Adorons Jésus-Eucharistie! | Accueil >> Varia >> Livres >> Table des matières
[précédente] [suivante]
§1800
A human being must
always obey the certain judgment of his conscience.
§1801
Conscience can remain in
ignorance or make erroneous judgments. Such ignorance and errors are not always
free of guilt.
§1802
The Word of God is a
light for our path. We must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into
practice. This is how moral conscience is formed.
§1803
«Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if
there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.» 62
A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the
person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. the
virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual
powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions.
The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God.63
I. The Human Virtues
§1804
Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of
intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our
conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease, self-mastery,
and joy in leading a morally good life. the virtuous man is he who freely
practices the good.
The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the fruit and seed of
morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human being for communion
with divine love.
The cardinal virtues
§1805
Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called
«cardinal»; all the others are grouped around them. They are:
prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. «If anyone loves
righteousness, [Wisdom's] labors are virtues; for she teaches temperance and
prudence, justice, and courage.» 64 These virtues are praised under
other names in many passages of Scripture.
§1806
Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good
in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; «the
prudent man looks where he is going.» 65 «Keep sane and sober
for your prayers.» 66 Prudence is «right reason in
action,» writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following Aristotle.67 It is
not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation.
It is called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the
other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately
guides the judgment of conscience. the prudent man determines and directs his
conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply
moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about
the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.
§1807
Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give
their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the «virtue of
religion.» Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each
and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with
regard to persons and to the common good. the just man, often mentioned in the
Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the
uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. «You shall not be partial
to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your
neighbor.» 68 «Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly,
knowing that you also have a Master in heaven.» 69
§1808
Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy
in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations
and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. the virtue of fortitude enables
one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions.
It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just
cause. «The Lord is my strength and my song.» 70 «In the
world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world.» 71
§1809
Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of pleasures and
provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the will's mastery
over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable. the
temperate person directs the sensitive appetites toward what is good and
maintains a healthy discretion: «Do not follow your inclination and
strength, walking according to the desires of your heart.» 72
Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: «Do not follow your base
desires, but restrain your appetites.» 73 In the New Testament it
is called «moderation» or «sobriety.» We ought «to
live sober, upright, and godly lives in this world.» 74
To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one's heart, with all one's soul and with all one's efforts; from this it comes about that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only (God) (and this is justice), and is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery (and this is prudence).75
The virtues and grace
§1810
Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts and by a perseverance
ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by divine grace.
With God's help, they forge character and give facility in the practice of the
good. the virtuous man is happy to practice them.
§1811
It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral balance. Christ's
gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere in the pursuit of
the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of light and strength,
frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and follow his calls
to love what is good and shun evil.
II. The Theological Virtues
§1812
The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man's
faculties for participation in the divine nature:76 for the theological
virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a
relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their
origin, motive, and object.
§1813
The theological virtues are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they
animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all
the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the faithful to
make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal life. They
are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the faculties
of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope, and
charity.77
Faith
§1814
Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that
he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief,
because he is truth itself. By faith «man freely commits his entire self
to God.» 78 For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's
will. «The righteous shall live by faith.» Living faith «work(s)
through charity.» 79
§1815
The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it.80 But
«faith apart from works is dead":81 when it is deprived of
hope and love, faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not
make him a living member of his Body.
§1816
The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on it, but also
profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: «All however
must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along the way
of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never
lacks.» 82 Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for
salvation: «So every one who acknowledges me before men, I also will
acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before
men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.» 83
Hope
§1817
Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and
eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and
relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.
«Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who
promised is faithful.» 84 «The Holy Spirit . . . he poured out
upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified
by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.» 85
§1818
The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed
in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men's activities
and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven; it keeps man
from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment; it opens up
his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he is
preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.
§1819
Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen people which has
its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed abundantly by the
promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by the test of the
sacrifice.86 «Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became
the father of many nations.» 87
§1820
Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus' preaching in the
proclamation of the beatitudes. the beatitudes raise our hope toward heaven as
the new Promised Land; they trace the path that leads through the trials that
await the disciples of Jesus. But through the merits of Jesus Christ and of his
Passion, God keeps us in the «hope that does not disappoint.» 88
Hope is the «sure and steadfast anchor of the soul . . . that enters . . .
where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.» 89 Hope is
also a weapon that protects us in the struggle of salvation: «Let us . . .
put on the breastplate of faith and charity, and for a helmet the hope of
salvation.» 90 It affords us joy even under trial: «Rejoice in
your hope, be patient in tribulation.» 91 Hope is expressed and
nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything
that hope leads us to desire.
§1821
We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love
him and do his will.92 In every circumstance, each one of us should
hope, with the grace of God, to persevere «to the end» 93 and
to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works
accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for «all
men to be saved.» 94 She longs to be united with Christ, her
Bridegroom, in the glory of heaven:
Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.95
Charity
§1822
Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his
own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
§1823
Jesus makes charity the new commandment.96 By loving his own «to
the end,» 97 he makes manifest the Father's love which he receives.
By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they
themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: «As the Father has loved me, so
have I loved you; abide in my love.» and again: «This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.» 98
§1824
Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of
God and his Christ: «Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you
will abide in my love.» 99
§1825
Christ died out of love for us, while we were still
«enemies.» 100 The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our
enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love
children and the poor as Christ himself.101
The Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: «charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.» 102
§1826
«If I . . . have not charity,» says the Apostle, «I am
nothing.» Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, «if I . . .
have not charity, I gain nothing.» 103 Charity is superior to all
the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: «So faith, hope,
charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity.» 104
§1827
The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which
«binds everything together in perfect harmony»;105 it is the
form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the
source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies
our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of
divine love.
§1828
The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the
spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a
slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son
responding to the love of him who «first loved us":106
If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.107
§1829
The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence
and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains
disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion:
Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why
we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find
rest.108
III. The Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit
§1830
The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
These are permanent dispositions which make man docile in following the
promptings of the Holy Spirit.
§1831
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude,
knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to
Christ, Son of David.109 They complete and perfect the virtues of those
who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine
inspirations.
Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.110
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God . . . If children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.111
§1832
The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as
the first fruits of eternal glory. the tradition of the Church lists twelve of
them: «charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity,
gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity.» 112
IN BRIEF
§1833
Virtue is a habitual and
firm disposition to do good.
§1834
The human virtues are
stable dispositions of the intellect and the will that govern our acts, order
our passions, and guide our conduct in accordance with reason and faith. They
can be grouped around the four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude,
and temperance.
§1835
Prudence disposes the
practical reason to discern, in every circumstance, our true good and to choose
the right means for achieving it.
§1836
Justice consists in the
firm and constant will to give God and neighbor their due.
§1837
Fortitude ensures
firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good.
§1838
Temperance moderates the
attraction of the pleasures of the senses and provides balance in the use of
created goods.
§1839
The moral virtues grow
through education, deliberate acts, and perseverance in struggle. Divine grace
purifies and elevates them.
§1840
The theological virtues
dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have
God for their origin, their motive, and their object - God known by faith, God
hoped in and loved for his own sake.
§1841
There are three
theological virtues: faith, hope, and charity. They inform all the moral
virtues and give life to them.
§1842
By faith, we believe in
God and believe all that he has revealed to us and that Holy Church proposes
for our belief.
§1843
By hope we desire, and
with steadfast trust await from God, eternal life and the graces to merit it.
§1844
By charity, we love God
above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. Charity, the
form of all the virtues, «binds everything together in perfect
harmony» (⇒ Col 3:14).
§1845
The seven gifts of the
Holy Spirit bestowed upon Christians are wisdom, understanding, counsel,
fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.
SIN
I. Mercy and Sin
§1846
The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God's mercy to
sinners.113 The angel announced to Joseph: «You shall call his
name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.» 114 The
same is true of the Eucharist, the sacrament of redemption: «This is my
blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins.» 115
§1847
«God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without
us.» 116 To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults. «If
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.» 117
§1848
As St. Paul affirms, «Where sin increased, grace abounded all the
more.» 118 But to do its work grace must uncover sin so as to
convert our hearts and bestow on us «righteousness to eternal life through
Jesus Christ ourLord.» 119 Like a physician who probes the wound
before treating it, God, by his Word and by his Spirit, casts a living light on
sin:
Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the interior judgment of conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of truth in man's inmost being, becomes at the same time the start of a new grant of grace and love: «Receive the Holy Spirit.» Thus in this «convincing concerning sin» we discover a double gift: the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of redemption. the Spirit of truth is the Consoler.120
II. The Definition of Sin
§1849
Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience; it is failure in
genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse attachment to certain
goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human solidarity. It has been
defined as «an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary to the eternal
law.» 121
§1850
Sin is an offense against God: «Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and
done that which is evil in your sight.» 122 Sin sets itself against
God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is
disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become «like
gods,» 123 knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus
«love of oneself even to contempt of God.» 124 In this proud
self-exaltation, sin is diametrically opposed to the obedience of Jesus, which
achieves our salvation.125
§1851
It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is about to vanquish
it, that sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many forms: unbelief,
murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the people, Pilate's
cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas' betrayal - so bitter to
Jesus, Peter's denial and the disciples' flight. However, at the very hour of
darkness, the hour of the prince of this world,126 The sacrifice of
Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will
pour forth inexhaustibly.
III. The Different Kinds of Sins
§1852
There are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several lists of them.
the Letter to the Galatians contrasts the works of the flesh with the fruit of
the Spirit: «Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity,
licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger,
selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.
I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not
inherit the Kingdom of God.» 127
§1853
Sins
can be distinguished according to their objects, as can every human act; or
according to the virtues they oppose, by excess or defect; or according to the
commandments they violate. They can also be classed according to whether they
concern God, neighbor, or oneself; they can be divided into spiritual and
carnal sins, or again as sins in thought, word, deed, or omission. the root of
sin is in the heart of man, in his free will, according to the teaching of the
Lord: «For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery,
fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man.» 128
But in the heart also resides charity, the source of the good and pure works,
which sin wounds.
IV. The Gravity of Sin: Mortal and Venial Sin
§1854
Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. the distinction between
mortal and venial sin, already evident in Scripture,129 became part of
the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by human experience.
§1855
Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's
law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and his beatitude, by
preferring an inferior good to him.
Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.
§1856
Mortal sin, by attacking the vital principle within us - that is, charity -
necessitates a new initiative of God's mercy and a conversion of heart which is
normally accomplished within the setting of the sacrament of reconciliation:
When the will sets itself upon something that is of its nature incompatible with the charity that orients man toward his ultimate end, then the sin is mortal by its very object . . . whether it contradicts the love of God, such as blasphemy or perjury, or the love of neighbor, such as homicide or adultery.... But when the sinner's will is set upon something that of its nature involves a disorder, but is not opposed to the love of God and neighbor, such as thoughtless chatter or immoderate laughter and the like, such sins are venial.130
§1857
For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: «Mortal sin
is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full
knowledge and deliberate consent.» 131
§1858
Grave matter is specified by the Ten Commandments, corresponding to the answer
of Jesus to the rich young man: «Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do
not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and
your mother.» 132 The gravity of sins is more or less great: murder
is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is wronged: violence
against parents is in itself graver than violence against a stranger.
§1859
Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes
knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law.
It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice.
Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart133 do not diminish, but rather
increase, the voluntary character of a sin.
§1860
Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the imputability of a grave
offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the principles of the moral
law, which are written in the conscience of every man. the promptings of
feelings and passions can also diminish the voluntary and free character of the
offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders. Sin committed
through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.
§1861
Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love itself. It
results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is,
of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God's
forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal death of
hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no turning
back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense,
we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.
§1862
One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does not observe the
standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the moral law in a
grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete consent.
§1863
Venial sin weakens charity; it manifests a disordered affection for created
goods; it impedes the soul's progress in the exercise of the virtues and the
practice of the moral good; it merits temporal punishment. Deliberate and
unrepented venial sin disposes us little by little to commit mortal sin.
However venial sin does not set us in direct opposition to the will and
friendship of God; it does not break the covenant with God. With God's grace it
is humanly reparable. «Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of
sanctifying grace, friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal
happiness.» 134
While he is in the flesh, man cannot help but have at least some light sins. But do not despise these sins which we call «light": if you take them for light when you weigh them, tremble when you count them. A number of light objects makes a great mass; a number of drops fills a river; a number of grains makes a heap. What then is our hope? Above all, confession.135
§1864
«Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is
guilty of an eternal sin.» 136 There are no limits to the mercy of
God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting,
rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy
Spirit.137 Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and
eternal loss.
V. The Proliferation of Sin
§1865
Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by repetition of the same
acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience and corrupt
the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce itself and
reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its root.
§1866
Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or also be linked
to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished, following St.
John Cassian and St. Gregory the Great. They are called «capital"
because they engender other sins, other vices.138 They are pride,
avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth or acedia.
§1867
The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are «sins that cry to
heaven": the blood of Abel,139 The sin of the
Sodomites,140 The cry of the people oppressed in Egypt,141 The
cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan,142 injustice to the
wage earner.143
§1868
Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins
committed by others when we cooperate in them:
- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;
- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;
- by protecting evil-doers.
§1869
Thus sin makes men accomplices of one another and causes concupiscence,
violence, and injustice to reign among them. Sins give rise to social
situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness.
«Structures of sin» are the expression and effect of personal sins.
They lead their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they
constitute a «social sin.» 144
IN BRIEF
§1870
«God has consigned
all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all"
(⇒ Rom 11:32).
§1871
Sin is an utterance, a deed,
or a desire contrary to the eternal law (St. Augustine, Faust 22: PL 42, 418).
It is an offense against God. It rises up against God in a disobedience
contrary to the obedience of Christ.
§1872
Sin is an act contrary
to reason. It wounds man's nature and injures human solidarity.
§1873
The root of all sins
lies in man's heart. the kinds and the gravity of sins are determined
principally by their objects.
§1874
To choose deliberately -
that is, both knowing it and willing it - something gravely contrary to the
divine law and to the ultimate end of man is to commit a mortal sin. This
destroys in us the charity without which eternal beatitude is impossible.
Unrepented, it brings eternal death.
§1875
Venial sin constitutes a
moral disorder that is reparable by charity, which it allows to subsist in us.
§1876
The repetition of sins -
even venial ones - engenders vices, among which are the capital sins.
THE HUMAN COMMUNION
§1877
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. This vocation takes a
personal form since each of us is called to enter into the divine beatitude; it
also concerns the human community as a whole.
THE PERSON AND SOCIETY
I. The Communal Character of the Human Vocation
§1878
All men are called to the same end: God himself. There is a certain resemblance
between the union of the divine persons and the fraternity that men are to
establish among themselves in truth and love.1 Love of neighbor is
inseparable from love for God.
§1879
The human person needs to live in society. Society is not for him an extraneous
addition but a requirement of his nature. Through the exchange with others,
mutual service and dialogue with his brethren, man develops his potential; he
thus responds to his vocation.2
§1880
A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of
unity that goes beyond each one of them. As an assembly that is at once visible
and spiritual, a society endures through time: it gathers up the past and
prepares for the future. By means of society, each man is established as an
«heir» and receives certain «talents» that enrich his
identity and whose fruits he must develop.3 He rightly owes loyalty to
the communities of which he is part and respect to those in authority who have
charge of the common good.
§1881
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.» 4
§1882
Certain societies, such as the family and the state, correspond more directly
to the nature of man; they are necessary to him. To promote the participation
of the greatest number in the life of a society, the creation of voluntary
associations and institutions must be encouraged «on both national and
international levels, which relate to economic and social goals, to cultural
and recreational activities, to sport, to various professions, and to political
affairs.» 5 This «socialization» also expresses the
natural tendency for human beings to associate with one another for the sake of
attaining objectives that exceed individual capacities. It develops the qualities
of the person, especially the sense of initiative and responsibility, and helps
guarantee his rights.6
§1883
Socialization also presents dangers. Excessive intervention by the state can
threaten personal freedom and initiative. the teaching of the Church has
elaborated the principle of subsidiarity, according to which «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 to the common good.» 7
§1884
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. the way God acts in governing the world, which bears witness to
such great regard for human freedom, should inspire the wisdom of those who
govern human communities. They should behave as ministers of divine providence.
§1885
The principle of subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of collectivism. It sets
limits for state intervention. It aims at harmonizing the relationships between
individuals and societies. It tends toward the establishment of true
international order.
II. Conversion and Society
§1886
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:» 8
Human society must primarily be considered something pertaining to the spiritual. Through it, in the bright light of truth, men should share their knowledge, be able to exercise their rights and fulfill their obligations, be inspired to seek spiritual values; mutually derive genuine pleasure from the beautiful, of whatever order it be; always be readily disposed to pass on to others the best of their own cultural heritage; and eagerly strive to make their own the spiritual achievements of others. These benefits not only influence, but at the same time give aim and scope to all that has bearing on cultural expressions, economic, and social institutions, political movements and forms, laws, and all other structures by which society is outwardly established and constantly developed.9
§1887
The inversion of means and ends,10 which results in giving the value of
ultimate end to what is only a means for attaining it, or in viewing persons as
mere means to that end, engenders unjust structures which «make Christian
conduct in keeping with the commandments of the divine Law-giver difficult and
almost impossible.» 11
§1888
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 an inducement to sin, so that they conform to the
norms of justice and advance the good rather than hinder it.12
§1889
Without the help of grace, men would not know how «to discern the often
narrow path between the cowardice which gives in to evil, and the violence
which under the illusion of fighting evil only makes it worse.» 13
This is the path of charity, that is, of the love of God and of neighbor.
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 lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.» 14
IN BRIEF
§1890
There is a certain
resemblance between the union of the divine persons and the fraternity that men
ought to establish among themselves.
§1891
The human person needs
life in society in order to develop in accordance with his nature. Certain
societies, such as the family and the state, correspond more directly to the
nature of man.
§1892
«The human person .
. . is and ought to be the principle, the subject, and the object of every
social organization» (GS 25 # 1).
§1893
Widespread participation
in voluntary associations and institutions is to be encouraged.
§1894
In accordance with the
principle of subsidiarity, neither the state nor any larger society should
substitute itself for the initiative and responsibility of individuals and
intermediary bodies.
§1895
Society ought to promote
the exercise of virtue, not obstruct it. It should be animated by a just
hierarchy of values.
§1896
Where sin has perverted
the social climate, it is necessary to call for the conversion of hearts and
appeal to the grace of God. Charity urges just reforms. There is no solution to
the social question apart from the Gospel (cf CA 3, 5).
PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL LIFE
I. Authority
§1897
«Human society can be neither well-ordered nor prosperous unless it has some
people invested with legitimate authority to preserve its institutions and to
devote themselves as far as is necessary to work and care for the good of
all.» 15
By «authority» one means the quality by virtue of which persons or
institutions make laws and give orders to men and expect obedience from them.
§1898
Every human community needs an authority to govern it.16 The foundation
of such authority lies in human nature. It is necessary for the unity of the
state. Its role is to ensure as far as possible the common good of the society.
§1899
The authority required by the moral order derives from God: «Let every
person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority
except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he
who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who
resist will incur judgment.» 17
Catéchisme de l'Église catholique © Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1992.
[précédente] [suivante]
Adorons Jésus-Eucharistie! | Accueil >> Varia >> Livres >> Table des matières