highest norm for all activity”.
158
In this framework, along with the importance of little everyday
gestures, social love moves us to devise larger strategies to halt environmental degradation and to
encourage a “culture of care” which permeates all of society. When we feel that God is calling us to
intervene with others in these social dynamics, we should realize that this too is part of our spirituality,
which is an exerciseof charityand, as such,matures and sanctifies us.
232. Not everyone is called to engage directly in political life. Society is also enriched by a
countless array of organizations which work to promote the common good and to defend the
environment, whether natural or urban. Some, for example, show concern for a public place (a
building, a fountain, an abandoned monument, a landscape, a square), and strive to protect, restore,
improve or beautify it as something belonging to everyone. Around these community actions,
relationships develop or are recovered and a new social fabric emerges. Thus, a community can break
out of the indifference induced by consumerism. These actions cultivate a shared identity, with a story
which can be remembered and handed on. In thisway, theworld, and the qualityof life of the poorest,
are cared for, with a sense of solidaritywhich is at the same time aware that we live in a common home
whichGod has entrusted to us. These community actions, when they express self-giving love, can also
become intense spiritual experiences.
VI.
SACRAMENTALSIGNSANDTHECELEBRATIONOFREST
233. The universe unfolds inGod, who fills it completely. Hence, there is amystical meaning to be
found in a leaf, in a mountain trail, in a dewdrop, in a poor person’s face.
159
The ideal is not only to
pass from the exterior to the interior todiscover the action ofGod in the soul, but also to discover God
in all things. Saint Bonaventure teaches us that “contemplation deepens the more we feel the working
of God’s grace within our hearts, and the better we learn to encounter God in creatures outside
ourselves”.
160
158
PONTIFICALCOUNCILFOR JUSTICEANDPEACE,
Compendiumof the SocialDoctrineof theChurch
, 582.
159
The spiritual writer Ali al-Khawas stresses from his own experience the need not to put toomuch distance between the
creatures of theworld and the interior experience ofGod. As he puts it: “Prejudice should not have us criticize those who
seek ecstasy inmusic or poetry. There is a subtlemystery in each of themovements and sounds of thisworld. The initiate
will capturewhat is being said when thewind blows, the trees sway, water flows, flies buzz, doors creak, birds sing, or in
the sound of strings or flutes, the sighs of the sick, the groans of the afflicted...” (EVADE VITRAY-MEYEROVITCH
[ed.],
Anthologiedu soufisme,
Paris 1978, 200).
160
In II Sent
., 23, 2, 3.
