God created mankind
in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created
them. (Gen 1:27)
There are numerous
views regarding human life such as philosophical, sociological,
psychological, biblical, to mention a few but, in my opinion, the biblical view
is the most fruitful one, especially for people living in the modern
societies. The book of Genesis (Gen
1:27) depicts human life as an “imago Dei” or image of God. This view contributes a much positive outlook
on human life in a very challenging, fast-changing world.
Before the spread
of Christianity in Mediterranean region, the Greeks developed a secular,
philosophical outlook on human life.
Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, argued that human life is unique among
other forms because it is the only form of life which is rational. Human beings, so to say, differ from plants,
animals and other forms of life because we are rational. Being rational is also our very end. Ethically, we act according to the dictates
of reason, yet not according to our desires, emotions, or impulses.
The merit of this
classical view lies in the affirmation of our greatest power –our reasoning
power. This truth has been affirmed
by a number of prominent thinkers in the West.
Sigmund Freud is famous among them.
The tendency of those thinkers advocating this view is that they limit
their understanding of human beings only in terms of our inherent power and
purposive end. For them, there is no
other end for humanity aside from being rational. Our happiness is attained when we realize our
nature. For Freud, the main goal of man
is “to become conscious of what is unconscious.”
However, to view
human life as essentially rational is inadequate in substance. We know that we are multi-dimensional and
maybe the most special (if not essential) aspect of being human is that
we are spiritual. Our
spiritual aspect is something higher in our human nature. Our happiness cannot only be attained in full
realization of being rational but also when we have gone back to our real place
–the heavenly paradise or in the bosom of the heavenly Father. Using a parable, Jesus positively affirmed
this very aspect of us, saying: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it
dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever
hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.” (John 12:
23-25).
The metaphor of a
grain of wheat tells us two important things about life: first, life is not
simply physical or as it appears to us, and second, life has “hidden potentialities
to die, to grow, and to live in the eternal glory of God,” the heavenly
Father. This is all true because God
created us in his image and likeness.
WHY FRUITFUL?
To revisit this
paradigm of life as Imago Dei is a fruitful one especially for us
striving amidst consumerism and materialism. With consumerism
and materialism, the world is telling us that to become real person in modern
times is to consume a lot. The world has
a lot to offer. If we go, for example, to
the downtown area, almost everything we need is already there, and alluring us
to buy and buy things even unnecessary.
Little did we know that if we consume a lot, we also produce a lot of
wastes, and these wastes cause us a big problem on how to dispose or recycle
them. I suppose, our problem on wastes
is not only due to unscrupulous consumption of goods, which is a moral one, but
mainly due to a misguided living. We no
longer live according to the Gospel values.
Christ once
admonishes us saying, “man cannot live by bread alone, but by the words of
God.”
In conclusion,
our modern world forms, in-forms and even transforms us to
be materialistic, and this materialistic belief deadens our spiritual
sense. Lastly, we need to be heedful of
some views that neglect the important aspect of our humanity –that is, the
spiritual one.
(published in the PRO-LIFE ADVOCACY newsletter, St
Paul University Dumaguete)
