Matthew 27, 1-10 + CSDC and CV  

(CV 42d)  The processes of globalization, suitably understood and directed, open up the unprecedented possibility of large-scale redistribution of wealth on a world-wide scale; if badly directed, however, they can lead to an increase in poverty and inequality, and could even trigger a global crisis. It is necessary to correct the malfunctions, some of them serious, that cause new divisions between peoples and within peoples, and also to ensure that the redistribution of wealth does not come about through the redistribution or increase of poverty: a real danger if the present situation were to be badly managed.

Work is the “essential key” to the whole social question

CSDC 269c. In fact, work is the “essential key” [585] to the whole social question and is the condition not only for economic development but also for the cultural and moral development of persons, the family, society and the entire human race. 

    

Notes: [585] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 3: AAS 73 (1981), 584.

(Mt 27, 1-10) At the bottom of every situation of sin there is always the individual who sins 

[1] When it was morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. [2] They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate, the governor. [3] Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, deeply regretted what he had done. He returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, [4] saying, "I have sinned in betraying innocent blood." They said, "What is that to us? Look to it yourself." [5] Flinging the money into the temple, he departed and went off and hanged himself. [6] The chief priests gathered up the money, but said, "It is not lawful to deposit this in the temple treasury, for it is the price of blood." [7] After consultation, they used it to buy the potter's field as a burial place for foreigners. [8] That is why that field even today is called the Field of Blood. [9] Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet, "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of a man with a price on his head, a price set by some of the Israelites, [10] and they paid it out for the potter's field just as the Lord had commanded me."

CSDC 117. The mystery of sin is composed of a twofold wound, which the sinner opens in his own side and in the relationship with his neighbour. That is why we can speak of personal and social sin. Every sin is personal under a certain aspect; under another, every sin is social, insofar as and because it also has social consequences. In its true sense, sin is always an act of the person, because it is the free act of an individual person and not properly speaking of a group or community. The character of social sin can unquestionably be ascribed to every sin, taking into account the fact that “by virtue of human solidarity which is as mysterious and intangible as it is real and concrete, each individual's sin in some way affects others”[226]. It is not, however, legitimate or acceptable to understand social sin in a way that, more or less consciously, leads to a weakening or the virtual cancellation of the personal component by admitting only social guilt and responsibility. At the bottom of every situation of sin there is always the individual who sins.

   

Notes: [226] John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 16: AAS 77 (1985), 214. The text explains moreover that there is a law of descent, which is a kind of communion of sin, in which a soul that lowers itself through sin drags down with it the Church and, in some way, the entire world; to this law there corresponds a law of ascent, the profound and magnificent mystery of the communion of saints, thanks to which every soul that rises above itself also raises the world.

[Initials and Abbreviations.- CSDC: Pontifical Council for Justice And Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church; -  SDC: Social Doctrine of the Church; - CV: Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in truth)]