Focolare Movement

Igino Giordani and the Greatness of Human Beings

Jun 25, 2017

The International Day Against Drug Abuse and Against Torture are a powerful appeal to nations, governments and consciences to protect human dignity. Some inspirational words from Igino Giordani.

20170625-01In the light of the Christian faith, humankind is shown to be the image of God. The Old Testament teaches that God made humankind in his own image and likeness. This origin in God confers upon humankind’s raggedness, woundedness and spirit a beauty that is above human. This beauty becomes even greater in Christianity, because humankind is seen not only as the image of God, but also as God’s creation and worthy of the Creator, the artwork is worthy of the artist. The Omnipotent could not but create beings worthy of Him. In humankind, He created a masterpiece that makes one dizzy to behold, bestowing upon him an admirable form to last and to generate, an intelligence to enlighten, a heart with which it could project itself on its fellow beings, a soul to evade the limits of time and space, with the angels in Eternity. Humankind fell, it’s true, abusing its freedom; but it’s also true that the most exalted prodigy of Divine Love came attached to that Fall: Redemption through the Blood of Christ. Seen in this way, humankind – albeit a poor wretch you zoom by on the sidewalk, or a native who lives miles and miles away – is such a grand being, such a noble being, such a divine being that you should want to kneel down whenever you were in its presence, to tremble and be overwhelmed, as you recognized in it the majesty of the One who imagined it and made it the prodigy of Creation, the object of the supernatural life in the life of nature. It immediately becomes clear what such a vision does in you. It makes it impossible and absurd for you to exploit human beings, to degrade them, to tamper with them, to supress them, without violating the work of God, without affecting the very patrimony of the Creator. Humankind is Son of God, and any offence against the son is an outrage to the Father: murder becomes an attempted God-killing, tantamount to killing God in effigy. Humankind barters its dignity when it bends to evil. And among the sins is the pride that is put in place of humankind’s humble gratitude at realizing it is God’s masterpiece. From pride comes exploitation, which is an antisocial impetus; whereas, Christian humility creates service and, also in this, humankind is a copy of that other Son of Man who came not to be served, but to serve. And herein comes the welding of the individual to society: its integration, its expansion. Humankind does not exist in the abstract: fathers exist, citizens exist, believers, and so on…the social animal exists. Only that human beings enters into society boosted by. Because human beings love, they come out of the shell of their egos, they expand, they integrate – in the life of the others. By the mere fact that human beings love, he and she already reveal that they are naturally Christian. Christianity then lifts up and supports this love, saying that love takes the person into society, saying that the vital principle of society is love: without which society, rather than protection, compliment and joy of the human person, becomes a constriction and a mutilation of a person. It can become a threat to human dignity. Social exploitation begins when you no longer love humanity; when you no longer respect its dignity; because you see the muscles and you don’t see the spirit.   Igino Giordani, La società cristiana, (Rome: Città Nuova, 1942), 32-36.

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