Day 249: The Person in Society

The vocation of humanity is to show forth the image of God and to be transformed into the image of the Father's only Son. This vocation takes a personal form since each of us is called to enter into the divine beatitude; it also concerns the human community as a whole. CCC 1877

The Catechism discusses the person and society in today's reading. All human beings need society; it is a "requirement of [our] nature"  and through which "man develops his potential" (CCC 1879). Indeed, "certain societies, such as the family and the state, correspond more directly to the nature of man" (CCC 1880). We were made as communal beings, in the Image of God, just as God is a communion of Persons. As God is a unity of love, a Trinity of love, we are also called to be an image of that unity in love for one another.

The Catechism Compendium summarizes what the social dimension of man consists of:

Together with the personal call to beatitude, the human person has a communal dimension as an essential component of his nature and vocation. Indeed, all are called to the same end, God himself. There is a certain resemblance between the communion of the divine Persons and the fraternity that people are to establish among themselves in truth and love. Love of neighbor is inseparable from love for God. (#401)

We are called to share our gifts with others in this life, and we owe society our loyalty, especially family, save where it would violate God's law. 

The Catechism Companion, Vol III has some good commentary on this:

The family is the building block of society. The individual is greater than any society, but society is not just a bunch of individuals... If something can be done at a more local level, it should be left to that local level. The higher levels should not subvert the authority of that local level. The Church prohibits "all forms of collectivism" (see CCC 1885) such as communism and socialism, for they subvert the human dignity of every individual and go against the principle of subsidiarity. (p. 14)

Finally, I just finished reading Pope Leo XIII's 1881 encyclical Diuturnum Illud, which has some really good commentary on this topic, especially civil society.