Reflections on the Bicentennial - By Dr. Gavino Helmet

REFLECTIONS ON THE BICENTENNIAL

By: Dr. Gavino Helmet (Corrientes, Argentina)

Read original (click) in:

I have been asked to deliver some thoughts on the bicentennial, which like other Latin American countries-brothers celebrate during the year.

In truth we all just mention "bicentennial" without explaining, and given as known, which of course refers to "life as an independent sovereign nation."

It seems appropriate, given the false and misleading it may be that course, do some thinking or rather clarification of its scope and content.

In fact we have to distinguish briefly the release to which we agreed last two centuries, is full of limitations and future work to perfection in the third century.

To understand this we must distinguish the different levels on which life evolves from a resident, a citizen of a nation.

a) The human person as the center of an organized community.

All organized life, all humanity, his concern is - or at least should be-the psychophysical well-being of the human person. We need to look at this first point to the "man of flesh and blood" human person pinnacle of creation for whom things were and are hechas.-In vain will the great inventions or indefinite progress if that man is born, lives suffers, thinks, loves and dies, no benefits and instead is crushed by a company fagocitante .- Every man is more valuable than all the material universe and every person is worth as otro.-not hard to see that these two principles make a real and radical revolution unjustifiable because the domain state of a human being over another, or the subordination of the individual human person, material progress, or abuse by the state or force supported groups (mafia associations, armed groups , paramilitary or military, wealth grabbers, etc.) .-

In existence common to all men, Christianity proposes to his disciples to be men, and so in-plenitud. therefore not exclude anyone and unto all men, whatever their race, their culture, their language, nation, gender, age.-No borders, no límites.-in all the absolutely original doctrine, ethics and Christian practices is to bring men to be men and be in full .- So the Christian adult, secure in his faith, can and should talk to every man, even non-Christian, non-believer, atheist, yet without losing its identity .- You can recognize in every man the seed of truth which is latent in him, and so nothing human is alien .- "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum est" (I am a man, nothing human is alien to me) said an ancient Roman comedy .- The Christian has something to say to another man "(" Go and make disciples ... "(Mt.28, 19) were ordered to Christ) even if it's a word that invites you to live according to their conscience in all that is really, really hoping that he starts to full and complete truth ("I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 14.6) .-

So in every man there is something that trembles in contact with Christian truth, because it is a human truth and every man "in the depths of his conscience discovers ... a law that he himself does not impose upon himself ... whose voice resounds, when necessary, in the ears of your heart, warning that she should love and do good and to avoid evil ... To obey is human dignity "(1) .- Also in every Christian There is a thrill in contact with human truth spread in the world, provided you do not close on itself struggling for their individual salvation only and nothing else. In that context must discover the "other" in their dignity.

b) The mystery of man .-

Who and what is it man?

The man is a mystery to himself .- "Mystery in a first sense, equivalent to an unfathomable realidad.Realidad where not touched bottom and that some or largely escapes us contínuamente.-Knowledge unknown, so to paradoja.Se know it is not known, because not exhausted, not known, inexaurible, always elusive "(2) .-

But the mystery means also a reality in which self is involved and that inevitably comes into play in the response itself, or the same question: "A mystery is something that I am committed and can not be conceived except as an area in which the distinction of me and before me loses its meaning and transcends its initial value, by definition, any conceivable technique ".- (3) .-

As mystery man is, however, unknown to himself, immersed in nature.-born, lives and dies like any being viviente.-has its roots in the field and draws on it.-humanizes For his work, to fit their needs .- "With the exercise of his wit indefatigable throughout the centuries, mankind has made great strides in the positive sciences in the field of technology" (4) .-

The man is rooted in the sensible, visible, earthly and temporal.-This in itself means no fall, a concept that does not exist in the true faith-cristiana. Moreover many heresies as Arianism, Gnosticism, etc. . were convicted after a poor conception of the body materia-To be authentic Christianity is radically buena. meat-The mystery, which "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us ..." (John 1.14), indicating that man is created "in the image and likeness of God" in "flesh and blood" taken from the mud, "men and women" was "good" (5) .- So no being Man was created esclavo.-This condition is antinatural.-Solo "Christ being divine status .. he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (6) .-

The above however does not mean that there is no radical difference between spirit and flesh, between reason, intelligence and sentido. 'But the meat is never without spirit and never-carne. spirit without each other and are implied fully involve .- The man can live in two ways: Either in the flesh and then flows into the corruption of flesh and spirit at a time, or live in the spirit and then comes to incorruption of flesh and spirit .- What comes first? For the spirit man enters the world of moral values, ie reaches the awareness of the meaning of existence and freedom to choose good or evil .- In the second change is to live under the instinctual impulses nothing that distinguishes it from the living no reason .- Certainly his conscience and his freedom are conditioned but not determined by a number of circumstances (psychological) and social (prejudices and conventions) that limit but never to the point who come to abolish them because there is always an intimate haven that only he can have "not under the pressure of a blind internal impulse or merely external coercion but motivated and prompted by personal inner conviction" (7) .- However, all free acts are the whole man, flesh and blood .-

Let's expand on these concepts more .- As a consequence of all acts that are free and are free to undertake because the whole man, in full flesh and spirit.-Not a single human act, no matter how high it is, that not include the most sensitive part of hombre.-The more man, more human, is an act, and engaging the world of spirit and time sensitive all-We played well estamentos. the mystery of existence in a fundamental .- Getting to the universe of values, of the reality beyond the control of the senses, performing in the spirit, man comes to the totality, including the sensible, you can not reach if it is immersed in nothing but sensible.-The animal reaches its vital purposes only instinto. following his man-not so, because the instinctive man is fully assumed, controlled and supplied by the razón.-So that man is merely instinctive, impulsive, becomes infinitely more stupid and cruel than the animal .- If we accept this assertion would explain the Nazi killings or torture and deaths of our recent dictatorship whose practices still persist in our society in many of its official institutions (police, gendarmes, etc.). .-

Moral laws, values ​​(such as life, liberty, human dignity) are designed to first, if they are protected and valued, lead man to happiness extended to beyond death.-Good and evil are not defined by how useful or useless it may be to the material life, or the pleasant or unpleasant they may be, or may lead to biological death, but they can ultimately lead to death .- " If your eye causes you to pluck it out and throw scandal you, you'd better enter life with one eye than with two eyes and be thrown into hell fire .. (Matt.18, 9) .- Do good, be "fair" to live in the spirit leads to life-siempre. do evil, to be "unfair", live in the flesh leads to death and siempre.-Man collides with a mystery to that "every imagination fails" (8), but at the same time with a mystery without which all existence is inconsistent: the free acts of man, who choose good or evil, are forever .- Without this faith, there would be no difference in the time of death between the large ma criminal, who coldly decided to slaughter or disappearance of thousands of men, and one who has devoted his life to the good and the service of others. -Claiming that the "good man" will live forever in the memory of mankind is a hollow and empty words, but often take up more bad than good in the History.-if everything ends with physical death would not have a radical difference between the death of good and bad.

Everything is reduced to absurdity if all end with biological death: A world that come out of nowhere and returns to nothing .- "The man would be a useless passion" as JPSartre said.

c) What two centuries of sovereignty as a nation.

Now looking at our society Argentina two centuries since its inception as a country, it seems to you, we have achieved the ideal of protecting the human person? Let's briefly look at the different levels that manifest the fullness of being human.

1 °) In the political

While on paper proclaimed political independence and that "a new and glorious nation" came to the earth, where is the freedom to decide sovereignty over their territory? We are still colonies in our natural resources, oil, energy, fuel, communications, fisheries, minerals and now even come to steal our water. They targeted the Guarani aquifer, and is no longer ours Yvera in totalidd.

2 º) I personally

Slavery has not ended. The sale, baby trafficking and white slavery are still valid and auge.Los states appear as powerless and ineffective to combat such scourges.

3 °) In the cultural

We still think in terms coloniales.Nuestros skills are and are conditioned to keep us thinking and acting as "colonies". Or perhaps what we are talking about the proliferation of "music" imported, under the mantle of modernism is imposed on the young. And say nothing of "literature" worthy of the name if it is taught in the institutions "educational" and proliferate in the mass media is alienating comunicación.Todo in order to keep at-colonies.

4 °) In the economic

While major economic centers of hoarding are not open, operate conditioning our economies through international organizations under the slogan of "support" true slavery subject us to keep us in painful dependencies. Consider the "debt" and based exchange empty state coffers. Debt dubious legal origin. Domestic debt, with retirees, with malnourished children, the sick, the abandoned in hospitals on their own as our aboriginal brothers real owners of these lands, there?

5 º) In the religious

When that religion according to what we described in points a) and b) should be for a true "freedom in Christ," however, only announcing a future without worrying beyond the specific situation of each member of society in its current situation. The liberation theology of Latin American thought fruit is virtually unknown. Who of those responsible for proclaiming the Gospel, or even mention, in his homilies?. It preaches a spirituality of the Middle Ages. Conversely, when one looks bibliography for those who have concerns about the issue dela liberation theology, there is no reason not achieved, or it is prohibited.

d) We are independent and we celebrate?

Dear reader, in this context it seems to you that we are truly independent and free?

Neither as individuals nor as a nation we enjoy true freedom. What we celebrate it? The death of our children malnourished, abandoned elderly, the violence of a society without a path, inflation devours us, our aboriginal marginalized, the salaries are not enough, the lack of work, etc., that we celebrate?

References:

(1) ("Gaudium et Spes," No. 16 of the Second Vatican Council) .-

(2) ("Approaches to the man" Camozzi Rolando Barrios, p.14-Madrid-Ed.CCS -1997) .-

(3) "Metaphysical Journal" by Gabriel Marcel Ed.1969-Madrid-Spain, pag.145 .-

(4) ("Gaudium et Spes," No. 15 of Vatican II) .-

(5) Gen.1, 27 ff.) .-

(6) (Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians Chap.2 ,5-7) .-

(7) "Gaudium et Spes," No. 17) .-

(8) (Gaudium et Spes, "No. 18) .-