EQUALITY AND DIFFERENCE

 

            The Catholic Church’s teaching on the equal dignity of all human beings has strong biblical foundations, beginning with the two creation accounts in the Bible’s first chapters.  In the first account the sacred author writes, “God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).  Both are created in his image.  In the second account Adam at first is alone, but God sees that this is not good and causes Adam to fall asleep.  He takes a rib from Adam’s side and forms Eve from it.  This indicates that they share the same Creator and the same human nature.  They are suited to one another as equals.  Adam joyfully professes: “This one, at last, is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” and they join together to form “one flesh” (Gen 2:23 & 24).

            The original unity was undone by the introduction of sin into the world.  Soon, brother kills brother (Cain vs. Abel) and eventually the human race is divided by language as the consequence of challenging God by building the Tower of Babel.  But God intervenes to bring them back into fellowship with him by choosing to make a covenant with Abraham and his offspring.  An oath is made that Abraham and Sarah’s descendants, through the line of Isaac and Jacob, whose name God changed to “Israel,” would become God’s special people, his very own.  The purpose of this election is to eventually bring all of humanity back into fellowship with God, with Israel as God’s instrument for achieving this end.  God covenants with Abraham and swears that “in your descendants all the nations of the earth will find blessing.”  The promise is reaffirmed throughout Abraham’s life (see Gen 12:3, 18:18, 22:18 & 26:4) and the Jewish people never forget it, despite Israel’s rocky history of fidelity and infidelity to the covenant.

            God’s promise to bless all the nations through Israel was fulfilled “in the fullness of time” when God became man in the Blessed Virgin Mary (Galatians 4:4).  With the coming of Christ, it is now clear that all people share an equal dignity and have equal value on two accounts: they have the same Creator who made each of them in his image and likeness; and they have a common Redeemer who died so that all people might be saved (John 3:16).  The early Church rejected any kind of discrimination based on ancestral heritage or national origin.  For example, when false apostles were trying to introduce divisions between Jews and Gentiles in the Christian community in Galatia, St. Paul vehemently opposed them in his letter to the Galatians: “For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.  For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s descendant, heirs according to the promises” (Galatians 3:26-29).  The promise to Abraham is perfectly fulfilled; he is now the father of all who have faith in Christ, both Jew and Gentile (cf. Romans 4:16).

            Once we understand the essential equality of all human beings, we can appreciate our differences and benefit from them.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “talents are not distributed equally” (#1936) and that “These differences belong to God’s plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular ‘talents’ share the benefits with those who need them.  These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice hospitality, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of culture” (#1937).  Since all people of every race, nation and language are endowed with a rational soul and have the same nature and origin, and since all are redeemed by the sacrifice of the one and only Savior, Jesus Christ, and since all are willed by God to share the same eternal glory with Him, there is surely no place for prejudice in the Church, or in the world, against a person due to his or her race, sex or national origin.  Any such prejudice is an offense against God.