A message from the bishop of Rome
One of four principles
To advance towards the common good and social peace, to govern well and to guide actions in their achievement, we must, says Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium, be based on four principles: Time is more important than the space [222 -225]; Unity is more important than conflict[226-230]; Reality is more important than ideas[231-233]; The whole is greater than the part[234-237]. Can these principles be for us all the cardinal points of discernment?... Especially since our founder, eager in his time to establish a new religious community, felt so strongly the value of one of these principles.
There are truths which result from God’s essence, and we cannot either destroy them or change them without touching the divine essence; for example: the whole is greater than the part, there is no stick without two ends, etc (Cachica Notebook, nr. 22)
Evangelii Gaudium - Pope Francis
"The whole is greater than the part
234. (...) We need to pay attention to the global so as to avoid narrowness and banality. Yet we also need to look to the local, which keeps our feet on the ground.. (...)
235. (...) We need to sink our roots deeper into the fertile soil and history of our native place, which is a gift of God. We can work on a small scale, in our own neighbourhood, but with a larger perspective. (...)
236. Here our model is not the sphere, which is no greater than its parts, where every point is equidistant from the centre, and there are no differences between them. Instead, it is the polyhedron, which reflects the convergence of all its parts, each of which preserves its distinctiveness. Pastoral and political activity alike seek to gather in this polyhedron the best of each. (...)
237. To Christians, this principle also evokes the totality or integrity of the Gospel which the Church passes down to us and sends us forth to proclaim. Its fullness and richness embrace scholars and workers, businessmen and artists, in a word, everyone. (...) The Gospel has an intrinsic principle of totality: it will always remain good news until it has been proclaimed to all people, until it has healed and strengthened every aspect of humanity, until it has brought all men and women together at table in God’s kingdom. (...)
These very brief extracts from EG are meant to be an invitation to medidate the integral text.
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