Losing our God-given humanity

The month of March is dedicated to the celebration of human rights in South Africa. In this article I would like to focus on what makes us human and our human dignity rather than on what our human rights are. 

Every human being is created in the image of God and redeemed by Jesus Christ, and therefore is invaluable and worthy of respect as a member of the human family.

The Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which outlines all our rights as humans, can be accessed at www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Someone on Facebook recently posted the following quote by the 13th-century Persian Sufi mystic Rumi, and when I read it, I felt a pounding on my heart.

“I saw many humans on whom there were no clothes. I saw many clothes in which there were no humans.”

I read the quote slowly again, over and over, because this is exactly how we sometimes are: unrecognisable as humans.

What makes us human? The physical similarities between humans and other mammals are quite plain. We are made of the same flesh and blood; we go through the same basic life stages. And our bodily functions such as sex, pregnancy and birth are quite the same.

But there are certain things humans can do which animals can’t. Humans use their minds.

In the past few decades, scientists have proven beyond any doubt that some species of animals possess intelligence. Porpoises and whales can communicate with other members of their species through audible language. Dogs can be trained to do relatively complex tasks. Gorillas have even been taught to form simple sentences using sign language.

So, although animals also use their mind, to some degree, they use it instinctively and to survive, or they can do intelligent things when trained by humans.

Humans use their minds to improve and to progress on earth.  For example, humans invent things, like complex tools or computers, which animals do not do.  Humans want to explore and discover what the universe is about.  But have you ever heard of an animal planning to go to the moon?

That being said, there is still something deeper that makes us human and distinguishes us from other species. Humans have a spirit, they have a soul. Humans were created in the image of God.

Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground” (Gen 1:26).

What makes us more human is when we can use our minds responsibly and align our minds with our spirits — and allow our spirits to influence our minds.

When we align our minds with our spirits, then we take into account other humans around us, because our spirits are connected.

It is easy to operate just from our mind. We only have to look at the senseless wars and killings happening in our world to understand how the logic of our minds works.

Someone once said that the mind is the battlefield of the devil and the heart is the dwelling place of the Lord.

This is so true, because we are capable of thinking up very devious ways of dealing with people. If we apply our minds we can really deal with people in horrible ways and destroy them. We are then totally disconnected from our spirits and out of touch with the godliness of the other person.  In such cases we are not human.  We are like animals who have no soul.

When we are in touch with our own spirit we get a sense of our own dignity as a human being and we are then also able to appreciate the human dignity of the next person. When we are in touch with that fire (spirit) within us we have an unstoppable craving, a burning desire, to defend human dignity, both of ourselves and of others.

I like the way Jane Austen puts it in her novel Pride & Prejudice: “There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”

When the very essence of our God-given dignity is in danger, our spirits will fight it.

Catholic social teaching is based on and is inseparable from our understanding of human life and human dignity. Every human being is created in the image of God and redeemed by Jesus Christ, and therefore is invaluable and worthy of respect as a member of the human family.

Every person, from the moment of conception to natural death, has inherent dignity and a right to life consistent with that dignity. Human dignity comes from God, not from any human quality or accomplishment.

During the human rights month of March and during Lent, let us try to make ourselves more recognisable as human beings.