Moralidad y progreso social

Resumen

51

There is a particularly evident contradiction among the many of our time. We are witness to a long series of declarations of human rights and at the same time we are conscious that in no other period of history has man been more violated and offended in his dignity than now. This not withstanding the declarations of human rights which consider certain political and social situations as inhuman and dehumanising attempt to give rise to new social structures which respect the human condition and encourage its development. These desires, however, often result in totalitarian regimes or in anarchy.

This paradox of the failure of hopes for reform shows ip the fact that the models on which the attempted reform of society are based are rendered useless by an internal contradiction that is irremediable. This contradiction lies in the separation of politics from morality and the search for absolute liberty for the individual. Juridical positivism and the search for liberty necessarily lead to revolution as a system and to violence and injustice. The root of the crisis in society is to be found in the heart of the human person, in other words, in sin.

Social progress, therefore, must be inspired and directed by ethical values. All authors are in agreement on this point. The question arises, though, as regards which ethical values should be used as a guide. Only when human reason is in complete possession of its capacity to transcend beings and reach Being is it capable of establishing a true ethic. But a well-directed reason also demands that man refuse to centre himself on himself and be sell-sufficient. In theological terms we can say that every man achieves the fulness al his true state in so far as he shares in the being which Christ has, since Christ as Incarnate Word is the truth of man. In the last analysis, the true liberation of man consists in communion with God the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit. Starting from this fundamental truth, it is a matter of developing an ethical and social study will insert a christocentric principle into everyday realities. The task facing Christians today is to become conscious that Christ, the Son of God made man, is the truth about God, about man, and about the world, and in the light of this principle to encourage a progress which is directed to man and beyond man to Christ as last end of all creation.

Palabras clave

Moralidad, Progreso, Social