Gaudium et Spes and the Human Person

The first part of Gaudium et Spes sets out to speak about the human person and the role the human person plays in the world.  The beginning of part one states that the Spirit of the Lord "fills the whole world."  Because of this we can "discern the true signs of God's presence and purpose in the events, the needs, and the desires." which we share with all of humanity.  I find this to be an amazing statement because it has profoundly affected the way we do theology in the world.  The event's of your life, of a community's life, can reveal the presence of God.  They are worthy of theological speculation.  It is this statement that impelled people who were not "professional" theologians to try and make sense out of their own lives, to name the suffering they faced in poor countries under severe oppression and move to change their world, hoping to find a taste of the Reign of God on Earth.  This is what impelled Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador to look at the lives of the poor Salvadorans and seek to help them.

The document says that the values of the world, as long as they are related to their divine source, are good.  It is humanity that can sometimes corrupt them.  The emphasis on the individual in our society has had many good ramifications for the world and for people everywhere.  This is Individuation.  When it is corrupted into Individualism that refuses humanity to others, or puts the self over others, it becomes sinful.

The first thing Chapter 1 reminds us of is that men and women are both made in the image of God.  Not one or the other; both.  We have a place in this world as stewards of creation.  Also it reminds us that the human person is made for relationship and community. The individual is, in some ways, a myth.  Which means that, like all myths, it tries to give truth in its own way.  It’s important for me to remember, though, that every individual is who he or she is because of a complex web of human interaction.  We do not exist alone.  We cannot exist alone and be fully human no matter what our “Self Reliance” ideas may tell us. 

Perhaps this need for community is why I gravitated to religious life instead of diocesan priesthood.  God didn’t plan for me to be married or have a family but has provided me with another community to help make my way to holiness.