One of the ways historians recall the past is by taking a theme or an idea and examining how societies have responded to this idea. One important theme in human history is the idea of purity, the identification of what is clean and what is unclean. The common denominator between many religious functions, city walls, and racial attitude is based on the idea of what is clean and acceptable and what is unclean and therefore unacceptable. The concepts of integration and segregation are based on the fundamental concept of purity. In one regard, the idea of purity is a helpful and crucial way of looking at the world since our health depends on clean things. The environmental movement is an action based on issues surrounding purity. On the other hand, issues of purity can be attributed to the human nature itself, not just its actions. The Christian faith has identified Christ as the “purifier” of all human persons. To deny the essential purity of human nature –not necessarily its actions—undermines the very essence of the salvific work of Christ. In today’s Gospel, we hear the story of Christ making a leper clean. This story is reflective of the salvific work of Christ who has redeemed all of humanity. I would recommend for your spiritual reading the first Encyclical of Pius XII, Summi Pontificatus, known by its English title as On the Unity of Human Society. In this encyclical, Pope Pius XII takes a strong stand against the concept of the hegemony of a single cultural and the idea of racial purity. The theme of the commonality of the human community received an elegant and strong defense in a later encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi, —On the mystical body of Christ, an encyclical that provided the groundwork for an understanding of the human person in community which provided the groundwork for much of the thought of the Second Vatican Council. A quote from Pius XII’s On the Unity of Human Society demonstrate how Catholic teaching has championed the dignity of the human person:
“An error, today abundantly widespread, is disregard for the law of human solidarity and charity, dictated and imposed both by our common origin and by the equality in rational nature of all men, whatever nation they belong to. This law is sealed by the sacrifice of redemption offered by Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross to his heavenly Father, on behalf of sinful humanity.” (par. 35)
These important and timely encyclicals can be accessed online and are worth reading now, just as they were important when Pope Pius stood bravely against the atrocities of Nazi Germany. The tradition of human dignity has a long pedigree and we can be proud of the social teaching of the Catholic Church in its actions, which have consistently advocated for the dignity of the human person.
On the Unity of Human Society (1938)
On the Mystical Body of Christ (1943)