Dives in Misericordia: “The Mercy of God in the Mission of the Church” (14, continued)

Chapter 7 of “Dives in Misericordia” (“Rich in Mercy”) is entitled “The Mercy of God in the Mission of the Church.” It continues as follows:

“14. . . . Its sphere of action, however, is not limited to this. If Paul VI more than once indicated the ‘civilization of love’¹²⁵ as the goal towards which all efforts in the cultural and social fields as well as in the economic and political fields should tend. it must be added that this good will never be reached if in our thinking and acting concerning the vast and complex spheres of human society we stop at the criterion of ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’¹²⁶ and do not try to transform it in its essence, by complementing it with another spirit. Certainly, the Second Vatican Council also leads us in this direction, when it speaks repeatedly of the need to make the world more human,¹²⁷ and says that the realization of this task is precisely the mission of the Church in the modern world. Society can become ever more human only if we introduce into the many-sided setting of interpersonal and social relationships, not merely justice, but also that "’merciful love’ which constitutes the messianic message of the Gospel.”

125. Cf. Insegnamenti di Paolo VI, XIII (1975), p. 1568 (close of the Holy Year, December 25, 1975).
126. Matthew 5:38.
127. Cf. Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et spes, no. 40 AAS 58 (1966), pp.1057-1059; Pope Paul VI: Apostolic Exhortation Paterna cum benevolentia, in particular nos. 1-6: AAS 67 (1975), pp. 7-9, 17-23.

 

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Pope John Paul II: “Dives in Misericordia”