There are those who believe in God and those who do not believe in God.

St Thomas Aquinas gives us five reasons for the existence of God. They are intellectual logical conclusion that have led men, since ages to believe in the existence of God and to express, in one way or another, this believe through some ritual.

However, man, enlightened solely by his own intelligence, can never go further than the concept of God as a super power, a supernatural reality beyond any possible understanding by human intelligence.

For such believers, man’s dignity lies in his submission to God, who is absolute, all powerful, to the extent that instills fear of him. The distance between man and God is so unbridgeable that man is reduced to insignificance. This explains the human sacrifice which certain men felt the need to offer God. It also explains the need that certain men feel to defend him from infidels. For such believers the real dignity is that of God, and man’s dignity is secondary, relative to that of God.

On the other extreme of the pendulum, there are those who do not agree with this type of reasoning. Such people use there intelligence, just to arrive at a different conclusion. Today, such people, who call themselves, or are referred to, as atheists are convinced that religion and the whole idea of God is harmful for man and society.

Atheists think that in refuting every idea of God would lead almost logically to the affirmation of the highest possible dignity of man. This is the idea behind the new humanism. However, man without any reference to an objective reality, becomes the victim of himself. This explains man’s arbitrary decision on the exact moment of human existence and on the criteria of utility with regard to the sustainability of medical assistance in the prolongation or termination of human life.

In both cases, the question of the dignity of man is very fluid, and relative. Even though the intention is to the contrary. Both believers in the existence of God and atheists intend defending the human dignity of man, but they end up by applying the communist saying that “all humans are equal, but some are more equal than the others”. If there is no God, or if there is God but who is at a distance, not in touch with man, finally leads man to affirm “the dignity of the human person, but some may enjoy a great dignity than others”.

The Christian Mystery of the Incarnation, not only does it declare in an unequivocal manner the highest possible dignity of the human person, but it defends every human being from the moment of his conception till his natural last breath from anybody’s abuse in breaching or diminishing in any way his dignity.

Christianity is not a religion like any other religion. Christianity is far from an intelligent effort to draw some logical conclusion that God is. Christianity is the unprecedented and unthinkable initiative of this God that is (I Am Who I Am) to come and meet man in his human condition. It is not just a question of deciding to communicate with man in a way that he can understand, but the incredible gesture of having His Word to take human nature.

If we were to set aside the great revelation, received by the Jews and transmitted to us in the Old Testament, that God created man in His own image and likeness, matching in a way man’s dignity to that of God; at the Incarnation of the Son of God, God’s dignity is shared completely and irrevocable with man. Eliminating Christ from Christmas is to put at risk the dignity of man, and give a free way to those who are tempted to use and abuse their fellow men.

Contact Fr Paul Fenech.