Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Human Person, Technology and Redemption

​The human person, as male and female, reflects the inherently relational dynamism of the God in whose image he has been created. The human person exercises a self-determining freedom, which he has as a gift from his creator. He also has been endowed with the gift of reason, which enables him to order the created world around him to serve his purposes. This gift of reason also enables him to communicate with God and the world around him in an intelligible way. Man as a composite of body and soul is capable of bridging the gap in a sense between the seen and unseen world. It is precisely as a sexually differentiated, yet mutually complementary, self-determining rational being that man images the God who has made him. Yet for all of this man is weighed down by the abuse of his freedom exercised in the decision to transgress God’s law. Man’s sin pervades the whole of his existence and he finds himself engaged in a constant battle to overcome or at least to resist the temptation to give in to the sin that causes such a core anthropological division within his faculties.
​Man’s struggle for self-mastery has been to a large extent the tragedy of human history. Violence has characterized the human family from day one. The abuse of human freedom finds it origins in humanity’s infancy. The inequality experienced between the sexes in some respect has a primeval origin with the first sin of humanity. A shroud of uncertainty looms over man’s use of reason and this too has its origins in man’s fall from original innocence and uprightness.
​Each of man’s faculties have been wounded by sin and as a result everything that man puts his hands to reflects to some degree his brokenness. This profound realization should remind man and influence him in the way he exercises his freedom and reason in his earthly tasks and endeavors. This consideration takes on an even greater importance in this time of rapid technological advancement in human history. Thankfully, however, man is not left to struggle with his wounded nature alone, there is grace. God’s Fatherly love has reached out to man in the inner chambers of his brokenness to help him discover his full worth and purpose.
​The grace of God as countless philosophers and theologians tell us is always respectful of man’s nature. Grace builds on nature. Man receives from God the grace to live out his calling in relationship with the one from whom he has come and to whom he shall return in death. This grace has been made visible in the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. As the Son of God, full of grace and truth, Jesus reveals to humanity the original plan of God for it through his life, death and resurrection.
​At each moment, however, human beings are always free to accept or reject God’s offer of grace. There are ample examples in history of how man has accepted God’s offer of grace and therefore grown in what it means to be human and there have also been numerous experiences stemming from his rejection of God’s grace that show man’s self debasement. The area of technological advance is another plane upon which man must struggle with God’s offer of grace to overcome his propensity to sin.

​Technological advances have caused an increased awareness of our brothers and sisters around the world. We have become more learned about their cultures, talents and contributions to world history. Such exposure has helped to alleviate some of the prejudices that have been harbored toward other cultures for centuries. This learning can benefit the Church greatly in her worldwide mission of evangelization. In the church’s history of mission and evangelization there has existed a model of mission called ‘accommodation/adaptation’, which sought to transplant the gospel as it was appropriated and lived in one culture into another culture different from it. This process often times caused confusion and suppression of cultures that should not have been suppressed. In the end this adaptation did not really work and the Church’s mission of spreading the Gospel was in fact hindered. With the technology that so easily creates a global village, the Church is now better informed about the different cultures existing around the world. This informed understanding of various cultures puts the Church in a better position to put into effect its mission model of inculturation. Inculturation is more respectful of the grace already operative in the cultures of other peoples.
​Technological advances are also benefiting humanity in the area of health services; services that a century ago or even a decade ago were not available. I think in particular about all the people back home who died of diseases like tuberculosis, dyptheria, and cancer. Many of these and other diseases can be remedied today or at least treated with great chances of having life prolonged or more easily manageable.
​Another area in which technological advances in the human sciences have proved beneficial is in the area of morality. Through the grace of God at work in the men and women of the human sciences the Church is in a better position to speak about the reality of sin and personal culpability. The human sciences help to elaborate on possible mitigating factors to be considered in the area of sin.
​Here are some of the areas of technology that affect the human person’s openness to the redeeming work of Christ. Ever since the Enlightenment, technological advances have exalted human reason as the principal agent behind progress. This emphasis upon reason as the principal agent of progress injures an adequate appreciation for the human person in their totality and gives rise to an over emphasis upon what can be verifiably proven as factual. This emphasis has often times brought into question the relevance of religious claims regarding the importance of mystery, which is not verifiable through a test tube experiment or under the microscope. Seen in this light technology can lead man to depend too much upon his own human faculties especially his use of reason, which should never be used in isolation from his other faculties. In this respect man’s sense of the holy can easily become eclipsed by his confidence in his own abilities.
​Another danger inherent in man’s use of technology in light of the theme of redemption is the temptation for man to reduce redemption to the horizontal plane with no reference to the whole person. There are many examples of this exaggerated notion of redemption. Some forms of liberation theology have fallen prey to this notion. These notions of redemption greatly wound man’s search for healing and wholeness by denying the anthropological truth of man’s spiritual dimension. Though the Church must seek to relieve people from all forms of oppression she can never lose sight of the totality of man’s nature. To betray this truth would be to resort to being a social welfare institution. The Church must always encourage the people behind technological advances that the reign of God is God’s gift and not achieved merely by the efforts of the human person.
​Through his death on the Cross Jesus Christ has shown the world that there is meaning in pain and suffering. This sanctification of death by Jesus’ sacrificial death is seemingly challenged by advances in technology, which seek to eradicate the least amount of pain in one who suffers even to the point of using various means for euthanasia.
​Christ’s birth also teaches us about the vulnerability of human life and the importance to foster it because each life can cause life-altering events that benefit the world around them. This point makes me ponder the issue of eugenics, which seeks to cultivate the life of only those who are ‘well-born’. The use of this technology can serve as an impediment to Christ’s work of affirming the fundamental dignity of all human beings regardless of their physical or mental deformities. The issue of eugenics betrays a sense of wanting to establish a certain breed of human beings that will reflect perfection. In light of the redemptive work of Christ the human person is called to realize that human perfection is not to be measured by status or position but rather in terms of love. Christ is the eschatological goal of each man and woman. Christ teaches us want it means to be perfect.​
Given this reality all we as human beings can do is cooperate with God’s grace and pray with the psalmist as he says: “Give success to the work of our hands, O Lord, grant success.”

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