Mark 9, 11-13 + CSDC and CV

Mark 9, 11-13 + CSDC and CV

CV 79b. Development requires attention to the spiritual life, a serious consideration of the experiences of trust in God, spiritual fellowship in Christ, reliance upon God's providence and mercy, love and forgiveness, self-denial, acceptance of others, justice and peace. All this is essential if “hearts of stone” are to be transformed into “hearts of flesh” (Ezek 36:26), rendering life on earth “divine” and thus more worthy of humanity. All this is of man, because man is the subject of his own existence; and at the same time it is of God, because God is at the beginning and end of all that is good, all that leads to salvation: “the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's” (1 Cor 3:22-23).

Life in society must be based on the divine plan for solving present-day problems 

CSDC 577a. Faith in God and in Jesus Christ sheds light on the moral principles that are “the sole and irreplaceable foundation of that stability and tranquillity, of that internal and external order, private and public, that alone can generate and safeguard the prosperity of States”[1210]. Life in society must be based on the divine plan because “the theological dimension is needed both for interpreting and solving present-day problems in human society”[1211]. In the presence of serious forms of exploitation and social injustice, there is “an ever more widespread and acute sense of the need for a radical personal and social renewal capable of ensuring justice, solidarity, honesty and openness.

Notes: [1210] Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Summi Pontificatus: AAS 31 (1939), 425. [1211] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Centesimus Annus, 55: AAS 83 (1991), 860-861.

(Mk 9, 11-13) Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things  

[11] Then they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" [12] He told them, "Elijah will indeed come first and restore all things, yet how is it written regarding the Son of Man that he must suffer greatly and be treated with contempt? [13] But I tell you that Elijah has come and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him."

CSDC 133. In no case, therefore, is the human person to be manipulated for ends that are foreign to his own development, which can find complete fulfilment only in God and his plan of salvation: in fact, man in his interiority transcends the universe and is the only creature willed by God for itself[249]. For this reason neither his life nor the development of his thought, nor his good, nor those who are part of his personal and social activities can be subjected to unjust restrictions in the exercise of their rights and freedom. The person cannot be a means for carrying out economic, social or political projects imposed by some authority, even in the name of an alleged progress of the civil community as a whole or of other persons, either in the present or the future. It is therefore necessary that public authorities keep careful watch so that restrictions placed on freedom or any onus placed on personal activity will never become harmful to personal dignity, thus guaranteeing the effective practicability of human rights. All this, once more, is based on the vision of man as a person, that is to say, as an active and responsible subject of his own growth process, together with the community to which he belongs. 

Notes:  [249] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 24: AAS 58 (1966), 1045; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 27, 356 and 358.

[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)]