Charity in Truth 2

"The sharing of goods and resources, from which authentic development proceeds, is not guaranteed by merely technical progress and relationships of utility, but by the potential love that overcomes evil with good...." (Paragraph 9)
"The Christian vocation to this development therefore applies to both the natural plane and the supernatural plane...." (Paragraph 18)

"... we observe with concern the developments and perspectives of the succession of crises that afflict the world today.... [There is] reason to be concerned about the capacity of a purely technological society to set realistic goals and to make good use of the instruments at its disposal. Profit is useful if it serves as a means toward an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty. ... It is true that grow has taken place, and it continues to be a positive factor that has lifted billions of people out of misery.... Yet it must be acknowledged that this same economic growth has been and continues to be weighed down by malfunctions and dramatic problems.... The technical forces in play, the global interrelations, the damaging effects on the real economy of badly managed and largely speculative financial dealings, large scale migration of peoples, often provoked by some particular circumstance and then given insufficient attention, the unregulated exploitation of the earth's resources: all this leads us today to reflect on the measures that would be necessary to provide a solution to problems that are ... of decisive impact upon the present and future good of humanity." (Paragraph 21)

But our Pope does not leave us hopeless.

"The crisis thus becomes an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future. In this spirit, with confidence rather than resignation, it is appropriate to address the difficulties of the present time." (Paragraph 21)

We need only spend an hour or two watching the evening news to verify this assessment of our current problems. And we need only a short reflection on our human capacity to solve these problems to realize that without Christ we are unable to do so.

Charity in Truth 1

The following quotation is taken from paragraph number seven in Pope Benedict's encyclical letter charity in truth


"Another important consideration is the common good. To love someone is to desire that person’s good and to take effective steps to secure it. Besides the good of the individual, there is a good that is linked to living in society: the common good.... To desire the common good and strive toward it is a requirement of justice and charity. To take a stand for the common good is on the one hand to be solicitous for, and on the other hand to avail oneself of, that complex of institutions that give structure to the life of society.... The more we strive to secure a common good corresponding to the real needs of our neighbors, the more effectively we love them. Every Christian is called to practice this charity, in a manner corresponding to his vocation and according to the degree of influence he wields in the polis."

When one thinks of Christian spirituality what comes to mind almost automatically are acts of piety, traditional forms of prayer and worship, mostly we consider as spiritual those things that relate to our relationship with God, that vertical dimension of our faith. But as Pope Benedict reiterates in this encyclical is that the Christian spirit is called as well to acts of charity toward our neighbor. The Christian spirit is responsible for actions to promote the common good that makes full use of the talents and the opportunities that our Creator has given us.