Fr. Moga’s Discussion Regarding the Huma Being

FR. MOGA’S DISCUSSION REGARDING THE HUMA BEING

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In “What Makes a Man Truly Human”, Fr. Michael D. Moga highlighted that “human beings are not necessarily human”. He gave two reasons for this: 1st -it takes much time and effort for a human being to grow to the point where his own nature has reached full realization; 2nd -it is very possible that an individual human being will not reach full development at all.

It takes much time and effort for a human being to grow to the point where his own nature has reached full realization. Yes, it is true. With my 20 years of existence, I still do have so many questions running in my mind: what makes me happy? What will I do to make me feel contended? How to be a good person? Is there after life? What is good/right and bad/wrong? What is the purpose of my existence? The being of man is the being that continuously searches for truth and essence in life. One can find truth, but did not achieve its full meaning while some able to find the meaning, but does not end with the truth. A sick man might be able to find the truth behind his illness, but not able to discover why that truth exists. A lost child may realize why he was lost but still not able to find the right direction to their home. A teacher may find the meaning of his profession, but lacks the awareness of the right method to teach a child. A guy is fully aware that he loves his girlfriend but have not yet fully found what traits etc. of his girlfriend that captured his heart. This continuous searching of man for truth and meaning allows him to discover many potentialities that are inherent in him. These potentialities are not only embedded in his soul. He is born with it and made for it. In seeking he makes himself ‘free’ as he opens himself to many possibilities. The possibility of failure, success, truth, lie, pain, joy, betrayal, trust, love and rejection. All these experiences are essential in the making man to be truly human because when one finds the truth and meaning of his ‘being’ he is now closer to living a life fulfilled. But, how can human find that “truth”? And how can it be fully understood? Karl Marx argued that to be truly human is to be able to express ourselves through labor, man is faithful to his nature when he is able to actualize himself to what he does. For Heidegger, one becomes truly human when he lives a life of anticipation, of knowing the truth about death and by allowing the Dasien to live a life authentically. Meanwhile, Fr. Moga believed that the question of how to become truly human is not only limited to Philosophical discourse, it also involves social, anthropological, theological and contextual paradigms which implies that there are many humanisms and religions around the world that have formulated their own quests to discover the heart of humanity. This now created many contradictions

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