John 5, 39-47 + CSDC and CV

John 5, 39-47 + CSDC and CV

CV 74b Yet the rationality of a self-centred use of technology proves to be irrational because it implies a decisive rejection of meaning and value. It is no coincidence that closing the door to transcendence brings one up short against a difficulty: how could being emerge from nothing, how could intelligence be born from chance? [153] Faced with these dramatic questions, reason and faith can come to each other's assistance. Only together will they save man. Entranced by an exclusive reliance on technology, reason without faith is doomed to flounder in an illusion of its own omnipotence. Faith without reason risks being cut off from everyday life [154]. 

Notes: [153] Cf. Benedict XVI, Address to the Participants in the Fourth National Congress of the Church in Italy, Verona, 19 October 2006; Id., Homily at Mass, Islinger Feld, Regensburg, 12 September 2006. [154] Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Instruction on certain bioethical questions Dignitas Personae (8 September 2008): AAS 100 (2008), 858-887. 

Political parties are called to interpret the aspirations of civil society, orienting them towards the common good

CSDC 413. Political parties have the task of fostering widespread participation and making public responsibilities accessible to all. Political parties are called to interpret the aspirations of civil society, orienting them towards the common good,[846] offering citizens the effective possibility of contributing to the formulation of political choices. They must be democratic in their internal structure, and capable of political synthesis and planning. Another instrument of political participation is the referendum, whereby a form of direct access to political decisions is practised. The institution of representation in fact does not exclude the possibility of asking citizens directly about the decisions of great importance for social life.

Notes: [846] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 75: AAS 58 (1966), 1097-1099.    

(Jn 5, 39-47) The salvation offered by God to his children requires their free response and acceptance     

[39] You search the scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. [40] But you do not want to come to me to have life. [41] "I do not accept human praise; [42] moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. [43] I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. [44] How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God? [45] Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. [46] For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. [47] But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"  

CSDC 39. The salvation offered by God to his children requires their free response and acceptance. It is in this that faith consists, and it is through this that “man freely commits his entire self to God”[40], responding to God's prior and superabundant love (cf. 1 Jn 4:10) with concrete love for his brothers and sisters, and with steadfast hope because “he who promised is faithful” (Heb 10:23). In fact, the divine plan of salvation does not consign human creatures to a state of mere passivity or of lesser status in relation to their Creator, because their relationship to God, whom Jesus Christ reveals to us and in whom he freely makes us sharers by the working of the Holy Spirit, is that of a child to its parent: the very relationship that Jesus lives with the Father (cf. Jn 15-17; Gal 4:6-7).

Notes: [40] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 5: AAS 58 (1966), 819.

[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)]