“God created man in His own Image, in the Image of God He created him . . . and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:27, 30). How many in our culture today truly realize the remarkable dignity of the human person? How many of us actually treat others according to the truth that “each of us is a masterpiece of God’s creation.” Sadly, society places the value of a person in pleasure and utility and, in so doing, the enduring truths and wonderful mysteries of personhood are lost.
Ultimately, the culture of death is caused by a loss of the realization that man has dignity because he is made in God’s image. We often tend to deny treating our fellow human beings according to this dignity. We all can be at fault in this, no matter which side of the spectrum of euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research we fall on. The only way to even begin to heal the culture of death is to start treating people according to the dignity they have as persons made in the image and likeness of the Divine.
According to Pope Saint John Paul II, “the heart of the tragedy being experienced by modern man” is “the eclipse of the sense of God and of man.” Because modern man has lost faith and no longer sees creation as a reflection of God, he has lost the ability to understand himself as a creature made in God’s image. John Paul continues, “He no longer considers life as a splendid gift of God, something ‘sacred’ entrusted to his responsibility and thus also to his loving care and ‘veneration.’ Life itself becomes a mere ‘thing’, which man claims as his exclusive property, completely subject to his control and manipulation.”
All forms of dehumanization are the tragic results of modern man’s refusal to accept life as a gift. We are too proud to accept the fact that we do not earn our dignity. We cannot gain value by being useful and successful, but we want to believe that we can. As Saint John Paul II goes on to explain, modern man “is concerned only with ‘doing’, and, using all kinds of technology, he busies himself with programming, controlling and dominating birth and death. Birth and death, instead of being primary experiences demanding to be ‘lived’, become things to be merely ‘possessed’ or ‘rejected’.” Persons are treated as objects to be used, bought, and sold.
It’s easy to detach ourselves from the modern evils we perceive around us and blame these faults on the culture of death and utilitarianism. We pride ourselves on being morally superior, and we believe that we are going to change the world because we are right and they are wrong. But the truth is we are a part of the culture of death in more ways than we often realize, and we can contribute to this mindset of depersonalization in any number of ways. Ultimately, our goal is to spread an awareness of the truth and beauty of personhood. However, we often use means and display behavior which contradict the message we are trying to promote.
Charles Dickens writes beautifully of the mystery of personhood: “A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human being is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds and thousands of breasts there is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!” This dignity not only calls for respect for the right to life but ought to move us to wonder at the Creator Who imprints His own image on His creatures; an image that is unfathomable because it is infinitely beyond us.
We must be careful not to allow this reverence to be lost when we fight against all manifestations of the culture of death. Deeper than any individual struggle against a societal injustice is the tragedy of depersonalization itself. When the Lord asks us, “Where is your brother?” can we even claim to know who our brother is or have we used him as a mere proof of injustice? Will we respond as Cain did, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”(Genesis 4: 9). We need to question ourselves on whether we really care about the persons who are being marginalized in our society or if we just want to win our side because ultimately it’s not about whether we win or lose. It’s not about how many people we convince to join our side. It doesn’t even matter whether all our battles end in earthly victories, for our hope does not consist in this passing world.
In the end, what really matters is our respect for the dignity of all persons as our brothers and sisters in Christ. As our Lord told Cain so long ago, “the voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10).” Are we answering our brothers’ cries with arguments and rage? Or can we stand before our Creator with faith and hope, and admit that we have lived our lives with sincere love and respect for His image? Let us remember, at each and every moment, that we are in the holy presence of God.
This is a beautiful testimony to our need to respect the dignity of every human person – even those of us within the pro-life movement must never forget that. Thank you so much for your insight!