Gaudiam et Spes

These are the last of my notes on the Vatican II series.
December 7th, 1965

**What is below is my shorthand mixed with my own thoughts. This post is a note/thought dump and may not make sense! If I can clarify anything, please let me know so I can edit/explain further.**

Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the modern world. Speaks about the dignity of man. The ideas of the Church for mans betterment. It starts out with man in 1965. Existential..."The joys and hopes of man in 1965 are the same as the Church." There is no mention of Original Sin. "To be a good Christian is to be the most human." Grace and nature are confused. But we shouldn't want to make man more human. We should want to become divine! Justification and Sanctification are not brought forth. Now the Church is a servant of mankind? Even a king acts as a "servant" for the common good, but he rules rather than serves. To be of the image we need divine intellect and will. The document says it "bares about an element of the divine." If its not talking about grace, then what? It even talks about the "Brotherhood of Man." The Free Masons use that phrase a lot, too. And they mean it in the same way Gaudiam et Spes does. Free Masons mean what you think of. One big world where everybody drinks Coca-Cola holding hands. This departs from the Church's perennial view that we are brothers in the true sense that God is Father, and the Church is Mother. We share in the divine sonship. If you try to fit this definition in the document it doesn't make sense. It all starts with idea that Christ came to serve and not judge is not traditional, nor biblical.
How does the Church judge. In the confessional with penance and absolution. Excommunication and Anathema. Can we use contraception? The Church has passed her judgment on that, as well. The Church is here to judge! Well, does mankind desire to be saved, or not? There is a lot of talk about all this "aspirating." Its all New Age, critical and swift upheaval. Current trends lead to ecumenism. There is a new vision (Free Masonic) where we are all citizens of the world (really Free Masonic) "civis" of a "civitas" with one state with the order to the service of man? or God? (St. Augustine talks about how these two are very different.) In justice, what do we owe God? Our conscience is an act the intellect makes regarding the morality of a decision. *Morality involves God.
Another quote "To develop [Man's] dignity" that page comes strait out of the United Nations. Is man really asking deep questions today? Is the person playing Halo 3 on the couch really asking "what is my vocation?" This document declares "All things should be ordained to man for the center and summit." What happened to dying to oneself, may I ask? Are we born free? Guadiam et Spes makes a good case for that idea. Man can do whatever he wants.
"Adam and Eve had the first relationship between persons." Does the Church not remember Adam and Gods relationship. *Freedom is the capacity to choose between two varying goods... so is it my freedom is protected or my freedom is restricted.
Nowhere does this document mention Communism, which so many hoped it would. Does only a body belong to the state? Does the soul belong to God? Does only the soul belong to God, or the body, too?