Mark 1, 35-45 + CSDC and CV

Mark 1, 35-45 + CSDC and CV

CV 64b. Without necessarily endorsing the thesis that the central focus on the worker has given way to a central focus on the consumer, this would still appear to constitute new ground for unions to explore creatively. The global context in which work takes place also demands that national labour unions, which tend to limit themselves to defending the interests of their registered members, should turn their attention to those outside their membership, and in particular to workers in developing countries where social rights are often violated.

Social teaching of the Church:  dialogue and collaboration in the ecumenical sphere

CSDC 535. The social teaching of the Church is also fertile soil for dialogue and collaboration in the ecumenical sphere. This is already happening in various places on a broad scale concerning the defence of the dignity of the human person, the promotion of peace, the concrete and effective struggle against the miseries of today's world, such as hunger and poverty, illiteracy, the unequal distribution of the goods of the earth and the lack of housing. This multifaceted cooperation increases awareness that all are brothers and sisters in Christ, and makes the journey along the path of ecumenism easier.

(Mk 1, 35-45) Everyone is looking for you         

[35] Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. [36] Simon and those who were with him pursued him [37] and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you." [38] He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come." [39] So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee. [40] A leper came to him (and kneeling down) begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean." [41] Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean." [42] The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. [43] Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. [44] Then he said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them." [45] The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

CSDC 22. The gratuitousness of this historically efficacious divine action is constantly accompanied by the commitment to the covenant, proposed by God and accepted by Israel. On Mount Sinai, God's initiative becomes concrete in the covenant with his people, to whom is given the Decalogue of the commandments revealed by the Lord (cf. Ex 19-24). The “ten commandments” (Ex 34:28; cf. Deut 4:13; 10:4) “express the implications of belonging to God through the establishment of the covenant. Moral existence is a response to the Lord's loving initiative. It is the acknowledgment and homage given to God and a worship of thanksgiving. It is cooperation with the plan God pursues in history”[24]. The Ten Commandments, which constitute an extraordinary path of life and indicate the surest way for living in freedom from slavery to sin, contain a privileged expression of the natural law. They “teach us the true humanity of man. They bring to light the essential duties, and therefore, indirectly, the fundamental rights inherent in the nature of the human person”[25]. They describe universal human morality. In the Gospel, Jesus reminds the rich young man that the Ten Commandments (cf. Mt 19:18) “constitute the indispensable rules of all social life”[26].

Notes: [24] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2062. [25] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2070.[26] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis Splendor, 97: AAS 85 (1993), 1209.

[Initials and Abbreviations.- CSDC: Pontifical Council for Justice And Peace, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church; -  SDC: Social Doctrine of the Church; - CV: Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate (Charity in truth)]