Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

2. Even the infant is a person and, if baptized, a child of God and a member of the Body of
Christ. But it does not yet have a personality. The personality of the Christian first matures
when, in following Christ, he or she strives for perfection in love and faithfulness. The more
he or she becomes a personality, the more originally, richly, and characteristically he or she
stands before us in his or her unrepeatable singularity and uniqueness. Yet - and this is what is
amazing - the human person finds his or her fulfillment in contact with others. The person
does not rest relationless in himself or herself, but is open, accessible, and dialogical. Personality
and sociality stand in an original and peculiar relation of tension to one another. The
more powerful a personality a man has developed, the deeper and more inward his encounter
with others will be, whether it is a question of the „I-Thou” relationship of the dyadic twoperson
community or of man’s tension-filled relation to the larger and more encompassing
social groups.
§ 2 Proof of the Social Nature of man
1. In grounding the essentially social nature of man, it seems obvious to emphasize first of all
his dependence on others and on society in the bodily-material, spiritual-cultural, and moral
realms. No organism is so dependent on others in the first months and years of childhood as
man who, as opposed to the animals, lacks the infallibility of innate instincts. The animal is
formed by its natural disposition and the environment in which it is embedded with unfailing
instincts, and the same situation is repeated for each animal generation. Man, however, passes
on his experience and discoveries from generation to generation through tradition, education,
and teaching. „We are the heirs of earlier generations, and we reap benefits from the efforts of
our contemporaries“ (Populorum progressio, 17). Every culture rests on the common possession
of the spiritual goods of past and present generations. „How little we have and are, what
we, in the purest sense, call our own! We all have to receive and learn both from those who
were before us and from those who are with us. Not even the greatest genius would get very
far if he wished to be indebted only to his own mind for everything. Very many good people,
however, do not comprehend that and grope for half their lives in the dark with their dreams
of originality“ (Goethe to Eckermann). Above all, the norms of the moral order require preservation
and protection by society. In this respect, a special importance attaches to the Church
as the herald of divine revelation.
2. The social nature of man is most deeply grounded, not in a utilitarian way in external dependence
on others, but metaphysically in the essence of man, which means wealth, not poverty.
Created being, which stems from the generous goodness of God, seeks in many ways to
represent the goodness and greatness of the Creator. All being, even unspiritual being, is
therefore ‘communicative’ in a metaphysical sense (bonum est diffusivum sui). In a particular
way, man as the image of God,. i.e., as a created, personal substance, is of his essence communicative,
i.e. ready to pass on his own spiritual value and, on the other hand, eager to participate
in the full spiritual value of other persons. Thus, all personal being essentially strives
towards giving and sharing, so that personal being is of its essence ordered to the ‘thou’ of the
other and to society. The goal is the mutual giving and receiving of a share in personal values,
whereby the different social groups are determined in their realm of meaning, such as marriage,
friendship, and so on, according to the kind of personal values in question.
3. In socio-theological terms, membership in the Body of Christ is the most intimate principle
of unity among people and also with the triune God. The one God in three persons has created
man in his likeness, from which one may conclude that „the sociality of God is reflected in
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