Life in Christ The Human Community RCIA 2014

Life in Christ - The Human Community

references/sources

• CCC Part Chapter 2
• New Evangelization - USCCB
• Catholic Social Teaching - USCCB
• Seven Themes Of Catholic Social Teaching
• Go and Make Disciples

Content

The vocation of humanity is to show forth the image of God and to be transformed into the image of the Father's only Son.

The Person and Society

• The Communal Character of the Human Vocation
  • The human person needs to live in society. Society is not for him an extraneous addition but a requirement of his nature.
  • A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each of them.
  • Each community is defined by its purpose and consequently obeys specific rules; but "the human person"... is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of all social institutions. GS 26 1
  • Socialization: To promote the participation of the greatest number on the life of a society, the creation of voluntary associations and institutions... which relate to economic and social goals to cultural and recreational activities, to sport, to various professions, and to political affairs. ...also expresses the natural tendency for human beings to associate with one another for the sake of attaining objectives that exceed individual capabilities. CCC 1882
  • subsidiarity - a community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions , but rather should support it in case of need and help to co-ordinate its activity with the activities of the rest of society, always with a view of the common good.
  • God has not willed to reserve to himself all exercise of power. He entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according to the capacities of its own nature. This mode of governance ought to be followed in social life. CCC 1884
• Conversion and Society
  • Society is essential to the fulfillment of the human vocation. To attain this aim, respect must be accorded to the just hierarchy of values, which "subordinates physical and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones. 1886
  • Inversion of means and ends
  • It is necessary, then, to appeal to the spiritual and moral capacities of the human person and to the permanent need for his inner conversion, so as to obtain social changes that will really serve him. The acknowledged priority of the conversion of heart in no way eliminates but on the contrary imposes the obligation of bringing the appropriate remedies to institutions and living conditions when they are inducement to sin, so that they conform to the norms of justice and advance the good rather than hinder it.
  • Charity is the greatest social commandment. It respects others and their rights. It requires the practice of justice, and it alone makes us capable of it. Charity inspires a life of self-giving " Whoever seeks to gain his life will loose it, but whoever losses his life his life will preserve it Lk 17:33

Participation in the Social Life

• Authority
  • Human society cam be neither well-ordered nor prosperous unless it has mome people invested with legitimate authority to preserve its institutions and to devote themselves as fare as necessary to work and care for the good of all 1897
  • There is no authority except from God.
  • The duty of obedience requires all to give due honor to authority and to treat those who are charged with it with respect, ...
• The Common Good
• common good: "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily" GS 26. It consists of three elements:
  • • presupposes respect for the person as such. Society should permit each of its members to fulfill his vocation.
    • requires the social well-being and development of the group itself. Development is the epitome of all social duties.
    • requires peace, that is the stability and security of of a just order.
  • The common good is always oriented towards the progress of persons. The order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons. 1912
• Responsibility and Participation
  • It is the role of the state to defend and promote the common god of civil society.

Social Justice

• Respect for the Human Person
• Equity and differences among Men
• Human Solidarity

Terms

• socialization
• vocation
• XX