Mark 13,14-27 + CSDC and CV

Mark 13,14-27 + CSDC and CV

CV 11a. The publication of Populorum Progressio occurred immediately after the conclusion of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, and in its opening paragraphs it clearly indicates its close connection with the Council [14]. Twenty years later, in Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, John Paul II, in his turn, emphasized the earlier Encyclical's fruitful relationship with the Council, and especially with the Pastoral Constitution  Gaudium et Spes [15]. I too wish to recall here the importance of the Second Vatican Council for Paul VI's Encyclical and for the whole of the subsequent social Magisterium of the Popes. The Council probed more deeply what had always belonged to the truth of the faith, namely that the Church, being at God's service, is at the service of the world in terms of love and truth.

Notes: [14] Cf. nos. 3-5: loc. cit., 258-260. [15] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter  Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (30 December 1987), 6-7:  AAS 80 (1988), 517-519.

The first of the great challenges facing humanity today

CSDC 16a. The fundamental questions accompanying the human journey from the very beginning take on even greater significance in our own day, because of the enormity of the challenges, the novelty of the situations and the importance of the decisions facing modern generations. The first of the great challenges facing humanity today is that of the truth itself of the being who is man.  

(Mark 13,14-27) False messiahs and false prophets will arise

[14] "When you see the desolating abomination standing where he should not (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, [15] (and) a person on a housetop must not go down or enter to get anything out of his house, [16] and a person in a field must not return to get his cloak. [17] Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days. [18] Pray that this does not happen in winter. [19] For those times will have tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of God's creation until now, nor ever will be. [20] If the Lord had not shortened those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect whom he chose, he did shorten the days. [21] If anyone says to you then, 'Look, here is the Messiah! Look, there he is!' do not believe it. [22] False messiahs and false prophets will arise and will perform signs and wonders in order to mislead, if that were possible, the elect. [23] Be watchful! I have told it all to you beforehand. [24] "But in those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, [25] and the stars will be falling from the sky, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. [26] And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory, [27] and then he will send out the angels and gather (his) elect from the four winds, from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

CSDC 38. The salvation offered in its fullness to men in Jesus Christ by God the Father's initiative, and brought about and transmitted by the work of the Holy Spirit, is salvation for all people and of the whole person: it is universal and integral salvation. It concerns the human person in all his dimensions: personal and social, spiritual and corporeal, historical and transcendent. It begins to be made a reality already in history, because what is created is good and willed by God, and because the Son of God became one of us[39]. Its completion, however, is in the future, when we shall be called, together with all creation (cf. Rom 8), to share in Christ's resurrection and in the eternal communion of life with the Father in the joy of the Holy Spirit. This outlook shows quite clearly the error and deception of purely immanentistic visions of the meaning of history and in humanity's claims to self-salvation.

Notes: [39] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 22: AAS 58 (1966), 1043.    

[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)]