“Endowed with a spiritual soul, with intellect and with free will, the human person is from his very conception, ordered to God and destined for eternal beatitude.”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1711)
This quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us all we need to know about the unique, precious and innate dignity of every human being. Easter is the season of new life, resurrection life, and the life of grace --gifts added to the fundamental life of conception and birth, and gifts that lead, in faith, to “eternal beatitude.”
Endowed with a spiritual soul: Our faith refuses to reduce the human person to body, that is, to what can be known and experienced through our senses alone. We are more than meets the eye or the touch, or any of the other senses. We are ensouled bodies. Our bodies may wax and wane and eventually slip away in death, but our souls live forever, destined one day to be reunited with our glorified bodies “in the joy of a blessed eternity,” in the words of St. Jane de Chantal.
With intellect and with free will: We are reminded that, because of the Fall, our intellects are darkened and our wills weakened. I think we all know what that means from our own experience. The truths of scripture and faith enlighten our intellect and the practice of virtue strengthens our will. Still, don’t we often act in a manner that we know we ought not to? We look to grace to heal and strengthen both intellect and will. But this is a life-long struggle, which is why St. Francis de Sales so wisely reminds us that “holiness consists in our willingness to keep struggling for it,” to just keep working at it! We can all do that; we can all begin anew each day.
From our very conception we are ordered to God: Francis de Sales compares our natural inclination toward God to a shepherd’s crook, by which God gently grasps hold of us and lovingly pulls us to himself, doing so within the delicate coordinates of human freedom. God will never force his love upon us, but, oh, how much he desires our love!
From our very conception, we are destined for eternal beatitude: we are created to be happy with God forever in heaven. Heaven is what we are made for! It’s that simple. We are only pilgrims here. We have been created in such a manner as to be able to realize that destiny. Yes, the Fall has made that realization difficult, but grace makes it possible. And heaven is worth our life-long effort to attain it!
Notice when all this starts for us --at the moment of our conception. Hence, the Church’s strong and unyielding affirmation of the dignity of human life. From conception to natural death --the seamless garment of life!
V. Rev. Lewis S. Fiorelli, OSFS
Provincial
Wilmington-Philadelphia Province
