Rights and Responsibilities
We all claim rights and privileges but sometimes it is easy to forget that the very act of claiming a right attracts a corresponding responsibility. A right does not exist in isolation but rather must be seen as also defining the common good. In other words, we may claim human rights as applicable to ourselves but we must, at the same time, give active recognition to the rights and responsibilities of all people. In truth, the assumption of essential human rights cannot exclude the rights and responsibilities of others, nor can our just rights be subject to the needs of society.
Genesis 1:27 tells us that “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Yes; we are all created in the image and likeness of God and that reality affirms that we are all worthy of respect as members of the human family. It is, therefore, true that the essential difference between rights and responsibilities is that while rights attract to people as members of the human family those same rights impose a responsibility to uphold the truth as it applies to all people. Rights exist to protect basic freedoms in the knowledge that every person is created in the image and likeness of God. Life is sacred and we retain the right to life until the moment of natural death. Human rights are to be ensured if human dignity is to be promoted and protected.
It is in the protection of human dignity that we find the very substance of our understanding of what is required of us in our desire for, and application of, rights and responsibilities. The human person is born into a community that commends relationship and is social in its very nature. Because our very lives are sacred, the individual person attracts inalienable rights that include political, legal, social, and economic rights. The right to life and the right to those things required for a dignified life are fundamental to the welfare of the person and, therefore, to the community as a whole. Indeed, we have clear responsibilities for each other, for our families and to the wider society. We have a responsibility to serve and to be served within the context of the human family.
As Catholics, it is essential for us to be aware of the basic rights of each human being. St. John XXIII described this fundamental truth in his encyclical, Peace on Earth (Pacem in terries, 1963). He wrote “We must speak of man’s rights. Man has the right to live. He has the right to bodily integrity and to the means necessary for the proper development of life, particularly food, clothing, shelter, medical care, rest, and, finally, the necessary social services. In consequence, he has the right to be looked after in the event of ill health; disability stemming from his work; widowhood; old age; enforced unemployment; or whenever through no fault of his own he is deprived of the means of livelihood.”
We have a responsibility to go beyond awareness and are asked to accept the need for action and to seek justice for all. Sometimes that may include holding the state accountable for its responsibility to uphold the rights of all people. St John XXIII wrote “One man’s natural right gives rise to a corresponding duty in other men; the duty, that is, of recognizing and respecting that right.” The Catholic Church, does have the right to speak on moral issues and to provide leadership in a world where secular values take precedence over moral authority. Indeed, the very instance of living the word of God commands that we accept the very heart of what it is that is asked of us and that we should respond in terms of love and mercy. We should follow the word of God while identifying the responsibility that applies to the understanding of and facilitation of human rights.
We are called to understand that in our secular world we must be guided and directed by our Christian conscience because all we do is within the Lord’s domain. When reflecting on the application of human rights and the responsibilities that attend to them it is appropriate that we should reflect on the words of Luke.10:25-37: And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
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