Mark 4, 1-10 + CSDC and CV

Mark 4

Mark 4, 1-10 + CSDC and CV

CV 69b. Technology enables us to exercise dominion over matter, to reduce risks, to save labour, to improve our conditions of life. It touches the heart of the vocation of human labour: in technology, seen as the product of his genius, man recognizes himself and forges his own humanity. Technology is the objective side of human action [151] whose origin and raison d'etre is found in the subjective element: the worker himself. For this reason, technology is never merely technology. It reveals man and his aspirations towards development, it expresses the inner tension that impels him gradually to overcome material limitations. Technology, in this sense, is a response to God's command to till and to keep the land (cf. Gen 2:15) that he has entrusted to humanity, and it must serve to reinforce the covenant between human beings and the environment, a covenant that should mirror God's creative love.

Notes: [151] Cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 5: loc. cit., 586-589.  

Human community based on solidarity, justice and love

CSDC 562b Serving the human person through the building up of a human community based on solidarity, justice and love, and spreading the truth about human life and its final fulfilment in God remain at the heart of ethics in the media[1178]. In the light of faith, human communication can be seen as a journey from Babel to Pentecost, or rather, as the personal and social commitment to overcome the collapse of communication (cf. Gen 11:4-8), opening people to the gift of tongues (cf. Acts 2:5-11), to communication as restored by the power of the Spirit sent by the Son.

Notes: [1178] Cf. Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Ethics in Communications, 4 June 2000, 33, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2000, p. 40.

(Mk 4,1-10) Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear  

[1] On another occasion he began to teach by the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land. [2] And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them, [3] "Hear this! A sower went out to sow. [4] And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. [5] Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. [6] And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. [7] Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain. [8] And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." [9] He added, "Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear." [10] And when he was alone, those present along with the Twelve questioned him about the parables.

CSDC 27. It is in the free action of God the Creator that we find the very meaning of creation, even if it has been distorted by the experience of sin. In fact, the narrative of the first sin (cf. Gen 3:1-24) describes the permanent temptation and the disordered situation in which humanity comes to find itself after the fall of its progenitors. Disobedience to God means hiding from his loving countenance and seeking to control one's life and action in the world. Breaking the relation of communion with God causes a rupture in the internal unity of the human person, in the relations of communion between man and woman and of the harmonious relations between mankind and other creatures[29]. It is in this original estrangement that are to be sought the deepest roots of all the evils that afflict social relations between people, of all the situations in economic and political life that attack the dignity of the person, that assail justice and solidarity.

Notes: [29] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 13: AAS 58 (1966), 1035.

 

[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)].