Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of [people]. The person represents the ultimate end of society, which is ordered to [them]:
Vaticana, Libreria Editrice. Catechism of the Catholic Church . United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Kindle Edition. Paragraph 1929What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt.
John Paul II. Sollicitudo rei socialis 47
A challenging thought, this: the Catholic Church tells us the whole purpose of society is to defend and promote each individual person, respecting their dignity. This is what God entrusts us with. Each one of us. Individually.
That’s how I read it. How about you?
In my thinking, it aligns with what Jesus taught.
On a societal level, it’s what the Old Testament prophets spent most of their time prophesying about.
Old Testament history is largely the story of how faithful or unfaithful we have been to this responsibility and about the consequences, good and bad.
So, though I’m not Catholic and don’t see the Catechism as authoritative, what it says here aligns with how I understand scripture. How about you?
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How am I doing with this?
What does it say about how I should treat my spouse? My children? My parents? My neighbor?
Does it enter my mind when I interact on social media, or in the grocery store, or just driving down the road?
Should it affect how I participate, how I vote?
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How is our society doing?
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(Here’s a link to a post that presents a Ted Talk by Kent Hoffman in the context of thoughs by Thomas Merton and myself. It fits here, although from a completely different angle: humility.
The good thing about weakness
Grace and peace to you
dw
becoming flame 