The dignity of man

The Creator gave the human person the gift of dignity. This was God's command to the first man and woman: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and on every living thing that moves upon the earth."

In the encyclical Laborem exercens Pope John Paul II wrote: "Man is the image of God through the mandate received to subdue and to dominate the earth." In carrying out this mandate every human being reflects the very action of the Creator of the universe. On close appreciation of this command one can realise that the human person is both a worker and a master employer.

In the progress and fulfilment of time 'work' had to be understood to be of every kind; work with wages and work at home with profit. It meant both manual and intellectual work. In all kinds of work God has bestowed dignity. The best example is that the Son of God made incarnate worked at the carpenter's bench. Nobody can have any doubt as to the full dignity of Jesus Christ.

The Beatitudes proclaimed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount can be interpreted in various ways, They constitute the commandments of the New Testament as complementary to the Ten given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Beatitudes are so original and profound that they appear to be a portrait of Christ himself.

The blessed in the Beatitudes are dignified in the very nature of being blessed because of their content and meaning. Seven of the Beatitudes speak of future blessings. The peacemakers are the sons of God, according to the evangelist Mathew. Jesus treats the poor in spirit and those persecuted for righteousness' sake are treated by Jesus with dignity.

Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Andreotti

The Indian leader, Gandhi, called Mahatma or Great Soul, was beloved of his people because of his non-violent resistance to British injustice. His struggle for India's independence started in South Africa where he had settled after he became a barrister in England. Later Gandhi led the struggle with great dignity in his native India.

His initial policy of non-co-operation through force of circumstances had to develop into civil disobedience. This was coupled with passive resistance. In spite of Britain's aggressive policy Gandhi always insisted on non-violent tactics.

Gandhi was repeatedly imprisoned. He resorted to hunger strikes as part of his civil disobedience policy. Although he forsook wearing Western-style clothes and he started to appear in a loin cloth and over-the-shoulder scarf he maintained his full dignity as an able respected statesman. Though considered and respected as a powerful leader he fought to improve the status of the lowest classes of Indian society, the caste-less Untouchables whom he called children of God.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta brought before the world the poverty and injustice there is in many countries. She advocated the urgent need to help tackle these. pitiful social problems. Mother Teresa won worldwide respect and admiration. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Pope John Paul II remembers Mother Teresa as " a tiny figure, whose entire existence was the service of the poorest of the poor, but who was always full of an inhuastible spiritual energy, the energy of the love of Christ". She was praised for her devotion to serving life, to prayer and to the family.

Mother Teresa was a nun who never wished to be an academic or theologian, who loved a simple life, and who had little power kin worldly terms. Yet she could hold discussion with the highest authority in any country. She even addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations. Such was her charisma.

Her dignity was that of a woman of prayer and of divine charity, a worthy disciple of Jesus. Her dignity was of the highest degree.

Senator Giulio Andreotti, a revered politician and a most able statesman, is perhaps the most authoritative person on the Italian political scene, seven times Prime Minister. During his long tenure of office he was responsible for many reforms on the Italian political scene. Above all, he is a great European.

His stature increased rather than diminished in spite of his wrongful arrest and trumped-up accusations of Mafia-connected crimes including the assassination of a journalist, Mino Pecorelli. After decades of court proceedings and his conviction by a Sicilian court which sentenced him to 24 years' jail, he was recently acquitted by the Court of Cassation.

Such is his unabated dignity throughout his ordeal that he was happy that he was still alive to learn of a sentence that he knew could not be any other.

Dignity of God the Creator

The dignity of the human person is conferred by God the Creator. Our own dignity comes from our origin in the likeness and image of God Himself. It also comes from our destiny. This dignity is fulfilled in his vocation to divine beatitude. The last two beatitudes end with the statement "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven".

We are to treat the poor and the oppressed with dignity as the Son of God treated them. "As you did to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me", these are the very words of Jesus, according to the evangelist Mathew.

In this context the Papal letter Gaudium et Spes predicts purification "when we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and of our enterprise - human dignity, brotherly communion and freedom...we will find them once again cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured when Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom."