Love of our neighbour in order to achieve development

Striving in this way for the common good must necessarily be underpinned by concern for and love of humanity. In the most varied situations, people are faced daily with the alternative between personal and collective self-destruction or love for our neighbour. Love for our neighbour therefore demonstrates our awareness that there is a

23. Striving in this way for the common good must necessarily be underpinned by responsibility from which one cannot shrink when faced with our own limitations, or with the enormous magnitude of the duties to be performed out of love for all men and women. "How would history judge a generation which had all the means to feed the population of the planet, and yet with fratricidal indifference refused to do so?... Would a world in which poverty fails to encounter lifegiving love not be a desert(³⁵)?"

Love is far more than mere giving. Development is cultivated through the work of those who have the greatest courage, the greatest competence and honesty. These leaders feel solidarity with all humanity and humanity is affected, to a greater or lesser degree, whether near or far, by what these individuals do or should be doing. This concrete universal responsibility is an essential manifestation of altruism.

Solidarity is obviously a demand that is placed on all. Fortunately, it is not necessary to wait for the majority of humanity to be converted to love of their neighbour in order to gather the fruits of the work of those acting in their own particular situation without waiting. Hope must be drawn from the results of the work of such persons who, in their daily work at all levels, act in the service of the integral human being and of all humanity.