7. The dignity of man

7. The Dignity of Man Only humans are created with the capacity to know love and serve God Compendium 66-70 Genesis 1:26-31 1. Only man was created in the "image of God" Genesis 1:27 2. God willed us into being for no other reason than his love for us. God delights in us just as we delight with our children. 3. Our capacity for Truth and our ability and desire to love and be loved reflect God's presence in us. 4. Each of us is an unrepeatable, unique, infinitely valuable, unconditionally loved child of God. 5. We have a common origin in God our Father and our dignity and rights to life and liberty come from God alone. 6. Since God values us for our own sake, so too, should we value others for their own sake. This means we cannot treat others as objects to be used or exploited for any reason and also that we must protect and defend others, especially the most vulnerable such as the elderly, the unborn, the sick, the poor, the unwanted, the persecuted, children, the abused, the outcasts, prisoners etc.. 7. We were made to know, love and serve God in this life and to be happy with him in the next. 8. We are a unity of body and soul. A material body given by our parents and a spiritual soul directly created by God. 9. We are the only creatures who can know love and serve God. 10. We are called to a greatness that goes beyond earthly existence. 11. We are fulfilled only through our friendship with God. 12. A casual reference to our creator is not good enough. God calls each of us to a unique and profound personal friendship with him. For this reason we can not accept that all religions are of equal value. There can be only one true religion of the one true God. God who is perfect order has revealed himself in Jesus Christ who suffered crucifixion and death for each of us and rose from the death to deliver each of us from sin and death to eternal life with him in God as our Father. To diminish the importance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most insidious attack on God and his plan for us. Many new age philosophies attempt to destroy the truth of what God has revealed in his one and only Church. With an open mindedness that is truly empty mindedness they preach a truth that is relative to one’s own preferences as if God can be of our own creation and that God doesn't care what we believe. This is a mockery of God and a recipe for chaos. The truth is that God so loved us as to make us one with his only begotten son through the Eucharist so that we could enjoy the same intimacy with him that he shares with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This truth exists only in his one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church and nowhere else. If we do not profess and proclaim this truth we defraud others of their divine inheritance won for them by Christ.