Mark 12,18-27 + CSDC and CV

Mark 12,18-27 + CSDC and CV

CV 8b. At a distance of over forty years from the Encyclical's publication, I intend to pay tribute and to honour the memory of the great Pope Paul VI, revisiting his teachings on integral human development and taking my place within the path that they marked out, so as to apply them to the present moment. This continual application to contemporary circumstances began with the Encyclical  Sollicitudo Rei Socialis,  with which the Servant of God Pope John Paul II chose to mark the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Populorum Progressio. Until that time, only Rerum Novarum  had been commemorated in this way. Now that a further twenty years have passed, I express my conviction that Populorum Progressio deserves to be considered “the Rerum Novarum of the present age”, shedding light upon humanity's journey towards unity.

This document: man whole and entire, body and soul, heart and conscience, mind and will

CSDC 13b. Drawing inspiration from the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, this document too places “man considered whole and entire, with body and soul, heart and conscience, mind and will” [15] as the key to its whole exposition. In this perspective, the Church is “inspired by no earthly ambition and seeks but one solitary goal: to carry forward the work of Christ himself under the lead of the befriending Spirit. For Christ entered this world to bear witness to the truth, to save and not to sit in judgment, to serve and not to be served”[16].

Notes: [15] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 3: AAS 58 (1966), 1026. [16] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 3: AAS 58 (1966), 1027.

(Mk 12,18-27) You do not know the scriptures or the power of God

[18] Some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him and put this question to him, [19] saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us, 'If someone's brother dies, leaving a wife but no child, his brother must take the wife and raise up descendants for his brother.' [20] Now there were seven brothers. The first married a woman and died, leaving no descendants. [21] So the second married her and died, leaving no descendants, and the third likewise. [22] And the seven left no descendants. Last of all the woman also died. [23] At the resurrection (when they arise) whose wife will she be? For all seven had been married to her." [24] Jesus said to them, "Are you not misled because you do not know the scriptures or the power of God? [25] When they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but they are like the angels in heaven. [26] As for the dead being raised, have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God told him, 'I am the God of Abraham, (the) God of Isaac, and (the) God of Jacob'? [27] He is not God of the dead but of the living. You are greatly misled."

CSDC 576. To these basic questions about the meaning and purpose of human life the Church responds with the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, which liberates the dignity of the human person from changing opinions and ensures the freedom of men and women as no human law can do. The Second Vatican Council indicated that the mission of the Church in the contemporary world consists in helping every human being to discover in God the ultimate meaning of his existence. The Church knows well that “God alone, whom she serves, can satisfy the deepest cravings of the human heart, for the world and what it has to offer can never fully satisfy it”[1208]. Only God, who created man in his image and redeemed him from sin, can offer a fully adequate answer through the Revelation wrought in his Son made man. The Gospel, in fact, “announces and proclaims the freedom of the sons of God, it rejects all bondage resulting from sin; it scrupulously respects the dignity of conscience and its freedom of choice; it never ceases to encourage the employment of human talents in the service of God and of man, and finally, it commends everyone to the charitable love of all”[1209].

Notes: [1208] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 41: AAS 58 (1966), 1059. [1209] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 41: AAS 58 (1966), 1059-1060.    

[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)]

Mark 12,13-17 + CSDC and CV

Mark 12,13-17 + CSDC and CV

CV 8a. In 1967, when he issued the Encyclical Populorum Progressio, my venerable predecessor Pope Paul VI illuminated the great theme of the development of peoples with the splendour of truth and the gentle light of Christ's charity. He taught that life in Christ is the first and principal factor of development [6] and he entrusted us with the task of travelling the path of development with all our heart and all our intelligence[7], that is to say with the ardour of charity and the wisdom of truth. It is the primordial truth of God's love, grace bestowed upon us, that opens our lives to gift and makes it possible to hope for a “development of the whole man and of all men”[8], to hope for progress “from less human conditions to those which are more human”[9], obtained by overcoming the difficulties that are inevitably encountered along the way.

Notes: [6] Cf. no. 16: loc. cit., 265. [7] Cf. ibid., 82: loc. cit., 297. [8] Ibid., 42: loc. cit., 278. [9] Ibid., 20: loc. cit., 267.  

  

  At the service of the full truth about man

CSDC 13a. This document is an act of service on the part of the Church to the women and men of our time, to whom she offers the legacy of her social doctrine, according to that style of dialogue by which God himself, in his only-begotten Son made man, “addresses men as his friends (cf. Ex 33:11; Jn 15:14-15) and moves among them (cf. Bar 3:38)”[14].

Notes: [14] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 2: AAS 58 (1966), 818.

(Mk 12,13-17) Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God

[13] They sent some Pharisees and Herodians to him to ensnare him in his speech. [14] They came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man and that you are not concerned with anyone's opinion. You do not regard a person's status but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or should we not pay?" 15 Knowing their hypocrisy he said to them, "Why are you testing me? Bring me a denarius to look at." [16] They brought one to him and he said to them, "Whose image and inscription is this?" They replied to him, "Caesar's." [17] So Jesus said to them, "Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.' They were utterly amazed at him.

CSDC 424. Although the Church and the political community both manifest themselves in visible organizational structures, they are by nature different because of their configuration and because of the ends they pursue. The Second Vatican Council solemnly reaffirmed that, “in their proper spheres, the political community and the Church are mutually independent and self-governing”.[867] The Church is organized in ways that are suitable to meet the spiritual needs of the faithful, while the different political communities give rise to relationships and institutions that are at the service of everything that is part of the temporal common good. The autonomy and independence of these two realities is particularly evident with regards to their ends. The duty to respect religious freedom requires that the political community guarantee the Church the space needed to carry out her mission. For her part, the Church has no particular area of competence concerning the structures of the political community: “The Church respects the legitimate autonomy of the democratic order and is not entitled to express preferences for this or that institutional or constitutional solution”,[868] nor does it belong to her to enter into questions of the merit of political programmes, except as concerns their religious or moral implications.

Notes: [867] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 76: AAS 58 (1966), 1099; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2245. [868] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 47: AAS 83 (1991), 852.

[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)]

Mark 12,1-12 + CSDC and CV

Mark 12,1-12 + CSDC and CV

CV 7c. When animated by charity, commitment to the common good has greater worth than a merely secular and political stand would have. Like all commitment to justice, it has a place within the testimony of divine charity that paves the way for eternity through temporal action. Man's earthly activity, when inspired and sustained by charity, contributes to the building of the universal city of God, which is the goal of the history of the human family. In an increasingly globalized society, the common good and the effort to obtain it cannot fail to assume the dimensions of the whole human family, that is to say, the community of peoples and nations [5], in such a way as to shape the earthly city in unity and peace, rendering it to some degree an anticipation and a prefiguration of the undivided city of God.

Notes: [5] Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris (11 April 1963): AAS 55 (1963), 268-270.

Motivations and orientations for closer cooperation in the promotion of justice and peace

CSDC 12b. It is a sign of hope in the fact that religions and cultures today show openness to dialogue and sense the urgent need to join forces in promoting justice, fraternity, peace and the growth of the human person. The Catholic Church joins her own commitment to that made in the social field by other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, whether at the level of doctrinal reflection or at the practical level. Together with them, the Catholic Church is convinced that from the common heritage of social teachings preserved by the living tradition of the people of God there will come motivations and orientations for an ever closer cooperation in the promotion of justice and peace[13].

Notes: [13] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 92: AAS 58 (1966), 1113-1114.

(Mark 12,1-12) Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be our

 [1] He began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a wine press, and built a tower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and left on a journey. [2] At the proper time he sent a servant to the tenants to obtain from them some of the produce of the vineyard. [3] But they seized him, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. [4] Again he sent them another servant. And that one they beat over the head and treated shamefully. [5] He sent yet another whom they killed. So, too, many others; some they beat, others they killed. [6] He had one other to send, a beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, 'They will respect my son.' [7] But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' [8] So they seized him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. [9] What (then) will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come, put the tenants to death, and give the vineyard to others. [10] Have you not read this scripture passage: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; [11] by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?" [12] They were seeking to arrest him, but they feared the crowd, for they realized that he had addressed the parable to them. So they left him and went away.

CSDC 45. Jesus Christ is the Son of God made man in whom and thanks to whom the world and man attain their authentic and full truth. The mystery of God's being infinitely close to man — brought about in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, who gave himself on the cross, abandoning himself to death — shows that the more that human realities are seen in the light of God's plan and lived in communion with God, the more they are empowered and liberated in their distinctive identity and in the freedom that is proper to them. Sharing in Christ's life of sonship, made possible by the Incarnation and the Paschal gift of the Spirit, far from being a mortification, has the effect of unleashing the authentic and independent traits and identity that characterize human beings in all their various expressions. This perspective leads to a correct approach to earthly realities and their autonomy, which is strongly emphasized by the teaching of the Second Vatican Council: “If by the autonomy of earthly affairs we mean that created things and societies themselves enjoy their own laws and values which must be gradually deciphered, put to use and regulated by men, then it is entirely right to demand that autonomy. This ... harmonizes also with the will of the Creator. For by the very circumstance of their having been created, all things are endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order. Man must respect these as he isolates them by the appropriate methods of the individual sciences or arts”[48].

Notes: [48] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 36: AAS 58 (1966), 1054; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree Apostolicam Actuositatem, 7: AAS 58 (1966), 843-844.

[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)]

Mark 11,27-33 + CSDC and CV

Mark 11,27-33 + CSDC and CV

CV 7b. To take a stand for the common good is on the one hand to be solicitous for, and on the other hand to avail oneself of, that complex of institutions that give structure to the life of society, juridically, civilly, politically and culturally, making it the pólis, or “city”. The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbours, the more effectively we love them. Every Christian is called to practise this charity, in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influence he wields in the pólis. This is the institutional path — we might also call it the political path — of charity, no less excellent and effective than the kind of charity which encounters the neighbour directly, outside the institutional mediation of the pólis.

Document proposed to all people of good will committed to serving the common good

CSDC 12a. This document is proposed also to the brethren of other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, to the followers of other religions, as well as to all people of good will who are committed to serving the common good: may they receive it as the fruit of a universal human experience marked by countless signs of the presence of God's Spirit. It is a treasury of things old and new (cf. Mt 13:52), which the Church wishes to share, in thanksgiving to God, from whom comes “every good endowment and ever perfect gift” (Jas 1:17).

(Mk 11,27-33) Was John's baptism of heavenly or of human origin?

 [27] They returned once more to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple area, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders approached him [28] and said to him, "By what authority are you doing these things? Or who gave you this authority to do them?" [29] Jesus said to them, "I shall ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. [30] Was John's baptism of heavenly or of human origin? Answer me." [31] They discussed this among themselves and said, "If we say, 'Of heavenly origin,' he will say, '(Then) why did you not believe him?' [32] But shall we say, 'Of human origin'?" - they feared the crowd, for they all thought John really was a prophet. [33] So they said to Jesus in reply, "We do not know." Then Jesus said to them, "Neither shall I tell you by what authority I do these things."

CSDC 16. 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. The boundary and relation between nature, technology and morality are issues that decisively summon personal and collective responsibility with regard to the attitudes to adopt concerning what human beings are, what they are able to accomplish and what they should be. A second challenge is found in the understanding and management of pluralism and differences at every level: in ways of thinking, moral choices, culture, religious affiliation, philosophy of human and social development. The third challenge is globalization, the significance of which is much wider and more profound than simple economic globalization, since history has witnessed the opening of a new era that concerns humanity's destiny.

[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)]