Lk 6, 36-49 + CSDC and CV

Luke 6, 36-49 + CSDC and CV 

CV 31a. This means that moral evaluation and scientific research must go hand in hand, and that charity must animate them in a harmonious interdisciplinary whole, marked by unity and distinction. The Church's social doctrine, which has “an important interdisciplinary dimension”[77], can exercise, in this perspective, a function of extraordinary effectiveness. It allows faith, theology, metaphysics and science to come together in a collaborative effort in the service of humanity. It is here above all that the Church's social doctrine displays its dimension of wisdom. Paul VI had seen clearly that among the causes of underdevelopment there is a lack of wisdom and reflection, a lack of thinking capable of formulating a guiding synthesis[78], for which “a clear vision of all economic, social, cultural and spiritual aspects”[79] is required.

Notes: [77] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 59: loc. cit., 864. [78] Cf. Encyclical Letter  Populorum Progressio, 40, 85: loc. cit., 277, 298-299.[79] Ibid., 13: loc. cit., 263-264. 

The Church's social doctrine is “work site” where the work is always in progress

CSDC 86. The Church's social doctrine is presented as a “work site” where the work is always in progress, where perennial truth penetrates and permeates new circumstances, indicating paths of justice and peace. Faith does not presume to confine changeable social and political realities within a closed framework[137]. Rather, the contrary is true: faith is the leaven of innovation and creativity. The teaching that constantly takes this as its starting point “develops through reflection applied to the changing situations of this world, under the driving force of the Gospel as the source of renewal”[138]. Mother and Teacher, the Church does not close herself off nor retreat within herself but is always open, reaching out to and turned towards man, whose destiny of salvation is her reason for being. She is in the midst of men and women as the living icon of the Good Shepherd, who goes in search of and finds man where he is, in the existential and historical circumstances of his life. It is there that the Church becomes for man a point of contact with the Gospel, with the message of liberation and reconciliation, of justice and peace. 

  

Notes: [137] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 46: AAS 83 (1991), 850-851.[138] Paul VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens, 42: AAS 63 (1971), 431.

(Luke 6, 36-49) Be merciful, stop judging and condemning, forgive

[36] Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful. [37] "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. [38] Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you." [39] And he told them a parable, "Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? [40] No disciple is superior to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher. [41] Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own? [42] How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,' when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your brother's eye. [43] "A good tree does not bear rotten fruit, nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit. [44] For every tree is known by its own fruit. For people do not pick figs from thornbushes, nor do they gather grapes from brambles. [45] A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks. [46] "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' but not do what I command? [47] I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. [48] That one is like a person building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. [49] But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, it collapsed at once and was completely destroyed." 

CSDC 29. The love that inspires Jesus' ministry among men is the 

love that he has experienced in his intimate union with the Father. The New Testament allows us to enter deeply into the experience, that Jesus himself lives and communicates, the love of God his Father — “Abba” — and, therefore, it permits us to enter into the very heart of divine life. Jesus announces the liberating mercy of God to those whom he meets on his way, beginning with the poor, the marginalized, the sinners. He invites all to follow him because he is the first to obey God's plan of love, and he does so in a most singular way, as God's envoy in the world. Jesus' self-awareness of being the Son is an expression of this primordial experience. The Son has been given everything, and freely so, by the Father: “All that the Father has is mine” (Jn 16:15). His in turn is the mission of making all men sharers in this gift and in this filial relationship: “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15). For Jesus, recognizing the Father's love means modelling his actions on God's gratuitousness and mercy; it is these that generate new life. It means becoming — by his very existence — the example and pattern of this for his disciples. Jesus' followers are called to live like him and, after his Passover of death and resurrection, to live also in him and by him, thanks to the superabundant gift of the Holy Spirit, the Consoler, who internalizes Christ's own style of life in human hearts.

[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)]