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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Tuesday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
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Gospel text (Mt 23:23-26): Jesus said: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others..."

The "Logic of the gift" (Social Doctrine of the Church)

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, the crisis obliges us to re-plan our journey, because the picture of development suffers many overlapping layers. Man cannot forgo without his "transcendent" nature: he is not his own creator; he must be open to God and to others. He is created for the "gift", for loving. But quite often first and foremost we prioritize productivity and usefulness. Christ tells us: faith makes mercy possible and mercy perfects justice.

The "city of man" is not promoted only with relationships of rights and duties, but to an even greater and more fundamental extent, with relationships of gratuitousness, of mercy and of communion. The exclusive binary model of market-plus-State is corrosive to society, while economic forms based on solidarity, which find their natural home in civil society without being restricted to it, build up society. The market of gratuitousness does not exist and attitudes of gratuitousness cannot be established by law. Yet, both the market and politics need individuals who are open to "reciprocal gift": this is only the result of charity.

—O Lord, without gratuitousness, typical of your Love, there can be no justice. Open up our hearts!

December 9th
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Gospel and commentary video

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December 8th
Second Sunday of Advent (C)

Gospel and commentary video