From: kriz@skat.usc.edu (KRIZ)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Cath. Christianity 101 - Gaudium et spes 4 - "Man in the World"
Date: 9 Apr 1992 23:40:39 -0700
Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: skat.usc.edu

[The following is part of a series posted intended to be an educational
resource on the Catholic faith, particularly for those who otherwise
would know next to nothing about it.  The running of this series has 
certainly proven to be an experience for me also, but the alternative 
of continuing is better than giving-up.  This stuff *is* important.
dennis kriz@skat.usc.edu]


Gaudium et spes   Part 1, Chpt. 3

Note: Gaudium et spes is the Pastoral Constitution on the Church
      in the Modern World, authored/approved by the Second Vatican
      Council.


Part I - The Church and Man's Calling (cont.)


				Chapter 3

		   Man's Activity Throughout the World


  33. Through his labors and his native endowments man has ceaselessly
striven to better his life.  Today, however, especially with the help
of science and technology, he has extended his mastery over the whole
of nature and continues to do so.  Thanks to increased opportunities
for many kinds of social contact among nations, the human family is
gradually recognizing that it comprises a single world community and
is making itself so.  Hence many benefits once looked for, especially
from heavenly powers, man has now enterprisingly procured for himself.

  In the face of these immense efforts which already preoccupy the
whole human race, men raise numerous questions among themselves.  What
is the meaning and value of this feversih activity?  How should all
these things be used?  To the achievement of what goal are the
strivings of individuals and societies heading?  The Church gaurds the
heritage of God's Word and draws from it moral and religious
principles without always having at hand the solution to particular
problems.  As such she desires to add the light of revealed truth to
mankind's store of experience, so that the path which humanity has
taken in recent times will not be a dark one.

  34. Throughout the course of the centuries, men have labored to
better the circumstances of their lives through a monumental amount of
individual and collective effort.  To believers, this point is
settled: considered in itself, this human activity accords with God's
will.  For man, created to God's image, received a mandate to subject
to himself the earth and all it contains, and to govern the world with
justice and holiness [1]; a mandate to reltate himself and the
totality of things to Him Who was to be acknowledged as the Lord and
Creator or all.  Thus, by the subjugation of all things to man, the
name of God would be wonderful in all the earth [2].

  This mandate concerns the whole range of everyday activity as well.
For while providing the substance of life for themselves and their
families, men and women are performing their activities in a way which
appropriately benefits society.  They can justly consider that by
their labor they are unfolding the Creator's work, consulting the
advantages of their brother men, and are contributing by their
personal industry to the realization in history of the divine plan
[3].

  Thus, far from thinking that works produced by man's own talent and
energy are in opposition to God's power, and that the rational
creature exists as a kind of rival to the Creator, Christians are
convinced that the triumphs of the human race are a sign of God's
grace and the flowering of His own mysterious design.  For the greater
man's power becomes, the further his indivitual and community
responsibility extends.  Hence it is clear that men are not deterred
by the Christian message from building up teh world, or impelled to
neglect the welfare of their fellows, but that they are rather more
stringently bound to do these very things [4]/

  35. Human activity, to be sure, takes its significance from its
relationship to man.  Just as it proceeds from man, so it is ordered
toward man.  For when a man works he not only alters things and
society, he develops himself as well.  He learns much, he cultivates
his resources, he goes outside of himself and beyond himself.  Rightly
understood, this kind of growth is of greater values than any external
riches which can be garnered.  A man is more precious for what he is
than for what he has [5].  Similarly, all that men do to obtain
greater justice, wider brotherhood, a more humane ordering of social
relationships has greater worth than technical advances.  For these
advances can supply the material for human progress, but of themselves
alone they can never actually bring it about.

  Hence, the norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the
divine plan and will, it harmonize with the genuine good of the human
race, and that it allow men as individuals and as members of society
to pursue their total voacation and fulfil it.

  36. Now many of our contemporaries seem to fear that a closer bond
between human activity and religion will work against the independence
of men, of societies, or of the sciences.

  If by the autonomy of earthly affairs we mean that created things
and societies themselves nejoy their own laws and values which must be
gradually deciphered, put to use, and regulated by men, then it is
entirely right to demand that autonomy.  This is not merely required
by modern man, but harmonizes also with the will of the Creator.  For
by the very circumstance of their having been created, all things are
endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and
order.  Man must respect these as he isolates them by the appropriate
methods of individual sciences or arts.  Thereofre if methodical
investigation within every branch of learning is carried out in a
genuinely scientific manner and in accord with moral norms, it never
truly conflicts with faith, for earthly matters and the concerns of
faith derive from teh same God [6].  Indeed whoever labors to
penetrate the secrets of reality with a humble and steady mind, even
though he is unaware of the fact, is nevertheless being led by the
hand of God, Who holds all things in existence, and gives them their
identity.  Consequently, we can not but deplore certain habits of
mind, which are sometimes found too among Christians, which do not
sufficiently attend to the rightful independence of science and which,
from the arguemnts and contraversies they spark, lead many minds to
conclude that faith and science are mutually opposed [7].

  But if the expression, the autonomy of temporal affairs, is taken to
mean that created things do not depend on God, and that man can use
them without any reference to their Creator, anyone who acknowledges
God will see how false such a meaning is.  For without the Creator the
creature would disappear.  For their part, however, all believers of
whatever religion always hear His revealing voice in teh discource of
creatures.  When God is forgotten, however, the creature itself grows
unintelligible.

  37.  Sacred Scripture teaches the human family what experience of
the ages confirm: that while human progress is a great advantage to
man, it brings with it a strong temptation.  For when the oder of
values is jumbled and bad is mixed with the good, individuals and
groups pay heed solely to their won interests, and not to those of
others.  Thus it happens that the world ceases to be a place of true
brotherhood.  In our own day, the magnified power of humanity
threatens to destroy the race itself.

  For a monumental struggle against the powers of darkenss pervades
the whole history of man.  The battle was joined from the very origins
of the world and will continue until the last day, as the Lord has
attested [8].  Caught in this conflict, man is obliged to wrestle
constantly if he is to cling to what is good, nor can he achieve his
own integrity without great efforts and with the help fo God's grace.

  That is why Christ's Church, trusting in the design of the Creator,
acknowledges that human progress can serve man's true happiness, yet
she cannot help echoing the Apostle's warning: "Be not conformed to
this world" (Rom. 12:2).  Here by the world is meant that spirit of
vanity and malice whcih transforms into an instrument of sin those
human energies intended for the service of God and man.

  Hence if anyone wants to know how this unhappy situation can be
overcome, Christians will tell him that all human activity, constantly
imperiled by man's pride and deranged self-love, must be purified and
perfected by teh power of Christ's Cross and resurrection.  For
redeemed by Christ and made a new creature in the Holy Spirit, man is
able to love the things themselves created by God, and ought to do so.
He can receive them from God and respect and reverence them as flowing
constantly from the hand of God.  Grateful to hsi Benefactor for these
creatures, using and enjoying them in detachment and liberty of
spirit, man is led forward into a true possession of them, as having
nothing, yet possessing all things [9]. "All are yours, and you are
Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Cor. 3:22-23).

  38. For God's word through all things made, was Himself made flesh
and dwelt on man's earth [10].  Thus He entered the world's history as
a perfect man, taking that history up into Himself and summarizing it
[11].  He Himself revealed to us that "God is love" (I John 4:8) and
at the same time taught us that the new command of love was the basic
law of human perfection and hence of the world's transformation.

  To those, therefore, who belive in divine love, He gives assurance
that the way of love lies open to men and that the effort to establish
a universal brotherhood is not a hopeless one.  He cautions them at
the same time that this love is not something to be reserved for
important matters, but must be pursued chiefly in the ordinary
circumstances of life.  Undergoing death itself for all of us sinners
[12], He taught us by example that we too must shoulder that cross
which the world and the flesh inflict upon those who search after
peace and justice.  Appointed Lord by His resurrection and given all
power in heaven and on earth [13], Christ is now at work in the hearts
of men through the energy of His Spirit, arousing not only a desire
for the age to come, but by that very fact animateing, purifying and
strengthening those noble longings too by which the human family makes
its life more human and strives to render the whole earth submissive
to this goal.

  Now, the gifts of the Spirit are diverse: while He calls some to
give clear witness to the desire for a heavenly home and to keep that
desire fresh among the human family, He summons others to dedicate
themselves to the earthly service of men and to make ready the
material of the celestial realm by this ministry of theirs.  Yet He
frees all of them so that by putting aside love of self and bringing
all earthly resources into the service of himan life they can devote
themselves to taht future when humanity itself will become an offering
accepted by God [14].

  The Lord left behind a pledge of this hope and strength for life's
journey in that sacrament of faith where natural elements refined by
man are gloriously changed into His Body and Blood, providing a meal
of brotherly solidarity and a foretaste of the heavenly banquet.

  39. We do not know the time for the consummation of the earth and of
humanity [15], nor do we know how all things will be transformed.  As
deformed by sins, the shape of this world will pass away [16]; but we
are taought that God is preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth
where justice will abide [17], and whose blessedness will answer and
surpass all the longings for peace which springs up in the human heart
[18].  Then, with death overcome, the sons of God will be rasied up in
CHrist, and what was sown in weakness and corruption will be clothed
with incorruptibility [19].  Enduring with charity and its fruits
[20], all that creation [21] which God made on man's account will be
unchained from the bondage of vanity.

  Therefore, while we are warned that it profits a man nothing if he
gain the whole world and lose himself [22], the expectation of a new
earth must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating
this one.  For here grows the body of a new human family, a body which
even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age.

  Hence, while earthly progress must be carefully distinguished from
the growth of Christ's Kingdom, to the extent that the former can
contribute to the better ordering of human society, it is of a vital
concern to the Kingdom of God [23].

  For after we have obeyed the Lord, and His Spirit nurtured on earth
the values of human dignity, brotherhood and freedom, and indeed all
the good fruits of our nature and enterprise, we will find them again,
but freed of stain, burnished and transfigured, when Christ hands over
to the Father: "a kingdom eternal and universal, a kingdom of truth
and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace" [24].  On
this earth that Kingdom is already present in mystery.  When the Lord
returns it will be brought into full flower.

--------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Cf. Gen 1:26-27; 9:2-3; Wis 9:3.

[2] Cf. Ps. 8:7 and 10.

[3] Cf. John XXIII, Encyclical Letter Pacem in Terris: AAS 55 (1963),
p. 297.

[4] Cf. message to all mankind sent by the Fathers at the beginning of
the Second Vatican COuncil, Oct. 20, 1962: AAS 54 (1962), p. 823.

[5] Cf. Paul VI, address to the diplomatic corps, Jan. 7, 1965: AAS 57
(1965), p. 232.

[6] Cf. First Vatican COuncil, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic
Faith, Chapter III: Denz 1785-1786 (3004-3005).

[7] Cf. Msgr. Pio Paschini, Vita e opere di Galileo Galilei, 2 volumes
Vatican Press (1964).

[8] Cf. Matt. 24: 13; 13:24-30 and 36-43.

[9] Cf. 2 Cor. 6:10.

[10] Cf. John 1:3 and 14.

[11] Cf. Eph. 1:10.

[12] Cf. John 3:6; Rom. 5:8-10.

[13] Cf. Acts 2:36; Matt. 28:18.

[14] Cf. Rom. 15:16.

[15] Cf. Acts 1:7.

[16] Cf. 1 Cor. 7:31; St. Irenaeus, Adversus haereses, V, 36, PG,
VIIII, 1221.

[17] Cf. 2 Cor. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:13.

[18] Cf. 1 Cor. 2:9; Apoc. 21:4-5.

[19] Cf. 1 Cor. 15:42 and 53.

[20] Cf. 1 Cor. 13:8; 3:14.

[21] Cf. Rom. 8:19-21.

[22] Cf. Luke 9:25.

[23] Cf. Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS 23 (1931),
p 207.

[24] Cf. Preface of the Feast of Christ the King.

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