Lk 5, 27-39 + CSDC and CV

Luke 5, 27-39 + CSDC and CV 

CV 29d. When the State promotes, teaches, or actually imposes forms of practical atheism, it deprives its citizens of the moral and spiritual strength that is indispensable for attaining integral human development and it impedes them from moving forward with renewed dynamism as they strive to offer a more generous human response to divine love [71]. In the context of cultural, commercial or political relations, it also sometimes happens that economically developed or emerging countries export this reductive vision of the person and his destiny to poor countries. This is the damage that “superdevelopment”[72] causes to authentic development when it is accompanied by “moral underdevelopment”[73].

Notes: [71] Cf. Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est, 1: loc. cit., 217-218. [72] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 28: loc. cit., 548-550. [73] Paul VI, Encyclical Letter  Populorum Progressio, 19: loc. cit., 266-267.   

The intent of the Church's social doctrine is of the religious and moral order

CSDC 82. The intent of the Church's social doctrine is of the religious and moral order[122]. Religious because the Church's evangelizing and salvific mission embraces man “in the full truth of his existence, of his personal being and also of his community and social being”[123]. Moral because the Church aims at a “complete form of humanism”[124], that is to say, at the “liberation from everything that oppresses man” [125] and “the development of the whole man and of all men”[126]. The Church's social doctrine indicates the path to follow for a society reconciled and in harmony through justice and love, a society that anticipates in history, in a preparatory and prefigurative manner, the “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13).

Notes: [122] Cf. Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931), 190; Pius XII, Radio Message for the fiftieth anniversary of ReC 65rum Novarum: AAS 23 (1931), 196-197; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 42: AAS 58 (1966), 1079; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 41: AAS 80 (1988), 570-572; John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 53: AAS 83 (1991), 859; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,Instruction Libertatis Conscientia, 72: AAS 79 (1987), 585-586. [123] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis, 14: AAS 71 (1979), 284; cf. John Paul II, Address to the Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops, Puebla, Mexico (28 January 1979), III/2: AAS 71 (1979), 199. [124] Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 42: AAS 59 (1967), 278. [125] Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, 9: AAS 68 (1976), 10. [126] Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 42: AAS 59 (1967), 278. 

(Lk 5, 27-39) New wine must be poured into fresh wineskins

[27] After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post. He said to him, "Follow me." [28]  And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.  [29] Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were at table with them. [30] The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?" [31] Jesus said to them in reply, "Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. [32] I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners." [33] And they said to him, "The disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees do the same; but yours eat and drink." [34] Jesus answered them, "Can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? [35] But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days." [36] And he also told them a parable. "No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Otherwise, he will tear the new and the piece from it will not match the old cloak. [37] Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined. [38] Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins. [39] (And) no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'" 

CSDC 50. The Church places herself concretely at the service of the Kingdom of God above all by announcing and communicating the Gospel of salvation and by establishing new Christian communities. Moreover, she “serves the Kingdom by spreading throughout the world the ‘Gospel values' which are an expression of the Kingdom and which help people to accept God's plan. It is true that the inchoate reality of the Kingdom can also be found beyond the confines of the Church among peoples everywhere, to the extent that they live ‘Gospel values' and are open to the working of the Spirit who breathes when and where he wills (cf. Jn 3:8). But it must immediately be added that this temporal dimension of the Kingdom remains incomplete unless it is related to the Kingdom of Christ present in the Church and straining towards eschatological fullness”[57]. It follows from this, in particular, that the Church is not to be confused with the political community and is not bound to any political system[58]. In fact, the political community and the Church are autonomous and independent of each other in their own fields, and both are, even if under different titles, “devoted to the service of the personal and social vocation of the same human beings”[59]. Indeed, it can be affirmed that the distinction between religion and politics and the principle of religious freedom constitute a specific achievement of Christianity and one of its fundamental historical and cultural contributions.

Notes:  [57] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio, 20: AAS 83 (1991), 267. [58] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 76: AAS 58 (1966), 1099; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2245. [59] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 76: AAS 58 (1966), 1099.  

[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)]