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In Christ We Become More Human, We Become Ourselves, We Become Free

Last updated on: April 23, 2015 at 10:54 am
April 23, 2015 by
In Christ We Become More Human, We Become Ourselves, We Become Free April 23, 2015

Last night I listened to a lecture at the Dominican House of Studies that I can’t quite do justice to even though I gave it a shot livetweeting last night. It was on John Paul II and Christian Humanism. It was delivered by Archbishop Augustine DiNoia, a New Yorker, Dominican, Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome. He was teaching at the DHS when I went to daily Mass with the Dominicans my freshman year at college across the street. (I was nostalglic to see students from across the street joining them for compline prayer after.)

This concept of Christian humanism is of the Gospel, of the Second Vatican Council, and is what John Paul II worked to restore – to have seen what has been obscured and obstructed. All hell broke loose — you may recall Paul VI talking about the “smoke of Satan” – as Catholics could have been a remarkably transformative force and instead often got way too caught up in distractions and ideological colonization, to adopt a phrase of Pope Francis.
And so in giving a brief and accessible overview of JPII’s legacy here, Archbishop DiNoia talked about the nature of man. We know that nature and see its fullness in Christ.
When JPII issued Evangelium Vitae, he wasn’t simply stating that the Church is against abortion, but exposing the whole philosophical construct that is destroying us, making us believe we are autonomous and that is our ultimate good. It leads to chaos and tyranny. And what do we see all around us today. That’s my paraphrase, I suspect the video will be online soon. Until then, some highlights, inadequate though they are:
A good summation, if you need the executive summary in a tweet.

Now, tweet by tweet:

The point I actually wanted to make here was he is these things but he’s also a great observer of humanity as well as intellect and is the greatest of teachers who says things clearly and they way they are, even while seeing what’s going on and exposing the dangers in staying on that dangerous course. We need to celebrate such men and LISTEN and contribute to clarity in our witness.

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