EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 177

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and banality. Yet we also need to look to the
local, which keeps our feet on the ground. To-
gether, the two prevent us from falling into one
of two extremes. In the first, people get caught
up in an abstract, globalized universe, falling into
step behind everyone else, admiring the glitter of
other people’s world, gaping and applauding at all
the right times. At the other extreme, they turn
into a museum of local folklore, a world apart,
doomed to doing the same things over and over,
and incapable of being challenged by novelty or
appreciating the beauty which God bestows be-
yond their borders.
235. The whole is greater than the part, but it
is also greater than the sum of its parts. There is
no need, then, to be overly obsessed with limited
and particular questions. We constantly have to
broaden our horizons and see the greater good
which will benefit us all. But this has to be done
without evasion or uprooting. We need to sink
our roots deeper into the fertile soil and histo-
ry of our native place, which is a gift of God.
We can work on a small scale, in our own neigh-
bourhood, but with a larger perspective. Nor do
people who wholeheartedly enter into the life of
a community need to lose their individualism or
hide their identity; instead, they receive new im-
pulses to personal growth. The global need not
stifle, nor the particular prove barren.
236. Here our model is not the sphere, which
is no greater than its parts, where every point is
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