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and as Catholics we are called to participate in public life in a manner consis-
tent with the mission of our Lord, a mission that he has called us to share. As
Pope Francis teaches,
An authentic faith . . . always involves a deep desire to
change the world, to transmit values, to leave this earth
somehow better than we found it. We love this magnificent
planet on which God has put us, and we love the human
family which dwells here, with all its tragedies and struggles,
it hopes and aspirations, its strengths and weaknesses. The
earth is our common home and all of us are brothers and
sisters. If indeed “the just ordering of society and of the state
is a central responsibility of politics,” the Church, “cannot
and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice.”
(
Evangelii Gaudium
, no. 183)
In this fight for justice, God gives us a special gift, hope, which Pope Benedict
describes in
Caritas in Veritate
as “burst[ing] into our lives as something not
due to us, something that transcends every law of justice” (no. 34). Thus we
take up the task of serving the common good with joy and hope, confident
that God, who “so loved the world that he gave his only Son,” walks with us
and strengthens us on the way (Jn 3:16). God is love, and he desires that we
help to build a “civilization of love”—one in which all human beings have the
freedom and opportunity to experience the love of God and live out that love
by making a free gift of themselves to one another. Pope Francis encourages us
in
Evangelii Gaudium
to meditate on the
inseparable bond between our acceptance of the message of
salvation and genuine fraternal love . . . God’s word teaches
that our brothers and sisters are the prolongation of the
incarnation for each of us: “As you did it to one of these, the
least of my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). The way
we treat others has a transcendent dimension: “The measure
you give will be the measure you get” (Mt 7:2). It corre-
sponds to the mercy which God has shown us: “Be merciful,
just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not
be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.
Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to
H H H