Secularity
“Secularity, a Christian truth:
“My daughters and sons, in Opus Dei, secularity is not a mask. It is something that belongs to the very essence of our way[1] as our Father would say. Our secularity is not simply a juridical form of clothing. [2] It is not some external garb, an outfit adapted to an already existing body, or one of those mass-produced ready-made suits, which people have to adapt their bodies to as best they can. Nor is it a kind of claim to autonomy as regards god, who calls us to total self-giving. Neither does it take as its model the worldliness or the hedonistic ways of certain contemporary cultures.
“No, my daughters and sons, no. If we were to follow such lifestyles our unity of life would go to pieces. Engrave this well on your hearts, and meditate on it with all the strength of your minds: our secularity is a real and essen6tial characteristic of our spirit, to be practiced fully and entirely. [3] It is a profound truth of our being Christians, a dimension of our existence4 which forms one and the same thing with the divine vocation we have received and with the mission that this vocation confers on us. It is, as Don Alovaro said in the text I have just quoted, ‘the place where the Lord our God puts us, deep within his Heart, so as to do his Work and sanctify this world.”
“There is not, there cannot be, any sort of opposition or conflict between secularity, interior life and apostolate. This is because, as I have said, they are not things that are independent of one another, but inseparable aspects of a way, our way, which is and must be profoundly one. If anyone failed to grasp this, if at any moment he were to think that contemplative life or apostolic zeal could clash with secularity, or – what amounts to the same thing – that secularity required a a watering down or modification of some ascetical and spiritual demands it would prove that he was confusing secularity with behavior opposed to Christ’s will, and therefore opposed to the dignity, greatness and value to which every person is called. Or it would show that he had not completely understood the intimate union that exists between the human vocation and the divine one; between temporal existence and the call to union with God in Christ; between nature and grace.
Elegit nos in ipso ante mundi constitutionem, ut essemus sancti et immaculati in conspectu eius in caritate: God
1) Jesus Christ: Prototype of Secularity. “I have come down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of Him Who sent Me” (Jn. 6, 38)
The Text of Constantinople
III (680-681):
“And we
proclaim equally two
natural volitions or wills
in him and two natural principles of action which undergo no division, no
change, no partition, no confusion, in accordance with the teaching of the holy
fathers. And the two natural wills not in opposition, as the impious
heretics said, far from it, but his human will following, and not resisting or
struggling, rather in fact subject to his divine and all powerful will.
For the will of the flesh had to be moved, and yet to be subjected to the
divine will, according to the most wise Athanasius. For just as his flesh is
said to be and is flesh of the Word of God, so too the natural will of his
flesh is said to and does belong to the Word of God, just as he says
himself: I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will
of the Father who sent me, calling his own will that of his flesh, since
his flesh too became his own. For in the same way that his all holy and
blameless animate flesh was not destroyed in being made divine but remained in
its own limit and category, so his human will as well was not destroyed by
being made divine, but rather was preserved, according to the theologian
Gregory, who says: "For his willing, when he is considered as saviour, is
not in opposition to God, being made divine in its entirety"…
Therefore, protecting on all sides the "no confusion" and "no
division", we announce the whole in these brief words: Believing our lord
Jesus Christ, even after his incarnation, to be one of the holy Trinity and our
true God, we say that he has two
natures [naturas] shining forth in his one subsistence[subsistentia] in
which he demonstrated the miracles and the sufferings throughout his entire
providential dwelling here, not in appearance but in truth, the difference of
the natures being made known in the same one subsistence in that each nature
wills and performs the things that are proper to it in a communion with the
other; then in accord with this reasoning we hold that two natural wills and
principles of action meet in correspondence for the salvation of the human race.
The key to understanding the unity of the divine and human
in Christ is to understand that there is one divine Person Who has taken the
humanity of the man Jesus of Nazareth epitomized in the human will
as His own. It is critical to understand that it is not the will that
wills, but the person. That is, the divine Person wills with His own
human will. Only this can make sense of Jn. 6, 38: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will
of him who sent me.” The divine “I” does not do His own human will, but
that of the Father. The dynamic of self-mastery consists in the Person subduing
the human will that has been “made to be sin” (2 Cor. 5, 21). [4] In
a word, this is the radical self-gift of the Son as God-man.
Put more
clearly, the relation of the divine and the human in Christ is not a
parallelism of two natures bound together by the commonality of a Person as substance
in itself. Rather, it is the compenetration of the divine and the human by the
fact that the divine Person has taken the human will as His own and He, the
divine Person, wills with the human will. The result is the “compenetration” of
the two “wills,” the divine and the human because it is one and the same Person
doing the willing. Wills do not will; persons will.
And yet,
the human will does not lose its autonomy and freedom, but rather has it
radically enhanced by the fact that it is a divine Person living out the
Trinitarian relation to the Father, now as man with a human will.
Benedict
says it like this:
“Thus the Logos adopts the being of the man Jesus into
his own being and speaks of it in terms of his own I: `For I have come down
from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me’ (Jn. 6,
38). In the Son’s obedience, where both wills become one in a single Yes to the
will of the Father, communion takes place between human and divine being. The
`wondrous exchange,’ the `alchemy of being,’ is realized here as a liberating
and reconciling communication, which becomes a communion between Creator and
creature. It is in the pain of this exchange, and only here, that that
fundamental change takes place in man, the change which alone can redeem him
and transform the conditions of the world. Here community is born, here the
Church comes into being. The act whereby we participate in the Son’s obedience,
which involves man’s genuine transformation, is also the only really effective
contribution toward renewing and transforming society and the world as a whole.
Only where this act takes place is there a change for the good – in the
direction of the kingdom of God.”[5]
“Compenetration”
This is the root and ground of
the relation of the divine and the human.
St. Josemaria
Escriva: August 7, 19031: “Et si exaltatus fuero a terra, omnia
traham ad meipsum” (Jn. 12, 32): “Y el concept preciso: no es en el sentido en
que lo dice la Escritura: te lo digo en el sentido de que me pongais en lo alto
de todas las actividades humanas; que, en todos los lugares del mundo,haya
cristianos, con una dedicacion personally liberrima, que sean otros Cristos.”
The point: Christ reigns in all human activities by the conversion of each person – by the
gift of self in the exercise of ordinary work – to become “another Christ.”
POST-SYNODAL
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
CHRISTIFIDELES LAICI
OF
HIS HOLINESS
JOHN PAUL II
ON THE VOCATION AND THE MISSION
OF THE LAY FAITHFUL
IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE WORLD
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
CHRISTIFIDELES LAICI
OF
HIS HOLINESS
JOHN PAUL II
ON THE VOCATION AND THE MISSION
OF THE LAY FAITHFUL
IN THE CHURCH AND IN THE WORLD
(…)
The Lay Faithful
and Their Secular Character 15. The newness of the Christian life is the foundation and title for equality among all the baptized in Christ, for all the members of the People of God: "As members, they share a common dignity from their rebirth in Christ, they have the same filial grace and the same vocation to perfection. They possess in common one salvation, one hope and one undivided charity"(28). Because of the one dignity flowing from Baptism, each member of the lay faithful, together with ordained ministers and men and women religious, shares a responsibility for the Church's mission.
But among the lay faithful this one baptismal dignity takes on a manner of life which sets a person apart, without, however, bringing about a separation from the ministerial priesthood or from men and women religious. The Second Vatican Council has described this manner of life as the "secular character": "The secular character is properly and particularly that of the lay faithful"(29).
To understand properly the lay faithful's position in the Church in a complete, adequate and specific manner it is necesary to come to a deeper theological understanding of their secular character in light of God's plan of salvation and in the context of the mystery of the Church.
Pope Paul VI said the Church "has an authentic secular dimension, inherent to her inner nature and mission, which is deeply rooted in the mystery of the Word Incarnate, and which is realized in different forms through her members"(30).
The Church, in fact, lives in the world, even if she is not of the world (cf. Jn 17:16). She is sent to continue the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, which "by its very nature concerns the salvation of humanity, and also involves the renewal of the whole temporal order"(31).
Certainly all the members of the Church are sharers in this secular dimension but in different ways. In particular the sharing of the lay faithful has its own manner of realization and function, which, according to the Council, is "properly and particularly" theirs. Such a manner is designated with the expression "secular character"(32).
In fact the Council, in describing the lay faithful's situation in the secular world, points to it above all, as the place in which they receive their call from God: "There they are called by God"(33). This "place" is treated and presented in dynamic terms: the lay faithful "live in the world, that is, in every one of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very fabric of their existence is woven"(34). They are persons who live an ordinary life in the world: they study, they work, they form relationships as friends, professionals, members of society, cultures, etc. However, the Council considers their condition not simply an external and environmental framework, but as a reality destined to find in Jesus Christ the fullness of its meaning(35). Indeed it leads to the affirmation that "the Word made flesh willed to share in human fellowship ... He sanctified those human ties, especially family ones, from which social relationships arise, willingly submitting himself to the laws of his country. He chose to lead the life of an ordinary craftsman of his own time and place"(36).
The "world" thus becomes the place and the means for the lay faithful to fulfill their Christian vocation, because the world itself is destined to glorify God the Father in Christ. The Council is able then to indicate the proper and special sense of the divine vocation which is directed to the lay faithful. They are not called to abandon the position that they have in the world. Baptism does not take them from the world at all, as the apostle Paul points out: "So, brethren, in whatever state each was called, there let him remain with God" (1 Cor 7:24). On the contrary, he entrusts a vocation to them that properly concerns their situation in the world. The lay faithful, in fact, "are called by God so that they, led by the spirit of the Gospel, might contribute to the sanctification of the world, as from within like leaven, by fulfilling their own particular duties. Thus, especially in this way of life, resplendent in faith, hope and charity they manifest Christ to others"(37).Thus for the lay faithful, to be present and active in the world is not only an anthropological and sociological reality, but in a specific way, a theological and ecclesiological reality as well. In fact, in their situation in the world God manifests his plan and communicates to them their particular vocation of "seeking the Kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God"(38).
Precisely with this in mind the Synod Fathers said: "The secular character of the lay faithful is not therefore to be defined only in a sociological sense, but most especially in a theological sense. The term secular must be understood in light of the act of God the creator and redeemer, who has handed over the world to women and men, so that they may participate in the work of creation, free creation from the influence of sin and sanctify themselves in marriage or the celibate life, in a family, in a profession and in the various activities of society"(39).
The lay faithful's position in the Church, then, comes to be fundamentally defined by their newness in Christian life and distinguished by their secular character(40).
The images taken from the gospel of salt, light and leaven, although indiscriminately applicable to all Jesus' disciples, are specifically applied to the lay faithful. They are particularly meaningful images because they speak not only of the deep involvement and the full participation of the lay faithful in the affairs of the earth, the world and the human community, but also and above all, they tell of the radical newness and unique character of an involvement and participation which has as its purpose the spreading of the Gospel that brings salvation.
Called to Holiness
16. We come to a full sense of the dignity of the lay faithful if we consider the prime and fundamental vocation that the Father assigns to each of them in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit: the vocation to holiness, that is, the perfection of charity. Holiness is the greatest testimony of the dignity conferred on a disciple of Christ.
The Second Vatican Council has significantly spoken on the universal call to holiness. It is possible to say that this call to holiness is precisely the basic charge entrusted to all the sons and daughters of the Church by a Council which intended to bring a renewal of Christian life based on the gospel(41). This charge is not a simple moral exhortation, but an undeniable requirement arising from the mystery of the Church: she is the choice vine, whose branches live and grow with the same holy and life-giving energies that come from Christ; she is the Mystical Body, whose members share in the same life of holiness of the Head who is Christ; she is the Beloved Spouse of the Lord Jesus, who delivered himself up for her sanctification (cf. Eph 5:25 ff.). The Spirit that sanctified the human nature of Jesus in Mary's virginal womb (cf. Lk 1:35) is the same Spirit that is abiding and working in the Church to communicate to her the holiness of the Son of God made man.
It is ever more urgent that today all Christians take up again the way of gospel renewal, welcoming in a spirit of generosity the invitation expressed by the apostle Peter "to be holy in all conduct" (1 Pt 1:15). The 1985 Extraordinary Synod, twenty years after the Council, opportunely insisted on this urgency: "Since the Church in Christ is a mystery, she ought to be considered the sign and instrument of holiness... Men and women saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult circumstances in the Church's history. Today we have the greatest need of saints whom we must assiduously beg God to raise up"(42).
Everyone in the Church, precisely because they are members, receive and thereby share in the common vocation to holiness. In the fullness of this title and on equal par with all other members of the Church, the lay faithful are called to holiness: "All the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity"(43). "All of Christ's followers are invited and bound to pursue holiness and the perfect fulfillment of their own state of life"(44).
The call to holiness is rooted in Baptism and proposed anew in the other Sacraments, principally in the Eucharist. Since Christians are reclothed in Christ Jesus and refreshed by his Spirit, they are "holy". They therefore have the ability to manifest this holiness and the responsibility to bear witness to it in all that they do. The apostle Paul never tires of admonishing all Christians to live "as is fitting among saints" (Eph 5:3).
Life according to the Spirit, whose fruit is holiness (cf. Rom 6:22;Gal 5:22), stirs up every baptized person and requires each to follow and imitate Jesus Christ, in embracing the Beatitudes, in listening and meditating on the Word of God, in conscious and active participation in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church, in personal prayer, in family or in community, in the hunger and thirst for justice, in the practice of the commandment of love in all circumstances of life and service to the brethren, especially the least, the poor and the suffering.
The Life of Holiness in the World
17. The vocation of the lay faithful to holiness implies that life according to the Spirit expresses itself in a particular way in their involvement in temporal affairs and in their participation in earthly activities. Once again the apostle admonishes us: "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col 3:17). Applying the apostle's words to the lay faithful, the Council categorically affirms: "Neither family concerns nor other secular affairs should be excluded from their religious programme of life"(45). Likewise the Synod Fathers have said: "The unity of life of the lay faithful is of the greatest importance: indeed they must be sanctified in everyday professional and social life. Therefore, to respond to their vocation, the lay faithful must see their daily activities as an occasion to join themselves to God, fulfill his will, serve other people and lead them to communion with God in Christ"(46).
The vocation to holiness must be recognized and lived by the lay faithful, first of all as an undeniable and demanding obligation and as a shining example of the infinite love of the Father that has regenerated them in his own life of holiness. Such a vocation, then, ought to be called an essential and inseparable element of the new life of Baptism, and therefore an element which determines their dignity. At the same time the vocation to holiness is intimately connected to mission and to the responsibility entrusted to the lay faithful in the Church and in the world. In fact, that same holiness which is derived simply from their participation in the Church's holiness, represents their first and fundamental contribution to the building of the Church herself, who is the "Communion of Saints". The eyes of faith behold a wonderful scene: that of a countless number of lay people, both women and men, busy at work in their daily life and activity, oftentimes far from view and quite unacclaimed by the world, unknown to the world's great personages but nonetheless looked upon in love by the Father, untiring labourers who work in the Lord's vineyard. Confident and steadfast through the power of God's grace, these are the humble yet great builders of the Kingdom of God in history.
Holiness, then, must be called a fundamental presupposition and an irreplaceable condition for everyone in fulfilling the mission of salvation within the Church. The Church's holiness is the hidden source and the infallible measure of the works of the apostolate and of the missionary effort. Only in the measure that the Church, Christ's Spouse, is loved by him and she, in turn, loves him, does she become a mother fruitful in the Spirit.
Again we take up the image from the gospel: the fruitfulness and the growth of the branches depends on their remaining united to the vine. "As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (Jn 15:4-5).
It is appropriate to recall here the solemn proclamation of beatification and canonization of lay men and women which took place during the month of the Synod. The entire People of God, and the lay faithful in particular, can find at this moment new models of holiness and new witnesses of heroic virtue lived in the ordinary everyday circumstances of human existence. The Synod Fathers have said: "Particular Churches especially should be attentive to recognizing among their members the younger men and women of those Churches who have given witness to holiness in such conditions (everyday secular conditions and the conjugal state) and who can be an example for others, so that, if the case calls for it, they (the Churches) might propose them to be beatified and canonized"(47).
At the end of these reflections intended to define the lay faithful's position in the Church, the celebrated admonition of Saint Leo the Great comes to mind: "Acknowledge, O Christian, your dignity!"(48). Saint Maximus, Bishop of Turin, in addressing those who had received the holy anointing of Baptism, repeats the same sentiments: "Ponder the honor that has made you sharers in this mystery!"(49). All the baptized are invited to hear once again the words of Saint Augustine: "Let us rejoice and give thanks: we have not only become Christians, but Christ himself... Stand in awe and rejoice: We have become Christ"(50).
The
dignity as a Christian, the source of equality for all members of the Church,
guarantees and fosters the spirit of communion and fellowship, and, at
the same time, becomes the hidden dynamic force in the lay faithful's
apostolate and mission. It is a dignity, however, which brings
demands, the dignity of labourers called by the Lord to work in his
vineyard: "Upon all the lay faithful, then, rests the exalted duty of
working to assure that each day the divine plan of salvation is further
extended to every person, of every era, in every part of the earth"(51).
(…)
Ioannes Paulus PP. II
Laborem exercens
To His Venerable Brothers
in the Episcopate
to the Priests to the Religious Families
to the sons and daughters of the Church
and to all Men and Women of good will
on Human Work
on the ninetieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum (Sept. 14, 1981)
| 5. Work in the
Objective Sense: Technology This universality and, at the same time, this multiplicity of the process of "subduing the earth" throw light upon human work, because man's dominion over the earth is achieved in and by means of work. There thus emerges the meaning of work in an objective sense, which finds expression in the various epochs of culture and civilization. Man dominates the earth by the very fact of domesticating animals, rearing them and obtaining from them the food and clothing he needs, and by the fact of being able to extract various natural resources from the earth and the seas. But man "subdues the earth" much more when he begins to cultivate it and then to transform its products, adapting them to his own use. Thus agriculture constitutes through human work a primary field of economic activity and an indispensable factor of production. Industry in its turn will always consist in linking the earth's riches-whether nature's living resources, or the products of agriculture, or the mineral or chemical resources-with man's work, whether physical or intellectual. This is also in a sense true in the sphere of what are called service industries, and also in the sphere of research, pure or applied. In industry and agriculture man's work has today in many cases ceased to be mainly manual, for the toil of human hands and muscles is aided by more and more highly perfected machinery. Not only in industry but also in agriculture we are witnessing the transformations made possible by the gradual development of science and technology. Historically speaking, this, taken as a whole, has caused great changes in civilization, from the beginning of the "industrial era" to the successive phases of development through new technologies, such as the electronics and the microprocessor technology in recent years. While it may seem that in the industrial process it is the machine that "works" and man merely supervises it, making it function and keeping it going in various ways, it is also true that for this very reason industrial development provides grounds for reproposing in new ways the question of human work. Both the original industrialization that gave rise to what is called the worker question and the subsequent industrial and post-industrial changes show in an eloquent manner that, even in the age of ever more mechanized "work", the proper subject of work continues to be man. The development of industry and of the various sectors connected with it, even the most modern electronics technology, especially in the fields of miniaturization, communications and telecommunications and so forth, shows how vast is the role of technology, that ally of work that human thought has produced, in the interaction between the subject and object of work (in the widest sense of the word). Understood in this case not as a capacity or aptitude for work, but rather as a whole set of instruments which man uses in his work, technology is undoubtedly man's ally. It facilitates his work, perfects, accelerates and augments it. It leads to an increase in the quantity of things produced by work, and in many cases improves their quality. However, it is also a fact that, in some instances, technology can cease to be man's ally and become almost his enemy, as when the mechanization of work "supplants" him, taking away all personal satisfaction and the incentive to creativity and responsibility, when it deprives many workers of their previous employment, or when, through exalting the machine, it reduces man to the status of its slave. If the biblical words "subdue the earth" addressed to man from the very beginning are understood in the context of the whole modern age, industrial and post-industrial, then they undoubtedly include also a relationship with technology, with the world of machinery which is the fruit of the work of the human intellect and a historical confirmation of man's dominion over nature. The recent stage of human history, especially that of certain societies, brings a correct affirmation of technology as a basic coefficient of economic progress; but, at the same time, this affirmation has been accompanied by and continues to be accompanied by the raising of essential questions concerning human work in relationship to its subject, which is man. These questions are particularly charged with content and tension of an ethical and an ethical and social character. They therefore constitute a continual challenge for institutions of many kinds, for States and governments, for systems and international organizations; they also constitute a challenge for the Church. |
| 6. Work in the
Subjective Sense: Man as the Subject of Work In order to continue our analysis of work, an analysis linked with the word of the Bible telling man that he is to subdue the earth, we must concentrate our attention on work in the subjective sense, much more than we did on the objective significance, barely touching upon the vast range of problems known intimately and in detail to scholars in various fields and also, according to their specializations, to those who work. If the words of the Book of Genesis to which we refer in this analysis of ours speak of work in the objective sense in an indirect way, they also speak only indirectly of the subject of work; but what they say is very eloquent and is full of great significance. Man has to subdue the earth and dominate it, because as the "image of God" he is a person, that is to say, a subjective being capable of acting in a planned and rational way, capable of deciding about himself, and with a tendency to self-realization. As a person, man is therefore the subject ot work. As a person he works, he performs various actions belonging to the work process; independently of their objective content, these actions must all serve to realize his humanity, to fulfil the calling to be a person that is his by reason of his very humanity. The principal truths concerning this theme were recently recalled by the Second Vatican Council in the Constitution Gaudium et Spes, especially in Chapter One, which is devoted to man's calling. And so this "dominion" spoken of in the biblical text being meditated upon here refers not only to the objective dimension of work but at the same time introduces us to an understanding of its subjective dimension. Understood as a process whereby man and the human race subdue the earth, work corresponds to this basic biblical concept only when throughout the process man manifests himself and confirms himself as the one who "dominates". This dominion, in a certain sense, refers to the subjective dimension even more than to the objective one: this dimension conditions the very ethical nature of work. In fact there is no doubt that human work has an ethical value of its own, which clearly and directly remain linked to the fact that the one who carries it out is a person, a conscious and free subject, that is to say a subject that decides about himself. This truth, which in a sense constitutes the fundamental and perennial heart of Christian teaching on human work, has had and continues to have primary significance for the formulation of the important social problems characterizing whole ages. The ancient world introduced its own typical differentiation of people into dasses according to the type of work done. Work which demanded from the worker the exercise of physical strength, the work of muscles and hands, was considered unworthy of free men, and was therefore given to slaves. By broadening certain aspects that already belonged to the Old Testament, Christianity brought about a fundamental change of ideas in this field, taking the whole content of the Gospel message as its point of departure, especially the fact that the one who, while being God, became like us in all things11 devoted most of the years of his life on earth to manual work at the carpenter's bench. This circumstance constitutes in itself the most eloquent "Gospel of work", showing that the basis for determining the value of human work is not primarily the kind of work being done but the fact that the one who is doing it is a person. The sources of the dignity of work are to be sought primarily in the subjective dimension, not in the objective one. Such a concept practically does away with the very basis of the ancient differentiation of people into classes according to the kind of work done. This does not mean that, from the objective point of view, human work cannot and must not be rated and qualified in any way. It only means that the primary basis of tbe value of work is man himself, who is its subject. This leads immediately to a very important conclusion of an ethical nature: however true it may be that man is destined for work and called to it, in the first place work is "for man" and not man "for work". Through this conclusion one rightly comes to recognize the pre-eminence of the subjective meaning of work over the objective one. Given this way of understanding things, and presupposing that different sorts of work that people do can have greater or lesser objective value, let us try nevertheless to show that each sort is judged above all by the measure of the dignity of the subject of work, that is to say the person, the individual who carries it out. On the other hand: independently of the work that every man does, and presupposing that this work constitutes a purpose-at times a very demanding one-of his activity, this purpose does not possess a definitive meaning in itself. In fact, in the final analysis it is always man who is the purpose of the work, whatever work it is that is done by man-even if the common scale of values rates it as the merest "service", as the most monotonous even the most alienating work. |
The Freedom of
Autonomy that is Secularity is the Act of Self-Determination:
Priestly
Soul/Lay Mentality
K. Wojtyla: Freedom
of Autonomy: “Man, the
only earthly being God has willed for itself, finds self by the sincere
gift of self” (GS #24)
Meaning of Self-Determination (Phenomenological
Description): “When I say that the will is the power of self-determination, I do not
have in mind the will all alone, in some sort of methodical isolation intended
to disclose the will’s own dynamism. Rather, I necessarily have in mind here
the whole person. Self-determination takes place through acts of will, through
this central power of the human soul. And yet self-determination is not
identical with these acts in any of their forms, since it is a property of
the person as such…[6] .
Self-determination – or, in other words, freedom – is not limited to the
accidental dimension, but belongs to the substantial dimension of the person:
it is the person’s freedom, and not just the will’s freedom, although it is
undeniably the person’s freedom through the will.”[7]
Importantly,
Wojtyla explains the mechanics of this anthropology that is the key to the
sanctification of the self in the act of work, the priestly soul as priest of
one’s own existence, and they key to becoming “another Christ.” He writes: “Self-determination
reveals that what takes place in an act of will is not just an active directing
of the subject toward a value. Something more takes place as well: when I am
directed by an act of will toward a particular value, I myself not only
determine this directing, but through it I simultaneously determine myself as
well. The concept of self-determination involves more than just the concept of
efficacy: I am not only the efficient cause of my acts, but through them I am
also in some sense the ‘creator of myself.’ Action accompanies becoming,
moreover, action is organically linked to becoming. Self-determination,
therefore, and not just the efficacy of the personal self, explains the reality
of moral values: it explains the reality
that by my actions I become ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ and that then I am also ‘good’ or
‘bad’ as a human being[8]…
Self-determination in some sense points to self-possession and self-governance
as the structure proper to a person. If I determine myself, I must possess
myself and govern myself. These realities mutually explain one another because
they also mutually imply one another. Each of them reveals the unique
composition that is proper to a human being as a person. (The Thomistic adage
also emphasizes that we are dealing here with a person: persona est sui
iuris et alteri incommunicabilis.) This is not a metaphysical composition
of body and soul (the composition of prime matter and substantial form) proper
to the human being as a being, but a more ‘phenomenological’ composition. In
phenomenological experience, I appear as someone who possesses myself and who
is simultaneously possessed by myself. I also appear as someone who governs
myself and who is simultaneously governed by myself. Both the one and the other
are revealed by self-determination; they are implied by self-determination and
also enrich its content. Through self-possession and self-governance, the
personal structure of self-determination comes to light in its whole proper
fullness.
“In determining myself
– and this takes place thorough an act of will – I become aware and also
testify to others that I possess myself and govern myself. In this way, my acts
give me a unique insight into myself as a person. By virtue of
self-determination, I experience in the relatively most immediate way that I am
a person. Of course, the path from this experience to an understanding that
would qualify as a complete theory of the person must lead through metaphysical
analysis. Still, experience is the indispensable beginning of this path and the
lived experience of self-determination seems to be the nucleus of this
beginning.”[9]
This notion of self-determination
gives an account of the sacrosanct identity of the human person, because it is
only by self-determination that there can be self-gift. And self-gift is the
only reasonable account of Person in the Trinity, the whole of Christology,[10]
the anthropology articulated in Gaudium et Spes #24 and its consequences for
the universal call to sanctity through ordinary work, human sexuality, the
social doctrine of the Church as “finding self” (principle of subsidiarity) “by
gift of self” (principle of solidarity). Self-determination/self-gift is the
anthropological explanation of Christian faith[11]
and the conjugal act in view of the relation between Christ and the Church
(Eph. 5, 25)
Gaudium et spes #36:
"Now many of our contemporaries seem to fear that a closer bond between human activity and religion will work against the independence of men, of societies, or of the sciences.
"If by the autonomy of earthly affairs we mean that created things and societies themselves enjoy their own laws and values which must be gradually deciphered, put to use, and regulated by men, then it is entirely right to demand that autonomy. Such is not merely required by modern man, but harmonizes also with the will of the Creator. For by the very circumstance of their having been created, all things are endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order. Man must respect these as he isolates them by the appropriate methods of the individual sciences or arts. Therefore if methodical investigation within every branch of learning is carried out in a genuinely scientific manner and in accord with moral norms, it never truly conflicts with faith, for earthly matters and the concerns of faith derive from the same God. (6) Indeed whoever labors to penetrate the secrets of reality with a humble and steady mind, even though he is unaware of the fact, is nevertheless being led by the hand of God, who holds all things in existence, and gives them their identity. Consequently, we cannot but deplore certain habits of mind, which are sometimes found too among Christians, which do not sufficiently attend to the rightful independence of science and which, from the arguments and controversies they spark, lead many minds to conclude that faith and science are mutually opposed.(7)
"But if the expression, the independence of temporal affairs, is taken to mean that created things do not depend on God, and that man can use them without any reference to their Creator, anyone who acknowledges God will see how false such a meaning is. For without the Creator the creature would disappear. For their part, however, all believers of whatever religion always hear His revealing voice in the discourse of creatures. When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows unintelligible."
[1] From our
Father, Letter, 25 January 1961, 37.
[2]From our
Father, Letter, 19 March 1954, 22.
[3] Ibid.
[4] “Made to
be sin” is to enter into the loneliness of sin as the rejection of the Triune
God, and therefore of the others. This is Benedict’s interpretation of Jesus
death cry, `My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?’ (Mark 15, 34) which is the first and only time that Jesus
refers to the Father as “El” and not as “Abba.” Benedict says: “In this last prayer of Jesus , as in the
scene on the Mount of Olives, what appears as the innermost heart of his
passion is not any physical pain but radical loneliness, complete abandonment;”
“Introduction to Christianity,” op. cit 227.
[5] J.
Ratzinger, “Behold the Pierced One,” Ignatius (1986) 92-93.
[6] He
explains that St. Thomas cannot have this discussion since he is working with
another objectified anthropology of substance. It was not a lack in Thomas. It
simply was not the historical moment for the entry into the experience and consciousness
of subjectivity as ontological reality. However, that moment is fully upon us,
and it is just now that is being understood metaphysically as real ontological
self. See Benedict XVI’s Address on the ultimate realism of the Word of God as
the “I” of Christ: October 6, 2008.
[7] Karol
Wojtyla, “The Personal Structure of Self-Determination,” Person and
Community Lang (1993) 190-191.
[8] By the
way, this is extraordinary. The Enlightenment as well Neoscholasticism never
developed the epistemology of experience of self as ontological reality and
consciousness of the good concomitant to it. This is the answer to the
Enlightenment conundrum: how can “ought” be derived from “is?” It is done by
the experience of the self as gift with the peace and joy that accrues to it.
[9] Ibid.
192-193.
[10] See
Benedict’s development of Christology in “Introduction to Christianity” op.
cit 141-251.
[11]
Christian faith in the conciliar decree “Dei Verbum” clarifies the Person of
Christ to be Revelation and faith to be the transformation of self into Christ
and Christ into self as with the Virgin. If the believer does not become
“another Christ,” there is no Revelation: “Where there is no one to perceive
‘revelation ,’ no re-vel-ation has
occurred, because no veil has been removed.
By definition, revelation requires a someone who apprehends it;” J.
Ratzinger “Milestones….” Ignatius (1997) 108.
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