Lk 24, 1-12 + CSDC and CV

Luke 24, 1-12 + CSDC and CV

CV 63a No consideration of the problems associated with development could fail to highlight the direct link between poverty and unemployment. In many cases, poverty results from a violation of the dignity of human work, either because work opportunities are limited (through unemployment or underemployment), or “because a low value is put on work and the rights that flow from it, especially the right to a just wage and to the personal security of the worker and his or her family” [143]. For this reason, on 1 May 2000 on the occasion of the Jubilee of Workers, my venerable predecessor Pope John Paul II issued an appeal for “a global coalition in favour of decent work” [144], supporting the strategy of the International Labour Organization. In this way, he gave a strong moral impetus to this objective, seeing it as an aspiration of families in every country of the world.

Notes: [143] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Laborem Exercens, 8: loc. cit., 594-598. [144] Jubilee of Workers, Greeting after Mass,  1 May 2000.

Defining a renewed system for the defence of work

CDS 311 One of the most significant characteristics of the new organization of work is the physical fragmentation of the cycle of production, promoted in order to obtain greater efficiency and greater profits. In this perspective, the traditional space-time coordinates within which the cycle of production formerly took place undergoes an unprecedented transformation that determines a change in the structure of work itself. All of this has significant consequences for the life of individuals and communities subjected to radical changes both on the level of material conditions and of culture and values. On the worldwide and local levels, this phenomenon presently involves millions of people, independently of their profession, social standing or cultural preparation. The reorganization of time, its standardization and the changes currently underway in the use of space — comparable in extent to the first Industrial Revolution insofar as they involve every sector of production, on every continent, independent of their level of development — are therefore to be considered a crucial challenge, also at the level of ethics and culture, in the area of defining a renewed system for the defence of work.

(Luke 24,1-12) Why do you seek the living one among the dead?

[1] But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. [2] They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; [3] but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. [4] While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. [5] They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, "Why do you seek the living one among the dead? [6] He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, [7] that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day." [8] And they remembered his words. [9] Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others. [10] The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, [11] but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them. [12] But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.

CDS 147  Woman is the complement of man, as man is the complement of woman: man and woman complete each other mutually, not only from a physical and psychological point of view, but also ontologically. It is only because of the duality of “male” and “female” that the “human” being becomes a full reality. It is the “unity of the two”[288], or in other words a relational “uni-duality”, that allows each person to experience the interpersonal and reciprocal relationship as a gift that at the same time is a mission: “to this ‘unity of the two' God has entrusted not only the work of procreation and family life, but the creation of history itself”[289]. “The woman is ‘a helper' for the man, just as the man is ‘a helper' for the woman!”[290]: in the encounter of man and woman a unitary conception of the human person is brought about, based not on the logic of self-centredness and self-affirmation, but on that of love and solidarity. 

Notes: [288] John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, 11: AAS 80 (1988), 1678. [289] John Paul II, Letter to Women, 8: AAS 87 (1995), 808. [290] John Paul II, Sunday Angelus (9 July 1995): L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 12 July 1995, p. 1; cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World: L'Osservatore Romano, English edition, 11/18 August 2004, pp. 5-8.

[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)]