How to treat people
Andy posted a comment earlier, and this is really a good time to review it.
“I remember you quoted something from the Second Vatican Council relating to the treatment of people. I want to try and find that and I was wondering if anyone remembered or could tell me the quotation or what part the quotation was from. Thanks”
Actually, Andy, it was from the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et Spes, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. What I referred to specifically was Chapter V, “Fostering of Peace and Establishment of a Community of Nations.” Under the section “Nature of Peace” No. 78, it states:
Peace is more than the absence of war: it cannot be reduced to the maintenance of a balance of power between opposing forces nor does it arise out of despotic dominion, but it is appropriately called ‘the effect of righteousness’ (Is. 32:17). It is the fruit of that right ordering of things with which the divine founder has invested human society and which must be actualized by man thirsting after an ever more perfect reign of justice. But while the common good of mankind ultimately derives from the eternal law, it depends in the concrete upon circumstances which change as time goes on; consequently, peace will never be achieved once and for all, but must be built up continually. Since, moreover, human nature is weak and wounded by sin, the achievement of peace requires a constant effort to control the passions and unceasing vigilance by lawful authority.
BUT THIS IS NOT ENOUGH (emphasis added). Peace cannot be obtained on earth unless the welfare of man is safeguarded and people freely and trustingly share with one another the riches of their minds and their talents. A firm determination to respect the dignity of other men and other peoples along with the deliberate practice of fraternal love are absolutely necessary for the achievement of peace…
Peace on earth, which flows from love of one’s neighbor, symbolizes and derives from the peace of Christ who proceeds from God the Father. Christ, the Word made flesh, the prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross, and, restoring the unity of all in one people and one body, he abolished hatred in his own flesh, having been lifted up therough his resurrection he poured forth the Spirit of love into the hearts of men.”
Okay, let’s go back to the earlier post on Tony Blair’s valuable insight, which was a reflection of Pope Benedict’s inspired teaching of….this exact message. It all comes together here.
Gaudium et Spes No. 78 concludes:
Insofar as men are sinners, the threat of war hangs over them and will so continue until the coming of Christ; but insofar as they can vanquish sin by coming together in charity, violence itself will be vanquished and they will make these words come true: “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Is. 2:4).
Glad you asked, Andy. The answer is there. We just need to “get it.”
