Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

ern society considers everything ‘producible’, it is becoming ever more perplexed, so that
there are more and more counseling centers.
f) Personhood means responsibility. Fleeing behind the responsibility of others is denied to
man. Having to be answerable is inwardly connected with responsible decision-making,
which means risk to the point of catastrophe, so that there results an identity between freedom,
responsibility, and risk. On the other hand, man possesses the possibility of selftranscendence
since he is able to perceive the personal call of God and to enter into a relationship
with him in which dialogue is possible; a dialogical relationship as this is called. From
this point of view the gift of self-decision is a sign of the dignity of man in the divine likeness
and, at the same time, a commission to self-responsible personal development, whereas the
saying ‘condemned to freedom’ bespeaks pessimism and insolence. In the affirmation of responsibility,
the commitment to the order of moral values finds expression.
g) Personhood means conscience. Man does indeed bear the origin of his free decisions in
himself, but pre-ordained norms also live in him through which he personally experiences the
morally binding „Thou shalt“ or „Thou shalt not“, especially in cases of conflict. Man becomes
aware of his personhood precisely in the call of conscience, which stems ultimately
from God, even though conscience can become „practically sightless as a result of habitual
sin“ (Gaudium et spes, 16).
h) Personhood means solitude. Freedom, responsibility, and conscience leave man „alone
with himself“ in his personal core. Solitude thus understood is a fundamental experience of
man, whereas its caricature, isolation, drives man to escape himself in noisiness and in the
frantic pursuit of pleasure.
i) The personhood of man means the consciousness of his origin from another. Man indeed
knows that he must be answerable for his decisions; but he is not responsible for the fact that
he exists. He is someone gifted. He owes everything - his existence, his future, his salvation -
to the generous love of God. At the same time, he knows of the preliminary character of his
earthly life. One can accurately define man as that being who is conscious of having to die.
However great and useful it may be, all progress of technology and science seem like a mockery
in the faith of death. Man is a creature created, called, and loved by God.
j) Personhood means the vocation of man to „communion with God.“ Man is „from the very
circumstance of his origin“ called „to converse with God“ (Gaudium et spes, 19). He is redeemed
by Christ and has become a „new creation“ (Gal 6:15) and a „sharer of the divine
nature“ (2 Pet 1:4). The preservation and development of the divine filiation is appointed to
the Christian as a personal life task.
The Christian interpretation of personhood is the answer to the question about the ultimate
meaning of life which is passionately posed today, especially by younger people. Not a few
are alarmed today by the abysmal feeling of meaninglessness to their lives.
They have run aground, are „caught in a trap“ (Is 24:18), and stand before shattered signposts.
Even in affluent societies, anxiety is not far from man. It wakes with him, it sleeps with him.
We can distinguish eight forms of anxiety: anxiety about the economic crisis, unemployment,
war, disease, old age, isolation, death, and what comes after death. Anxiety can only be overcome
through the nearness of one who loves us. But the one who loves us most is God himself,
who has not created us for disaster but for salvation. 2
2 Cf. Joseph Höffner, Wo Gott ist, da ist keine Angst. (Cologne: Presseamt des Erzbistums,1977).
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