Necessary reform of the human heart

64. World hunger makes us identify the weaknesses of the human being at every level. The rationale of sin shows how sin — that evil lurking in the heart of every person — lies at the root of the miseries in society as a result of what might be called the "structures of sin". For the Church, this is culpable egoism, the pursuit of wealth, power and glory regardless of the cost, challenging the very value of progress as such. "For when the order of values is jumbled and bad is mixed with the good, individuals and groups pay heed solely to their own interests, and not to those of others. Thus it happens that the world ceases to be a place of true brotherhood and sisterhood. In our own day, the magnified power of humanity threatens to destroy the race itself....(⁹¹)" linked to a notion of progress' with philosophical connotations deriving from the Enlightenment... A naïve mechanistic optimism has been replaced by a well founded anxiety for the fate of humanity.... There is a better understanding today that the mere accumulation of goods and services, even for the benefit of the majority, is not enough for the realization of human happiness.": AAS 80 (1988), pp. 547-550.] Conversely, the love which comes to dwell in the human heart enables men and women to overcome their limitations and to act in the world by creating "structures of the common good". Thereby encouraging people around them to move towards a "civilisation of love(⁹²)"and to attract others.

Thus the human being is called to reform his or her actions. This issue is of vital importance to the world. The person is lead to this reformation of the heart by a movement of self toward the unification of the self and of the human community in love. This reform of the human being, the whole person, is radical in its depth and in what it entails, for the very essence of love is radical. Love does not suffer from division, it encompasses all the prompting of the person — acts and prayer, material goods and spiritual riches.

The conversion of the heart of everyone, of each and every human being, is God's proposal which can profoundly change the face of the earth, wiping away the hideous marks of hunger which disfigure part of its face. "Repent and believe in the Gospel" (Mk. 1:15) is the imperative which accompanies the proclamation of the Kingdom of God and which brings about its coming. The Church knows that this deepseated and intimate change in people will encourage, in daily life, a look beyond immediate interests, to change, little by little, the way of thinking, working and living, in order to learn to love in daily life, fully exercising faculties in the world as it is.

Whatever little we do, God will watch over us.