John 10, 34-42 + CSDC and CV

John 10, 34-42 + CSDC and CV 

CV 3b Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in the God of the Bible, who is both Agápe and Lógos: Charity and Truth, Love and Word. 

The environmental value of biodiversity must be handled with a sense of responsibility

CSDC 466b. This perspective takes on a particular importance when one considers, in the context of the close relationships that bind the various parts of the ecosystem, the environmental value of biodiversity, which must be handled with a sense of responsibility and adequately protected, because it constitutes an extraordinary richness for all of humanity. In this regard, each person can easily recognize, for example, the importance of the Amazon, “one of the world's most precious natural regions because of its bio- diversity which makes it vital for the environmental balance of the entire planet”.[982] Forests help maintain the essential natural balance necessary for life.[983] Their destruction also through the inconsiderate and malicious setting of fires, accelerates the processes of desertification with risky consequences for water reserves and compromises the lives of many indigenous peoples and the well-being of future generations. All individuals as well as institutional subjects must feel the commitment to protect the heritage of forests and, where necessary, promote adequate programs of reforestation.

Notes: [982] John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in America, 25: AAS 91 (1999), 760. [983] Cf. John Paul II, Homily in Val Visdende (Italy) for the votive feast of St. John Gualberto (12 July 1987): Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, X, 3 (1987), 67.

(John 10, 34-42) The Father is in me and I am in the Father

[34] Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, "You are gods"'? [35] If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside, [36] can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'? [37] If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; [38] but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize (and understand) that the Father is in me and I am in the Father." [39] (Then) they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power. [40] He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. [41] Many came to him and said, "John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true." [42] And many there began to believe in him.

CSDC 142. The natural law, which is the law of God, cannot be annulled by human sinfulness[274]. It lays the indispensable moral foundation for building the human community and for establishing the civil law that draws its consequences of a concrete and contingent nature from the principles of the natural law[275]. If the perception of the universality of the moral law is dimmed, people cannot build a true and lasting communion with others, because when a correspondence between truth and good is lacking, “whether culpably or not, our acts damage the communion of persons, to the detriment of each”[276]. Only freedom rooted in a common nature, in fact, can make all men responsible and enable them to justify public morality. Those who proclaim themselves to be the sole measure of realities and of truth cannot live peacefully in society with their fellow men and cooperate with them[277].

   

Notes: [274] Cf. Saint Augustine, Confessions, 2, 4, 9: PL 32, 678: “Furtum certe punit lex tua, Domine, et lex scripta in cordibus hominum, quam ne ipsa quidem delet iniquitas”. [275] Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1959. [276] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 51: AAS 85 (1993), 1175. [277] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae, 19-20: AAS 87 (1995), 421-424.

[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)]