2. Who Is The Human Being?
“What is man that you are mindful of him, and a son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than a god, crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands, put all things at his feet” (Ps 8, 5-7).
So who is the human being?
1. POSITIONING THE HUMAN BEING
I Ching: three-fold theory
The I Ching considers humans as one of the three most important elements of the universe. The three-fold theory holds that the human role in constituting the life of the universe is indispensable: “Human beings are the power of heaven and earth, the intersection of yin and yang, the convergence point of the gods, the gathering point of energy of the five elements” (Book of Rites, Thien Rites).
The West: Anthropocentric theory:
If for many years, the earth had been considered as the center and humans as the navel of the universe, then later anthropocentrism said that humans are everything, everything serves human interests, and humans are the master of the universe.
Neo-evolutionary theory:
According to priest Teilhard de Chardin, the human phenomenon is a continuation of God’s creative program. Humans appeared as a stage of miraculous oriented evolution. Humanity’s collective knowledge, called the formation of the gnosis, will take the entire universe further towards a transcendent spiritual world, ending the process of “christianisation”. Thus, humans are an important and indispensable link in creation.
The strange thing is that both the East and the West consider humans to be divine, “spiritual among all other things.”
According to Christianity, Man is created in the image of God and participates in His divinity: “You may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire” (2 Peter 1, 4).
2. HUMANS AND THEIR LIMITATIONS:
The Earth is not the center of the solar system and it is just a speck of dust 12,728 km in diameter compared to the universe, 14 billion light years away. The Earth is nothing, compared to the vast universe of hundreds of billions of stars. People up there are nothing, just like a psalm says, “What is man that you are mindful of him” (Psalm 8:5).
Science is objective and today everyone believes in scientific knowledge. But science is very limited because it is only a product of human’s limited intelligence, an effort to search and discover what is available. Scientific knowledge compared to what is available in nature is just like the knowledge of a frog sitting at the bottom of a well. Seeing the tiny round dome of the sky above its head, it thinks it is too much. Just as André-Marie Ampère (1775-1836) said, “God is so great and our science is just a trifle”. Not to mention the accuracy of scientific knowledge which is very one-sided and only about phenomena, not the nature of things.
The normal human ear can hear sounds from 1 dB to 160 dB. The naked eye can distinguish 7 colors within wavelengths from 280-720 nm. Our sense of touch can only be felt at temperatures that are not too cold and not too hot. The reason we know more than our senses is thanks to the invention of measuring instruments such as electron microscopes, spectrophotometers, and space telescopes, etc., which are becoming more and more sophisticated as technology advances. We have not yet determined the limit.
Nowadays, electron microscopes can see atoms, but not yet sub-atoms. In this world, it is heard that the laws of physics have changed. Our ambition to understand the very truth of things still has to wait to be fulfilled.
Famous quantum physicist Fred Alan Wolf (1934) declared, “There is sufficient evidence to show that in the nature of the formation of the physical universe there is an element called spirituality present.”
The physical world that we know with our senses is only a part of the real world. Humans are actually a bridge between solid objects and the spiritual world as the Bible affirms.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul said: “Not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for human beings, another kind of flesh for animals, another kind of flesh for birds, and another for fish. … If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.
“Not all bodies are the same: those of humans are different, those of animals are different, those of birds are different, those of fish are different… If there is a body with life, there is also a body with spirit” (1 Cor 15: 39, 44).
3. HUMAN FATE.
Good nature and evil nature
Humans are especially loved by God, but are also the target of jealousy of evil forces. God also allows evil to prevail as a precious test. Humans are torn between good and evil.
Saint Paul wrote, “I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate” (Rom 7:15). We humans are always drawn and torn between fleshly desires and noble spirit, between good and bad. That is what inevitably happens after the original ancestors sin and lose the eternal peace and purity of the Garden of Eden.
Angels and humans are both given freedom, the right to choose, by God. Other creatures do not have it and must follow predetermined rules. That’s the cause.
It was Luxifer and his companions, inherently bright and intelligent angels, who successfully persuaded our ancestors to disobey God, only to suffer the same disaster as they do.
Human history is the fierce and uncompromising epic battle between love and hatred, between life and death, between good and evil.
It is difficult for us to accurately interpret the visions and prophecies that Saint John wrote in the book of Revelation about the battle between good and evil, and its extremely catastrophic and horrifying consequences (Revelation 12-18).
Where is the way out?
The path to liberation
Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many. How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14) Satisfying and following the desires of the flesh is the wide path of destruction. Indeed “For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God” (Rom 8:7).
That is the path of sacrifice, accepting suffering that Jesus set an example for us: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mt 16:24).
4. HUMAN MISSION.
To live is to love.
Saint Paul affirmed, “Love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom 13:10).
Love is the antidote to evil. Love erases hatred, erases jealousy, erases arrogance and selfishness, which ultimately leads to spiritual death.
When people are not yet adults, there must be many rules to maintain society; there must be rewards and punishments. When people are true brothers, loving each other as God teaches, the law is secondary. Laws turn into organizational structure regulations.
We must understand love in the ultimate sense of goodness to master its true meaning.
Christianity is a religion of love, a mission of humanity. Love brings righteousness, joy, happiness, life, growth.
Conclusion:
In the United Nations headquarters, in New York, there is a statue of the angel Michael with wings and a long sword, beating a devil with sharp horns lying at his feet. The statue depicts that good will prevail over evil among peoples. When would it be?
Humans are always lured into evil by the devil: it’s okay to say that! “You certainly will not die!” (Genesis 3:4).
In the book of Genesis, after the ancestors sinned, God said to the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel” (Genesis 3:15).
Who is the woman the scripture mentions?