Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Catechism in a year podcast,

where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture, and passed

down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in New Year is brought to you by

Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is Day 252. We are reading paragraphs 1905 to 1912. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. you can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com

slash ccate. but you can follow along with any recent version of the catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates, daily notifications. You might even be willing to leave a review. Actually, if you leave a review, it does something with the algorithm and it really boosts things. And more people see this and maybe more people would hear about it and then maybe more people would listen and maybe more people would come to know the love that God has for them. So if you don't mind, leave a, I don't leave a one-star review for kind of loud. If it's day 252, you love this. Can I say that? You love this? I don't know if you love it or not. Maybe you just

tolerate it. That's fine, too. Today we're talking about the common good. It's day 252,

paragraph 1905 to 1912. Yesterday, we talked a bit about authority and how legitimate authority

is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good and if it employs morally

illicit means to attain this and

that all the laws they enact are according with right reason. So what is the common good?

Now, this is really interesting. Actually, this is fascinating because we have the individual good.

What is good for the individual is one thing. And what is good for the group of individuals? What's what's good for more? So 1905 and then lays it out really clearly. It says this, in keeping with the social nature of man, the good of each individual is necessarily related to the common good, which in turn can be defined only in reference to the human person.

And that's just, I love this because it goes, it's a, it's a, I don't want to say, it's not a

circular definition.

That's not what it is.

But we recognize the dignity of the individual can only be really fully realized when there's

the dignity of the group of individuals, which must never

violate the dignity of the individual. Does that make sense? Because there are times, and there have

been times. When someone has asserted the individual dignity to the exclusion of the group,

there are also times when people have asserted the good of the group to the detriment of the individual.

And what the church is saying is we can do neither of those.

We must assert the dignity of the individual because of how good individuals are.

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