.
God, never leaving the Church without sufficient means to handle a crisis, spoke to us on how to bridge the gap between faith and everyday life. The following are fundamental principles on how we should communicate the Catholic Faith to a culture that is increasingly becoming more secular and materialistic. As such, human experience and the affairs of everyday life, as Pope John Paul II demonstrated, would become indispensable tools for preaching the Gospel.
One of the documents issued from the Second Vatican Council, The Church in the Modern World, addressed an effective way in getting the message across to people in the modern day world. It reads: At all times the Church carries the responsibility of reading the signs of the time and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel, if it is to carry out its task. In a language intelligible to every generation, she should be able to answer the ever recurring questions which men ask about the meaning of this present life and the life to come, and how one is related to the other.20
Making sense out of the world people live in (reading and interpreting the signs of the time), speaking in a way that people can identify with (using intelligible language), and answering those questions that address them meaning of life (answering the ever recurring questions which men ask about the meaning of this life and the life to come), are the components of the New Evangelization Pope John Paul II inaugurated. And if there is any hope in expanding the culture of life, these components need to be a part of how we reach people; or we won’t reach them at all.
The Catholic Church has a rich heritage of theology, liturgy and devotion. We have twenty-one General Councils in our history; a well-developed moral theology and canon law; we have specific norms for celebrating the Mass; and a Catechism that wonderfully sums up the Gospel. These formulations are a great gift to Catholics. They have aided in maintaining the integrity of the Catholic Faith.
However, with this rich heritage, the personal aspects of the Faith can get lost. When this happens, ritual turns into routine; dogmatic belief turns into cold formality. Although this may not represent the majority of practicing Catholics, we have to confess that there have been countless people that passed through the doors of the Catholic Church that have felt like they were part of a process; a process in which a personal relationship with Christ was missing.
We have to remember that God used stories, letters and personal experience i.e., the Psalms and the Prophets, to communicate his revelation. Out of the 46 books of the Old Testament, only a handful of them are systematic and formulated. For instance, God used the personal experience of Jeremiah the prophet to convey his message. Indeed, the book of Jeremiah is punctuated with his own roller coaster of emotions.
God also used the personal letters of St. Paul— some to communities and some to individuals —to share the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world. Moreover, the New Testament was written in a language that people could easily understand. “For we write you,” said St. Paul, “nothing but what you can read and understand…” 21 By and large, the bible is not loaded with elevated theological lingo. The problem with the philosophers in ancient times was that they only appealed to a small group of educated men. But thankfully, Scripture can be read and sufficiently understood by every literate person— including children.
With that said, perhaps the presentation of the Catholic Faith needs to begin with— not so much with itself —but with the ever recurring questions which people ask about. In other words, beginning with personal everyday themes is an effective way to communicate the Gospel. These recurring questions, more often than not, derive from career concerns, or one’s sexuality, social life, personal development, family life, or political interests. Answering questions, as they relate to these topics, can only add to Church’s credibility on other issues such as human dignity.
By simply presenting the Catholic Faith, using nothing but religious references, makes for a poor bridge builder! This habit has been especially prevalent among “orthodox” Catholics (those faithful to the teachings of the Church). Not infrequently do we explain the Gospel by using only biblical and theological references; never quite going outside the orbit of what is non-religious. We have to remember that America is, by and large, biblically and theologically illiterate. If our evangelization and catechesis consist only of reading from the Catechism or citing theological books, then the recurring questions people have will go unanswered.
Our Lord, for instance, used parables with agricultural and social illustrations that his audience could readily relate to. To the fishermen, he said, “I’ll make you fishers of men.” To the blind, he said, “I am the Light of the World.” To the hungry, he said, “I am the Bread of Life.” He met people where they were at. He used what was relevant so he could communicate what was important.
By starting with personal-everyday experience is not to say we want to leave it there. Instead, we should use Divine Revelation to read and interpret the “sign of the times;” or what may be called the meaning of current events. Unfortunately, asking people to draw their own conclusions after hearing the Gospel may be asking too much. Perhaps we should take the initiative and help draw the conclusions for them by connecting the dots between the articles of Faith and their everyday life. References to what they are worried about or what they read in the newspaper has to accompany preaching and teaching.
Unfortunately, too many people compartmentalize the affairs of everyday life apart from their faith. The pleasures and happiness of this life are seen as something totally different from eternal happiness. It’s as if a bar of iron is riveted to a bar of gold;22 two things which are different in substance that merely exist side by side. On the contrary, our Faith and the Saints tell us that eternal happiness begins in time. To be sure, the joy and peace we experience in this life will continue into the next as “one thing” only to be perfected in eternity. Happiness in time is made of the same stuff as happiness in heaven. The difference is that earthly happiness is only a small sample or foretaste of eternal happiness.
When people see happiness in this life as being altogether different than happiness in the next life, then they pursue material things and covet pleasures that are incompatible with heaven. Their pursuit of happiness, then, is one that is illusory; they end up chasing shadows, but never finding real happiness.
How does human dignity enter in this equation? If the recurring questions about the meaning of life are not answered by the followers of Christ, then people will not listen to what the Church has to say about human dignity. If we have little to say about their everyday needs— their everyday concerns —their everyday encounters —in light of eternal happiness then telling them how special they are as human beings will hardly inspire them.
Therefore, the New Evangelization is one that builds upon personal experience and everyday events. Moreover, it doesn’t assume that sinners will come to Christ. Rather, it zealously affirms that Christ goes in the wilderness to search for the lost sheep. Conducting outreach events in the comfortable environment of a church building is well and good. But this approach alone can hardly be what Pope John Paul II meant by the “New Evangelization.” He traveled the world! He didn’t wait for people to make a pilgrimage to Rome. In our own way— in ways that use our talents and gifts effectively —we must reach out to people in a way that is consistent with our vocation and duties in life. And when a good number of Catholics long for souls enough to reach beyond the parameters of their comfort zone, then the cause for human dignity will be advanced.
Are We Equal to our Mission?
Which will it be? We will have a nation of Seneca’s, Petronius’ or a nation of St. Lawrence’s? If we have become the likes of Seneca— a man who was shocked at some aspects of the culture of death and yet endorsed other aspects —then it is only a matter of time before we see Petronius in the mirror.
As for Seneca, his objection to the gore of the gladiator games was noble but it was not based on a complete and consistent view of human dignity. After all, his shock and dismay at the coliseum was, in part, emotional; but it was not intellectually thought through. Seneca did not see the contradiction in his belief that the gladiator fighters were treated inhumanely but the “weakly and abnormal” infants were somehow candidates for elimination. His moral shortsightedness, weighed down by contradictions, prevented him from seeing that he very well could have been next in line. What should have been impressed upon his mind is the fact that if infants were eliminated because they are thought to be an inconvenience to parents, then his own human rights would be in jeopardy. And as was mentioned previously, his human rights were violated by Nero who forced him to commit suicide.
Why is it that if we have Seneca today we will inevitably get Petronius tomorrow? Because human nature, without divine grace, tends toward the path of least resistance. Without the Holy Spirit illuminating our minds and strengthening our wills, our flesh and its desires are overwhelming. “The old man”, as St. Paul would put it, is too attracted to convenience, pleasure and the sensational. Amid such allurement our ideas tend to conform to these base desires. And as Bishop Fulton Sheen said, it takes more and more stimulus to get the same amount of pleasure. What satisfied you yesterday will take more exertion and labor to get that same satisfaction today. Then it is only a matter of time before the pleasure turns into pain; the pain of a disordered life that leads to confusion.
This is why Petronius could rejoice over a young girl who was “going to fight from a chariot.” That young girl, to him, was simply a means of entertainment. And not surprisingly when Petronius ceased to be a means for Nero’s political interests, Petronius had to go. The irony is that— and this is the insidiousness of the culture of death —what Petronius once rejoiced over ended up killing him. His attitude— which took no account of the dignity of the fighters —was the same attitude Nero had towards him.
Being selectively critical of the culture of death is but a short step away from endorsing it. Seneca and Petronius were kindred spirits...morally speaking. St. Lawrence, however, was a different story altogether. Inspired by the teachings and example of Jesus Christ, he possessed a clear and consistent vision of human dignity. For him, as well as for the Catholic Church, no infirmity, no handicap, or social disadvantage could subtract from the value of the human person. For that reason, he deplored gladiator games and infanticide.
However, St. Lawrence did have one thing in common with Seneca and Petronius; he too was put to death by the Roman State. The manner of execution? He was roasted over a fire. But this great saint and martyr went to his death as one who denounced the culture of death by fully embracing the Gospel of Life.
America stands at a crossroad. Either the culture of death will be totally rejected or it will be fully endorsed. There are no half measures. If it is to be rejected and if every one is to benefit from his or her own human dignity, then the Gospel has to be accepted by the public. And accepted it will be, if only we can bridge the gap between faith and human dignity!
Author: Joe Tremblay, Evangelization Director of Relevant Radio.
Notes:
1 Durrant, William. Caesar and Christ, Simon and Schuster publications. Page 387.
2 The History Learning website. Article: Roman Entertainment.
3 DeMause, Lloyd. The Institute for Psychohistory website. Article: The History of Child Abuse.
4 Gibbons, James Cardinal. The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the United States, 1919. EWTN website.
5 Woods, Thomas. How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Page, 170
6 Gibbons, James Cardinal. The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church in the United States, 1919. EWTN website.
7 Pope Pius XI. On Atheistic Communism. Article: 27
8 Eliot, T.S. Christianity and Culture. Page, 50
9 Romans 6:3
10 I Peter 4:1
11 Colossians 1:24
12 Matthew 10:39
13 Matthew 25: 31-46
14 St. Lawrence's last words: "You can turn me over now…I'm done on this side."
15 Romans 13:10; I Peter 4:8
16 I John 3:14
17 I John 3:15
18 Pope Pius XI. Christ and His Kingdom. Article: 22
19 Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. Bantam publications. Page, 678.
20 Flannery, Austin. The Church in the Modern World; Dogmatic Constitution of the Second Vatican Council; article 4. Vatican Council II, Volume I- The Conciliar and Post-conciliar Documents. Costello Publishing Company; Dominican Publications.
22 II Corinthians 1:13
23 Leen, Rev. Edward. Why the Cross? Scepter publications. Page, 34.
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