Good day. Today is Wednesday, September 30, 2020. It is Memorial of St. Jerome, priest and doctor of the Church. Jerome was born in 342 AD in Dalmatia. He came to Rome to be educated and became a Christian at age 24. He was ordained a priest and served as the secretary to Pope Damasus, who asked Jerome to undertake a translation of the Bible into Latin from the original Hebrew and Greek. His translation, the Vulgate, became the standard biblical translation in the West for fifteen hundred years. A great student of Sacred Scripture, he once famously said that ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. He died in Bethlehem, where he had founded a monastery, in 420 AD. He is one of the four great doctors of the Latin Church, along with St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great. In today’s Scripture, Job says of God, “Should he come near me, I see him not; should he pass by, I am not aware of God.” Thought question: How does God come near me today? Where can I find him? How do I become aware of him? How does he make his presence known to me? ******** We continue our study of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the shortened version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. We are in the section of the Compendium that deals with our Life in Christ. We will look at questions 402, 403, and 404. Each question and answer from the Compendium appears in boldface; my commentary follows. What is the relationship between the person and society? The human person is and ought to be the principle, the subject and the end of all social institutions. Certain societies, such as the family and the civic community, are necessary for the human person. Also helpful are other associations on the national and international levels with due respect for the principle of subsidiarity. Commentary: Human persons are meant to live in society with one another. Society is a network of personal relationships which exists for the well-being of each of its members, who find their personal happiness through and within these relationships. The fundamental building block of human society is the family, centered upon the mutual relationships of parents and children, which possesses certain inalienable rights and responsibilities. Civic community is built upon a group of persons bound together organically by a principle of unity that goes beyond each of them. What is the principle of subsidiarity? The principle of subsidiarity states that a community of a higher order should not assume the task belonging to a community of a lower order and deprive it of its authority. It should rather support it in case of need. Commentary: The family is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. It is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Where families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the institution of the family. The principle of subsidiarity states that larger communities should take care not to usurp the family’s prerogatives or interfere in its life. A just society is always based upon a fundamental respect for the God-given nature of marriage and the family. What else is required for an authentic human society? Authentic human society requires respect for justice, a just hierarchy of values and the subordination of material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones. In particular, where sin has perverted the social climate, it is necessary to call for the conversion of hearts and for the grace of God to obtain social changes that may really serve each person and the whole person. Charity, which requires and makes possible the practice of justice, is the greatest social commandment. Commentary: Earthly societies are meant to contribute to human persons attaining their supernatural end. The supernatural end of every person is to share in the life of God, who is Charity. Therefore, earthly societies are to assist human persons in attaining the life of charity, which requires the virtue of justice and the practice of all the other virtues as well.