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”