Western society has "almost totally rejected" this understanding of the human person, Archbishop Gomez wrote, leading to an "extreme individualism" where "people believe they have the ability to 'create' and 're-create' themselves … especially in the areas of their sexuality."
By not seeing human life as a 'given', created as a "gift from God," post-modern culture has regarded it as "a kind of 'raw material' which they can modify and re-fashion according to their own desires and their own sense of meaning and purposes."
The forgetfulness that humanity is created by God is rooted in a forgetfulness that God even exists, wrote the archbishop. "When we forget our Creator, we forget what creation means."
"We lose the sense of our own meaning as his creatures. That's what's happening in our society. If God is not our Father, then we are not brothers and sisters and we have no responsibility for one another."
Without an acknowledgement of God, Western culture, formerly Christian, has slid toward relativism, which includes a "disintegration" of the idea of the human person.
In the face of this, Archbishop Gomez has begun to see "that the new evangelization must include … a new proclamation of our beautiful Catholic vision for the human person."
"The men and women of our times need to hear … they are the glory of God, created and destined for the vision of God. They need to know that they are God's image and that everyone they meet is God's image, too."
The new evangelization must teach people that persons have reason, and meaning to their lives, and that no one's life is "trivial."
Our task in this moment is to restore this appreciation of the sacred image of the human person," wrote Archbishop Gomez. "We need to bring this truth into our homes and neighborhoods and churches."
Because every human person is created by God as a person, a being with reason and will, they have a nature and a purpose, and that, Archbishop Gomez wrote, must be shared in the new evangelization.
The God-given purpose of human life, he reflected is "holiness," and "to live as God's image in the world."
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"So we need to help our neighbors to see that all our lives are not our project but God's project. We are God's works of art. Each one of us."
"I'm convinced that this truth about the sacred image and destiny of the human person is a key to the new evangelization," concluded Archbishop Gomez.
"We need to make this truth the substance of our preaching, our religious education, our work for justice."