We finish our reading of Veritatis Splendor with St John Paul II’s analysis of the relationship between inviolable moral norms and the dignity of the person. Because we can know truth we are free, To deny exceptionless moral norms is to ignore the truth about the good, because these norms protect the personal dignity of the human beings “on whose face is reflected the splendor of God.” (Sec 90)
John Paul II directs our attention to the story of Susanna in the book of Daniel (only in Catholic translations; it it omitted in Protestant editions). Susanna was threatened with judicial death if she refused the sexual advanced of two lustful elders. Nevertheless, she refused their advances. In our own era, Maria Goretti refused to comply with her knife-wielding assailant, knowing that it was at the cost of her life. Bishop John Fisher refused to take Henry XIII’s Oath of Supremacy at the cost of his own life. We ca also look at Fr Miguel Pro in Mexico a the Carmelite sisters who were guillotined during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. All these — and many others, from ancient time to the present — have refused to deny the truth and suffered the consequence of death.
The martyrs give dramatic witness to the greatness of the human person who called to union with God. For some, this means sharing Christ’s free gift of himself in death on the cross. but far all of us this means living in the truth of a total following of Christ, even in everyday life.
In the final analysis, Veritatis Splendor calls us all to our true dignity and our destiny to eternal joy with God.
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