Mark 2, 15-17 + CSDC and CV

Mark 2, 15-17 + CSDC and CV

CV 66b. Consumers should be continually educated regarding their daily role, which can be exercised with respect for moral principles without diminishing the intrinsic economic rationality of the act of purchasing. In the retail industry, particularly at times like the present when purchasing power has diminished and people must live more frugally, it is necessary to explore other paths: for example, forms of cooperative purchasing like the consumer cooperatives that have been in operation since the nineteenth century, partly through the initiative of Catholics. 

Church's social doctrine: an integral and solidary humanism

CSDC 1a. The Church moves further into the Third Millennium of the Christian era as a pilgrim people, guided by Christ, the “great Shepherd” (Heb 13:20). He is the “Holy Door” (cf. Jn 10:9) through which we passed during the Great Jubilee of the year 2000. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6): contemplating the Lord's face, we confirm our faith and our hope in him, the one Saviour and goal of history.   

(Mk 2, 15-17)    

 [15] While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many who followed him. [16] Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said to his disciples, "Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?" [17] Jesus heard this and said to them (that), "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners."

CSDC 206. Love presupposes and transcends justice, which “must find its fulfilment in charity”[452]. If justice is “in itself suitable for ‘arbitration' between people concerning the reciprocal distribution of objective goods in an equitable manner, love and only love (including that kindly love that we call ‘mercy') is capable of restoring man to himself”[453]. Human relationships cannot be governed solely by the measure of justice: “The experience of the past and of our own time demonstrates that justice alone is not enough, that it can even lead to the negation and destruction of itself ... It has been precisely historical experience that, among other things, has led to the formulation of the saying: summum ius, summa iniuria”[454]. In fact, “in every sphere of interpersonal relationships justice must, so to speak, be ‘corrected' to a considerable extent by that love which, as St. Paul proclaims, ‘is patient and kind' or, in other words, possesses the characteristics of that merciful love which is so much of the essence of the Gospel and Christianity”[455].   

Notes: [452] John Paul II, Message for the 2004 World Day of Peace, 10: AAS 96 (2004), 120. [453] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, 14: AAS 72 (1980), 1223. [454] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, 12: AAS 72 (1980), 1216. [455] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Dives in Misericordia, 14: AAS 72 (1980), 1224; cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2212.

[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)]