Today's Readings
also
Gaudium et Spes, nn. 37-38
also
Gaudium et Spes, nn. 37-38
The Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes, the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world offers thoughts we might recall as we stand just two weeks before Good Friday.
When the scale of human values is out of balance, "when evil is mixed with good, individuals and groups consider only their own interests, not those of others," the world fails in its mission to be at one with one another.
The true Christian, indeed the genuine Catholic, believes that all "all human activity, in daily jeopardy through pride and inordinate self-love, is to find its purification and its perfection in the cross and resurrection of Christ."
The Word of God, Jesus Christ, revealed to the people and us that God is love. Furthermore during his lifetime he taught that "the fundamental law of human perfection, and therefore of the transformation of the world, in the commandment of love." This love is a goal we seek not in great things alone but also in the ordinary experiences and circumstances of life.
Christ, although crucified, dead and buried but also risen from the dead and having ascended to heaven to be with God the Father and the Holy Spirit continues to be present and working among us through the power of the same Holy Spirit. We know, too, that this Holy Spirit brings to us many gifts that we invited to use to bring all that we are and have as an acceptable offering to God.
Two weeks from the day of our redemption, we might look to the crucified Lord Jesus, asking the grace to never let self-love become so strong as to smother our love for one another. Jesus died not just for me; he died for all humankind.
When the scale of human values is out of balance, "when evil is mixed with good, individuals and groups consider only their own interests, not those of others," the world fails in its mission to be at one with one another.
The true Christian, indeed the genuine Catholic, believes that all "all human activity, in daily jeopardy through pride and inordinate self-love, is to find its purification and its perfection in the cross and resurrection of Christ."
The Word of God, Jesus Christ, revealed to the people and us that God is love. Furthermore during his lifetime he taught that "the fundamental law of human perfection, and therefore of the transformation of the world, in the commandment of love." This love is a goal we seek not in great things alone but also in the ordinary experiences and circumstances of life.
Christ, although crucified, dead and buried but also risen from the dead and having ascended to heaven to be with God the Father and the Holy Spirit continues to be present and working among us through the power of the same Holy Spirit. We know, too, that this Holy Spirit brings to us many gifts that we invited to use to bring all that we are and have as an acceptable offering to God.
Two weeks from the day of our redemption, we might look to the crucified Lord Jesus, asking the grace to never let self-love become so strong as to smother our love for one another. Jesus died not just for me; he died for all humankind.
