Folia Theologica 19. (2008)

Hámori Antal: Human dignity in church Teaching

46

HÁMORI, Antal

so, since both were created in the image and likeness of the personal God."32

Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way. The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and fecundity: „Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." (Gen 2:24) All human generations proceed from this union.33

Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ.34

Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy.35 „Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end."36

In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties.37

32 Mulieris dignitatem 6; CCC 2334.

33 CCC 2335 (cf. Gen 4:1-2,25-26; 5:1). See CCC 2331-2333, 2336; cf. Gen 1:27- 28; 5:1-2; Ex 20:14; Deut 5:17; Mt 5:27-28; 16:9; and CCC 2360-2372; GS 48- 51; Populorum progressio (PP) 37; Humanae vitae (HV) 11-12,14,16, 23; FC 11, 30, 32; cf. Tob 8:4-9; Mk 10:9; Mt 19:1-12; 23:9; 1 Cor 7:10-11; Eph 3:14-15.

34 CCC 2345. Cf. Gal 5:22-23; 1 Jn 3,3.

35 Cf. Sir 1:22.

36 GS 17; CCC 2339. See CCC 2337-2338,2340-2344; cf. Mt 5:37; Titus 2:1-6; FC 34; GS 25; and CCC 2346-2350; cf. Jn 15:15; Gal 3:27; Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith (CDF), Persona humana (PH) 11.

37 CCC 2203. See CCC 2201-2202, 2204-2206.