Our dignity rests at the core of who we are. This means, of course, that just as we have to value ourselves, to see ourselves as God does, so too do we have to see that unique value and dignity in others. There is no such thing as a human person without dignity or value in the eyes of God, and therefore that should be the case for us too. Even the worst criminal and the most despised person bear this unique haecceitas within them. Those whom we find difficult to love are especially challenging to us when we search for all sorts of excuses to hate or dismiss them. Duns Scotus reminds us to see others as God sees them—individually loved into existence. Now this doesn’t mean that they will see themselves in this light, just as we so often don’t see it in ourselves. This is perhaps one significant cause for such hatred and wrongdoing in our world. We easily forget what it means for us to be created in the image and likeness of God.
—from Dating God: Live and Love in the Way of St. Francis
by Daniel P. Horan, OFM
2 thoughts on “See Others As God Sees Them”
Good “food for thought”.
The challenge is how to protect innocent people from dangerous aggressors & administer appropriate forms of justice without falling into going beyond hatred & just punishment for the sin into hatred for the sinner & failing to acknowledge that this person or these people were created in the image of GOD (despite what they have done to distort this image) & should thus receive respect for their human dignity.
Before you can kill someone, you first have to dehumanize them. So, why do people kill again? Well, hopefully you are doing so due to self-defense and not something else. Otherwise, how would you forgive yourself? I heard on TV this one murderer who went to confession and still he was not happy. His conscience was much troubled.
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