John 12, 1-11 + CSDC and CV

John 12, 1-11 + CSDC and CV   

CV 6b I cannot “give” what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them. Not only is justice not extraneous to charity, not only is it not an alternative or parallel path to charity: justice is inseparable from charity [1],  and intrinsic to it. Justice is the primary way of charity or, in Paul VI's words, “the minimum measure” of it [2], an integral part of the love “in deed and in truth” (1 Jn 3:18), to which Saint John exhorts us.

Notes: [1] Cf. Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 22: AAS 59 (1967), 268; Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 69. [2] Address for the Day of Development (23 August 1968): AAS 60 (1968), 626-627.

The rights of indigenous peoples must be appropriately protected 

CSDC 471. The relationship of indigenous peoples to their lands and resources deserves particular attention, since it is a fundamental expression of their identity.[996] Due to powerful agro-industrial interests or the powerful processes of assimilation and urbanization, many of these peoples have already lost or risk losing the lands on which they live,[997] lands tied to the very meaning of their existence.[998] The rights of indigenous peoples must be appropriately protected.[999] These peoples offer an example of a life lived in harmony with the environment that they have come to know well  and to preserve.[1000] Their extraordinary experience, which is an irreplaceable resource for all humanity, runs the risk of being lost together with the environment from which they originate.  

Notes: [996] Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Indigenous Peoples of the Amazon, Manaus (10 July 1980): AAS 72 (1980), 960-961. [997] Cf. John Paul II, Homily at the Liturgy of the Word with the Indigenous Peoples of the Peruvian Amazon Valley (5 February 1985), 4: AAS 77 (1985), 897- 898; cf. also Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Towards a Better Distribution of Land. The Challenge of Agrarian Reform (23 November 1997), 11, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 1997, p. 17. [998] Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Indigenous Peoples of Australia (29 November 1986), 4: AAS 79 (1987), 974-975. [999] Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala (7 March 1983), 4: AAS 75 (1983), 742-743; John Paul II, Address to the Indigenous Peoples of Canada (18 September 1984), 7-8: AAS 77 (1988), 421-422; John Paul II, Address to the Indigenous Peoples of Ecuador (31 January 1985), II,1: AAS 77 (1985), 861; John Paul II, Address to the Indigenous Peoples of Australia (29 November 1986), 10: AAS 79 (1987), 976-977. [1000] Cf. John Paul II, Address to the Indigenous Peoples of Australia (29 November 1986), 4: AAS 79 (1987), 974-975; John Paul II, Address to Native Americans (14 September 1987), 4: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 21 September 1987, p. 21.

(John 12, 1-11) You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me  

[1] Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. [2] They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. [3] Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil. [4] Then Judas the Iscariot, one (of) his disciples, and the one who would betray him, said, [5] "Why was this oil not sold for three hundred days' wages and given to the poor?" [6] He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions. [7] So Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. [8] You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me." [9] (The) large crowd of the Jews found out that he was there and came, not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. [10] And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, [11] because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him. 

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)]