00:00:02
just have a seat anywhere but I you
00:00:06
ready you ready to go y are you already
00:00:09
gone yeah okay so welcome we are going
00:00:12
to talk about respecting human
00:00:15
dignity specifically the Catholic
00:00:17
perspective on that but we kind of
00:00:19
talked about this before the taping
00:00:21
began if you look at this you see a
00:00:24
Double Image here I'm sure a lot of you
00:00:26
all have seen this you see that this has
00:00:29
a face but you also see that this has a
00:00:31
face here if you didn't see that there
00:00:34
there it is and notice this is a human
00:00:37
face is it is it not do you see the
00:00:39
human face and then is this an absent
00:00:43
human face is this almost like a ghost
00:00:46
what what is this this is a reverse
00:00:48
image and if you look at this human face
00:00:51
over here this human face it really
00:00:54
isn't very particular either it's it's
00:00:56
kind of lost its humanity and then the
00:00:59
other side
00:01:00
definitely has lost this Humanity so the
00:01:03
first thing we need to recognize in a
00:01:05
scythe world is that they have
00:01:08
completely jettison basic Catholic
00:01:10
understandings of existence so it is a
00:01:14
Godless narrative and that's what's
00:01:17
making the possibility of how do we
00:01:20
carve out meaning in a world without God
00:01:22
thankfully that's not our view because
00:01:24
that's not the correct view and Mr MRA
00:01:27
is present but he will say this some
00:01:30
sometimes students parents will react to
00:01:33
some of these summer readings and say
00:01:34
those don't really reflect Catholic
00:01:36
values we know that and he said this and
00:01:40
it's kind of stuck for years he said
00:01:42
we're not the Catholic Amish we Engage
00:01:45
The World We engage questions and some
00:01:48
of the threats to human dignity are
00:01:51
still very much threats to human dignity
00:01:53
in the world we are occupying where
00:01:55
belief in God is still very much the
00:01:58
normative understanding that out there
00:02:00
so human dignity is not a negotiable
00:02:04
Concept in Catholic understanding every
00:02:07
human is made in the image and likeness
00:02:09
of God and because God exists the
00:02:11
natural flow of that allows for the
00:02:15
understanding of that dignity to be
00:02:17
protected in all aspects of life and
00:02:19
we'll get into that in a little bit
00:02:21
Scythe really pushes that question
00:02:23
beyond the boundaries though that are
00:02:25
already set in Catholic teaching so
00:02:28
Catholic teaching is not going to budge
00:02:31
on
00:02:33
that that's wonderful that's one of the
00:02:36
strongest things we do is say every life
00:02:38
matters but scy says that world doesn't
00:02:42
exist anymore that's completely gone now
00:02:46
you have zero real understanding of God
00:02:49
in the book except that vague sort of
00:02:52
monastic stuff what's that's going on
00:02:54
with the tonist and that understanding
00:02:56
could have been assession I don't know
00:02:58
if anybody ever picked up on that but
00:03:00
the tonist it's kind of a play on the
00:03:03
toist and toist are people who believe
00:03:05
in Thomas aquinus is teaching and really
00:03:07
follow that so he's got a lot of that
00:03:10
interplay and he has not given up the
00:03:13
author Shusterman has not given up this
00:03:16
idea of image and likeness anybody got
00:03:18
an idea of where I see the image and
00:03:21
likeness being a real strong binding
00:03:25
Force for characters in the
00:03:28
book nobody has any
00:03:32
guesses Miss bars might she's sitting
00:03:35
there processing in the back I was
00:03:37
thinking about
00:03:38
sura and but I was also thinking about
00:03:41
Fair Day MH okay he sees himself in them
00:03:46
as as kids is that what and proteges I'm
00:03:50
thinking more biological image and like
00:03:53
this is that there's my
00:03:56
hint who is going to be blackmailed
00:04:00
because of his secret and his desire to
00:04:05
protect his image and
00:04:10
likeness and there's so many characters
00:04:12
I had to look up his name too
00:04:15
xenocrates so the xenocrates however you
00:04:18
say it uh he has the illegitimate
00:04:22
daughter
00:04:23
Esme and she they figured out that
00:04:27
that's his daughter and he wants to
00:04:30
protect her even at all he wants to
00:04:32
protect himself too you've got both of
00:04:34
those themes but you have this
00:04:37
understanding of that there is a
00:04:38
connection that still has very strong
00:04:42
meaning because the sites do really have
00:04:46
the ability to inject meaning into life
00:04:49
when she can't be resuscitated if she's
00:04:51
taken because of their ability to
00:04:54
install death so one of the things that
00:04:57
he's kind of playing on is
00:05:00
how do you derive meaning it has to come
00:05:02
from the other side or the reverse image
00:05:05
so in order for life to have meaning you
00:05:07
have to be able to lose it and I think
00:05:09
that's what sort of projects his whole
00:05:12
understanding okay so that that's really
00:05:14
kind of the connections with the book
00:05:16
that I was going for but we do want to
00:05:18
make sure we talk about threats to human
00:05:20
dignity we're just going to kind of go
00:05:21
through this fairly quickly make sure
00:05:24
any of these come up because when we
00:05:26
talk about these people have different
00:05:29
views on these life issues as they go
00:05:32
and why the church is resounded to these
00:05:35
life issues we will sometimes say that
00:05:37
the church supports life from womb to
00:05:40
tomb so what aspect of human life is not
00:05:43
to be respected in the any of
00:05:47
it all human
00:05:50
life what about human life that's not so
00:05:55
smart we still need to protect that
00:05:57
right yes because it has that human okay
00:06:00
next slide so when we think about that
00:06:03
we
00:06:04
are in a culture John Paul the second is
00:06:08
going to say that it's a culture of
00:06:10
death that we are a culture that doesn't
00:06:14
always do that or is it built up to that
00:06:18
Scythe has completely become a culture
00:06:20
of death and the whole thing is about
00:06:23
it's the people who are even doing the
00:06:26
power broking are the death Brokers and
00:06:29
that
00:06:30
understanding of how that's
00:06:32
working
00:06:34
is I me this is like an apocalyptic
00:06:37
almost Vision already happened but we
00:06:40
live in a culture where this is still
00:06:42
being fought out and the Catholic
00:06:44
position is very clear Catholics will
00:06:46
not accept abortion they'll not accept
00:06:49
euthanasia because natural
00:06:52
death is the only real understood way
00:06:56
that one can go and that is related to
00:06:58
that understanding that God
00:07:00
is the Arbiter of all of this existence
00:07:02
Point next
00:07:04
slide when we're talking about this this
00:07:07
also moves into this and this is another
00:07:10
play that's in the book this idea of
00:07:11
human freedom I have total control of my
00:07:14
life now is that true to a degree to a
00:07:19
degree I have some control but anybody
00:07:22
in this room create himself or
00:07:27
herself you didn't have control over
00:07:29
over that you are in a
00:07:33
contributor that's not a word but you
00:07:35
know what I'm saying a contributed
00:07:37
existence point that someone else gave
00:07:39
you the means through which now parents
00:07:41
will also say this kid of mine like
00:07:45
where did this come from this is not me
00:07:47
you have also become a actor on your own
00:07:51
accord which showcases more than just
00:07:54
your DNA so one of the things that I
00:07:56
think Scythe becomes very interesting in
00:08:00
as it rejects it is this mystery of the
00:08:02
human person and this notion of the
00:08:05
value that comes from who the human
00:08:07
person is and that
00:08:10
that's that's one of the great questions
00:08:13
that we're trying to answer the meaning
00:08:15
of this participation okay next
00:08:17
slide uh when we look at this this
00:08:20
distorted view
00:08:22
of
00:08:24
control we have a sense then that we can
00:08:27
make some choices about our our El and
00:08:29
about others that are not going to
00:08:31
necessarily be true that we are going to
00:08:34
be able to do
00:08:35
things that are not going to be
00:08:39
allowable and we need to recognize that
00:08:42
human freedom is a gift from The Giver
00:08:46
who gave all of that existence there are
00:08:50
couples who try to have children myself
00:08:52
being one of them and they we
00:08:55
biologically it wasn't
00:08:57
happening did the kids come into
00:08:59
existence yes but did they come into
00:09:02
existence way later than my wife and I
00:09:04
wanted them to also yes because do I
00:09:08
have total control no but did they show
00:09:12
up yes but I I don't have an absolute
00:09:16
right to kids in that sense because the
00:09:19
understanding of that they are gift
00:09:22
can't ever be forgotten and that
00:09:25
understanding of life that you have the
00:09:27
character and I I I'm bad with the names
00:09:29
and there are so many of them but the
00:09:31
opposite of Citra what's his name Rowan
00:09:33
is that his name Rowan he wants to kill
00:09:36
himself and he like makes a game of
00:09:38
trying to kill himself because he's
00:09:41
already intuited what's the point of any
00:09:43
of this if this is just but we would
00:09:47
would say the point what's the point of
00:09:49
life for
00:09:51
Catholics to become the saint yeah well
00:09:54
and that means to love right so we can
00:09:57
say it in a variety of ways but love
00:09:59
love is what's supposed to do that and
00:10:02
love is both a binding force and a
00:10:04
freeing force and we could go back to
00:10:07
the very first picture that we saw of
00:10:09
the reverse image okay keep going now
00:10:13
this culture of death then means we
00:10:16
often times take the easiest way out the
00:10:19
easiest way out is lot a lot of times
00:10:22
not the best choice okay it is often
00:10:25
times one of those things where I'm just
00:10:27
sort of you know nominally engaged next
00:10:32
slide we are called to promote a culture
00:10:36
of life and this is womb to tomb now
00:10:38
we've got built-in partner discussions
00:10:40
you can do these on your own because
00:10:43
let's let's all move along right
00:10:44
everybody's ready to go I figured but
00:10:47
when we're thinking about this is
00:10:49
abortion a life issue yes but also
00:10:53
quality of life factors into that
00:10:56
understanding of Life issue how are
00:10:58
people supposed to be treated in life
00:11:01
itself so womb to tomb is not womb and
00:11:05
tomb womb to to life issues affect how
00:11:09
Grandma and Grandpa are existing too
00:11:12
Grandma and Grandpa aren't useful
00:11:14
anymore get rid of them no that's not
00:11:17
right even if they have Dementia or
00:11:20
something like that they still have
00:11:24
value and Worth right next slide
00:11:30
the first issue is roie Wade roie Wade
00:11:33
was passed in 1973 which is the access
00:11:36
to abortion that you Pro I mean we're
00:11:38
not going to spend a bunch of time on
00:11:40
this because this one is kind of Beat to
00:11:41
Death you've heard this before but the
00:11:43
church is vehemently prolife the church
00:11:46
is vehemently understanding that every
00:11:49
situation of life is to be be protected
00:11:52
because what did I say about life life
00:11:54
is a gift not a right okay and that
00:11:57
understanding of it's a gift first moves
00:12:00
it into a right because who gave the
00:12:04
gift God so humans can't take away the
00:12:08
right if it's god-given so the right is
00:12:11
not what the state has when we think of
00:12:13
Rights we think of this is what's gifted
00:12:16
To Us by the state no we're gifted the
00:12:19
right to life by being made in the image
00:12:21
and likeness of God now if God is
00:12:23
removed from the equation like in
00:12:27
sight it's all up for grabs and that's
00:12:30
what you see okay and they're trying to
00:12:31
carve out meaning in a world where the
00:12:35
meaning has been evacuated thank
00:12:38
goodness we don't have that problem we
00:12:40
have a centering point which is the
00:12:43
faith next slide we're moving into
00:12:45
euthanasia as the so womb to tomb
00:12:49
abortion is the womb issue tomb issue is
00:12:52
the right to die with dignity but not
00:12:56
the right to die of I'm going to choose
00:12:58
when I go because now we're moving into
00:13:01
suicide assisted suicide if this is a
00:13:03
gift and I say I don't want the gift I'm
00:13:06
also rejecting The Giver who gave me the
00:13:09
gift and I'm saying that the experience
00:13:12
that lays before me well what if it's
00:13:14
suffering any of you all ever suffered
00:13:16
and come out the other side and it was
00:13:18
better and you had a different view as a
00:13:21
result of if you go to the gym don't
00:13:24
tell me you don't
00:13:26
suffer because you think that go going
00:13:29
through that process has an endgame of
00:13:33
benefit and we don't know what we're
00:13:35
dealing with in terms of these things
00:13:37
but we trust The Giver that he
00:13:40
knows and in a culture of death we're
00:13:43
making the decision in a culture of life
00:13:46
we say this is part of the whole process
00:13:49
now the church is not saying suffer
00:13:50
suffer suffer paliative care making sure
00:13:54
that everybody has pain pills you're not
00:13:57
going to do extraordinary me means but
00:14:00
the understanding that there's something
00:14:02
bigger going on here than just my
00:14:04
choosing this or that is part of this
00:14:07
issue all right next
00:14:10
slide we have this homeless man here
00:14:13
again this is an offense against life
00:14:16
because he shouldn't have to live at
00:14:19
this connection point with Humanity
00:14:22
basic needs your soup kitchens in town
00:14:25
who largely puts those on Catholic
00:14:28
Church other churches because they look
00:14:31
upon people who are struggling and say
00:14:34
that's no way to live and you're
00:14:37
not outside of our human connection
00:14:42
we're going to feed you clothe you house
00:14:44
you as best we can now obviously people
00:14:47
push against that and it's a complicated
00:14:50
issue but the understanding of that
00:14:52
that's our responsibility as their
00:14:54
connection Point that's part of this
00:14:57
understanding of the human human dignity
00:14:59
of life and again that's that issue of
00:15:02
suicide we mental illness is real the
00:15:05
church has relaxed their understanding
00:15:07
of that historically you may even say
00:15:09
that was kind of not so great well we
00:15:12
come around just like scyth is talking
00:15:14
about we come around to advances and we
00:15:16
understand how Mental Health Works we
00:15:18
understand that suicide is probably not
00:15:20
an act of freedom on the part of the
00:15:21
person who is uh successfully doing that
00:15:24
but we recognize that that's an enormous
00:15:27
problem and we we are not encouraging it
00:15:29
you're you're not going to hear and
00:15:32
because nothing I I love those little
00:15:35
tattoos that are the um
00:15:38
semicolon it there is life after the
00:15:41
semicolon you all know what I'm talking
00:15:42
about so there people will get a
00:15:45
semicolon tattooed on their body as a
00:15:47
memory if they have you know it it it
00:15:52
reminds them that where I am in this
00:15:53
part of the
00:15:55
sentence a
00:15:57
semicolon means that there part after
00:15:59
that sentence that connects both of them
00:16:02
together and that helps sometimes and
00:16:05
and and works sometimes to get people
00:16:07
through those tough times which we all
00:16:09
know exist all right we're keeping going
00:16:11
and we're moving toward the end of the
00:16:13
presentation but this understanding of
00:16:15
suicide we intervene we want to we have
00:16:18
a counselor here today who can talk to
00:16:20
you about those kinds of things Trinity
00:16:21
puts those in place as a Catholic School
00:16:23
keep going and then the last one is the
00:16:26
death penalty okay
00:16:31
uh sister Helen pran is a big proponent
00:16:35
Catholic nun of anti-death penalty
00:16:38
legislation and activism and I've seen
00:16:41
her a couple of times and she said and
00:16:43
every time that I hear it it reminds me
00:16:46
of that gift portion she
00:16:49
said even the guilty don't lose their
00:16:53
dignity and why don't they lose their
00:16:55
dignity because we didn't give it to
00:16:57
them
00:16:59
we can't take it away because even
00:17:02
though they acted outside of the
00:17:05
parameters that we've talked about about
00:17:07
a culture of life even if they've done
00:17:09
dastardly
00:17:11
things their gift is from the
00:17:15
Creator and we don't have the agency or
00:17:18
authority to take that gift because we
00:17:20
didn't give it to
00:17:22
them and that includes their
00:17:26
parents because I told you about our to
00:17:29
have
00:17:32
children as much as my children are my
00:17:34
biological
00:17:36
Offspring they're also their own
00:17:40
person and that's part of what the
00:17:44
Catholic Church wants you to recognize
00:17:47
that there's connection and value and
00:17:50
all of that rest in the life that you've
00:17:53
received from The Giver who are both
00:17:56
your parents and God because you have a
00:17:59
body that certainly is from your parents
00:18:02
but you have a soul that's from
00:18:05
God and that contact Point keeps us
00:18:10
together so even the people who've done
00:18:13
the most awful things the church is very
00:18:15
much or they need to be re you know
00:18:18
brought in and and and rehabilitated as
00:18:21
best they can be as as it goes but it's
00:18:25
not your job to determine their end of
00:18:28
life life that's for God Alone to do so
00:18:32
that's basically the end of the Catholic
00:18:34
understandings of the different life
00:18:36
events if you all have questions I'll be
00:18:37
happy to answer them I thought Scythe
00:18:39
was a pretty good book uh I enjoyed it
00:18:42
uh and and Mr Mar's here we he asked me
00:18:44
about he didn't read it and he said the
00:18:46
premise seems awful anti-catholic I said
00:18:49
well there's not a shred of Catholicism
00:18:51
in terms of that but it does play with
00:18:53
the ideas of Catholicism and it does ask
00:18:56
the big questions of what saym is asking
00:19:00
it through its sort of dystopian
00:19:03
understanding of the future and notice
00:19:05
the Thunderhead is is replacing God in
00:19:08
the absence of God something will
00:19:09
replace
00:19:11
God all right any questions anybody hand
00:19:14
didn't I do the best you've ever seen
00:19:17
that's
00:19:18
what excellent job you all list if you
00:19:21
have questions I'll be happy to try and
00:19:23
take some but it's pretty
00:19:24
straightforward and and and we just need
00:19:27
to make sure we re iterate the Catholic
00:19:30
Viewpoint and and which is the right
00:19:34
Viewpoint yes can I also
00:19:38
say this is the math assignment if you
00:19:42
all don't know what it is this is the
00:19:44
reflection part so you've done half of
00:19:47
the job the other half is to complete
00:19:49
this and make sure you turn it into your
00:19:51
math does everybody understand that if
00:19:55
it if you this should be posted in your
00:19:57
um
00:19:59
under your math class but if it's if you
00:20:00
want a hard copy you can come get one on
00:20:02
your way out
00:20:04
okay and that's it
