John 6, 41-51 + CSDC and CV

John 6, 41-51 + CSDC and CV

CV 76a One aspect of the contemporary technological mindset is the tendency to consider the problems and emotions of the interior life from a purely psychological point of view, even to the point of neurological reductionism. In this way man's interiority is emptied of its meaning and gradually our awareness of the human soul's ontological depths, as probed by the saints, is lost.

The right to religious freedom must be recognized in the juridical order and sanctioned as a civil right   

CSDC 422. Freedom of conscience and religion “concerns man both individually and socially”.[861] The right to religious freedom must be recognized in the juridical order and sanctioned as a civil right; [862] nonetheless, it is not of itself an unlimited right. The just limits of the exercise of religious freedom must be determined in each social situation with political prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the civil authority through legal norms consistent with the objective moral order. Such norms are required by “the need for the effective safeguarding of the rights of all citizens and for the peaceful settlement of conflicts of rights, also by the need for an adequate care of genuine public peace, which comes about when men live together in good order and in true justice, and finally by the need for a proper guardianship of public morality”.[863] 

Notes: [861] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2105. [862] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 2: AAS 58 (1966), 930-931; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2108. [863] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, 7: AAS 58 (1966), 935; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2109.

(Jn 6, 41-51) Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life 

[41] The Jews murmured about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven," [42] and they said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother? Then how can he say, 'I have come down from heaven'?" [43] Jesus answered and said to them, "Stop murmuring among yourselves. [44] No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him, and I will raise him on the last day. [45] It is written in the prophets: 'They shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me. [46] Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. [47] Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. [48] I am the bread of life. [49] Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; [50] this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. [51] I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."   

CSDC 460. Man, then, must never forget that “his capacity to transform and in a certain sense create the world through his own work ... is always based on God's prior and original gift of the things that are”.[965] He must not “make arbitrary use of the earth, subjecting it without restraint to his will, as though it did not have its own requisites and a prior God-given purpose, which man can indeed develop but must not betray”.[966] When he acts in this way, “instead of carrying out his role as a co-operator with God in the work of creation, man sets himself up in place of God and thus ends up provoking a rebellion on the part of nature, which is more tyrannized than governed by him”.[967] If man intervenes in nature without abusing it or damaging it, we can say that he “intervenes not in order to modify nature but to foster its development in its own life, that of the creation that God intended. While working in this obviously delicate area, the researcher adheres to the design of God. God willed that man be the king of creation”.[968] In the end, it is God himself who offers to men and women the honour of cooperating with the full force of their intelligence in the work of creation. 

Notes: [965] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 37: AAS 83 (1991), 840. [966] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 37: AAS 83 (1991), 840. [967] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 37: AAS 83 (1991), 840. [968] John Paul II, Address to the 35th General Assembly of the World Medical Association (29 October 1983): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 5 December 1986, p. 11.

[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)]