Gospel according to Mark

Dear visitors and readers

in the next days we’ll start posting daily comments to the

“Gospel according to Mark”

according to the text and the statements of the

“Compendium
of the social doctrine
of the church”

and of

“Caritas in Veritate”

(Charity in truth)

God bless you and your reading

Gualberto Gismondi ofm

Matthew 28, 16-20 + CSDC and CV

 (CV 45a) Striving to meet the deepest moral needs of the person also has important and beneficial repercussions at the level of economics. The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly — not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centred. Today we hear much talk of ethics in the world of economy, finance and business. Research centres and seminars in business ethics are on the rise; the system of ethical certification is spreading throughout the developed world as part of the movement of ideas associated with the responsibilities of business towards society. Banks are proposing “ethical” accounts and investment funds. 

Creating the conditions that will allow every person to satisfy his integral vocation

CSDC 522b.Thanks to the “first fruits of the Spirit” (Rom 8:23), Christians become “capable of discharging the new law of love (cf. Rom 8:1-11). Through this Spirit, who is ‘the pledge of our inheritance' (Eph 1:14), the whole man is renewed from within, even to the achievement of ‘the redemption of the body' (Rom 8:23)”.[1109] In this sense the Church's social doctrine shows how the moral basis of all social action consists in the human development of the person and identifies the norm for social action corresponding to humanity's true good and as efforts aimed at creating the conditions that will allow every person to satisfy his integral vocation.

   

Notes: [1109] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 22: AAS 58 (1966), 1043.

(Mt 28, 16-20) Make disciples of all nations

[16] The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. [17] When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. [18] Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."

CSDC 54. Jesus Christ reveals to us that “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8) and he teaches us that “the fundamental law of human perfection, and consequently of the transformation of the world, is the new commandment of love. He assures those who trust in the love of God that the way of love is open to all people and that the effort to establish a universal brotherhood will not be in vain”[66]. This law is called to become the ultimate measure and rule of every dynamic related to human relations. In short, it is the very mystery of God, Trinitarian Love, that is the basis of the meaning and value of the person, of social relations, of human activity in the world, insofar as humanity has received the revelation of this and a share in it through Christ in his Spirit. CSDC 56. God's promise and Jesus Christ's resurrection raise in Christians the well-founded hope that a new and eternal dwelling place is prepared for every human person, a new earth where justice abides (cf. 2 Cor 5:1-2; 2 Pet 3:13). “Then, with death conquered, the children of God will be raised in Christ and what was sown in weakness and corruption will be clothed in incorruptibility: charity and its works will remain and all of creation, which God made for man, will be set free from its bondage to vanity”[68]. This hope, rather than weaken, must instead strengthen concern for the work that is needed in the present reality.

Notes: [66] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 38: AAS 58 (1966), 1055-1056. [68] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 39: AAS 58 (1966), 1057.

[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)]  

This is the end of the comment to the "Gospel according to Matthew"

In the next days we’ll start posting daily comments to the “Gospel according to Mark” taken by the text and the statements of the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church” and of “Caritas in Veritate”

 

Matthew 28, 11-15 + CSDC and CV

(CV 4e) These situations are symptomatic of scant confidence in the future and moral weariness. It is thus becoming a social and even economic necessity once more to hold up to future generations the beauty of marriage and the family, and the fact that these institutions correspond to the deepest needs and dignity of the person. In view of this, States are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and the integrity of the family founded on marriage between a man and a woman, the primary vital cell of society[112], and to assume responsibility for its economic and fiscal needs, while respecting its essentially relational character.

Notes: [112] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People Apostolicam Actuositatem, 11. 

Integral vision of man and complete understanding of his personal and social dimensions

CSDC 522a. In her social doctrine the Church offers above all an integral vision of man and a complete understanding of his personal and social dimensions. Christian anthropology reveals the inviolable dignity of every person and places the realities of work, economics and politics into an original perspective that sheds light on authentic human values while at the same time inspiring and sustaining the task of Christian witness in the varied areas of personal, cultural and social life.

    (Mt 28, 11-15) This vision is a prophetic indication of the snares used by Satan to rule men    

[11] While they were going, some of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had happened. [12] They assembled with the elders and took counsel; then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, [13] telling them, "You are to say, 'His disciples came by night and stole him while we were asleep.' [14] And if this gets to the ears of the governor, we will satisfy (him) and keep you out of trouble." [15] The soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has circulated among the Jews to the present (day).

CSDC 382. When human authority goes beyond the limits willed by God, it makes itself a deity and demands absolute submission; it becomes the Beast of the Apocalypse, an image of the power of the imperial persecutor “drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus” (Rev 17:6). The Beast is served by the “false prophet” (Rev 19:20), who, with beguiling signs, induces people to adore it. This vision is a prophetic indication of the snares used by Satan to rule men, stealing his way into their spirit with lies. But Christ is the Victorious Lamb who, down the course of human history, overcomes every power that would make it absolute. Before such a power, Saint John suggests the resistance of the martyrs; in this way, believers bear witness that corrupt and satanic power is defeated, because it no longer has any authority over them.

[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)]

Matthew 28, 1-10 + CSDC and CV

(CV 4d)  On the other hand, formerly prosperous nations are presently passing through a phase of uncertainty and in some cases decline, precisely because of their falling birth rates; this has become a crucial problem for highly affluent societies. The decline in births, falling at times beneath the so-called “replacement level”, also puts a strain on social welfare systems, increases their cost, eats into savings and hence the financial resources needed for investment, reduces the availability of qualified labourers, and narrows the “brain pool” upon which nations can draw for their needs. Furthermore, smaller and at times miniscule families run the risk of impoverishing social relations, and failing to ensure effective forms of solidarity.   

Something to say about specific human situations, individual, communal, national, international

CSDC 521b. The Church, in fact, has something to say about specific human situations, individual, and communal, national and international. She formulates a genuine doctrine for these situations, a corpus which enables her to analyze social realities, to make judgments about them and to indicate directions to be taken for the just resolution of the problems involved”[1107]. The intervention of Pope Leo XIII in the social and political reality of his time with the Encyclical Rerum Novarum “gave the Church ‘citizenship status' as it were, amid the changing realities of public life, and this standing would be more fully confirmed later on”[1108]. 

 Notes: [1107] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 5: AAS 83 (1991), 799. [1108] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 5: AAS 83 (1991), 799.

(Mt 28, 1-10) God is an infinite communion of love 

[1] After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. [2] And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. [3] His appearance was like lightning and his clothing was white as snow. [4] The guards were shaken with fear of him and became like dead men. [5] Then the angel said to the women in reply, "Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. [6] He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. [7] Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him.' Behold, I have told you." [8] Then they went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce this to his disciples. [9] And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. [10] Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."

CSDC 31. The Face of God, progressively revealed in the history of salvation, shines in its fullness in the Face of Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. God is Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; truly distinct and truly one, because God is an infinite communion of love. God's gratuitous love for humanity is revealed, before anything else, as love springing from the Father, from whom everything draws its source; as the free communication that the Son makes of this love, giving himself anew to the Father and giving himself to mankind; as the ever new fruitfulness of divine love that the Holy Spirit pours forth into the hearts of men (cf. Rom 5:5). By his words and deeds, and fully and definitively by his death and resurrection[30], Jesus reveals to humanity that God is Father and that we are all called by grace to become his children in the Spirit (cf. Rom 8:15; Gal 4:6), and therefore brothers and sisters among ourselves. It is for this reason that the Church firmly believes that “the key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of man's history is to be found in her Lord and Master”[31].

Notes: [30] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum, 4: AAS 58 (1966), 819. [31] Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 10: AAS 58 (1966), 1033.

[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)]