Mark 4, 11-20 + CSDC and CV

Mark 4, 11-20 + CSDC and CV

CV 70a. Technological development can give rise to the idea that technology is self-sufficient when too much attention is given to the “how” questions, and not enough to the many “why” questions underlying human activity. For this reason technology can appear ambivalent. Produced through human creativity as a tool of personal freedom, technology can be understood as a manifestation of absolute freedom, the freedom that seeks to prescind from the limits inherent in things. The process of globalization could replace ideologies with technology [152], allowing the latter to become an ideological power that threatens to confine us within an a priori that holds us back from encountering being and truth. Were that to happen, we would all know, evaluate and make decisions about our life situations from within a technocratic cultural perspective to which we would belong structurally, without ever being able to discover a meaning that is not of our own making. The “technical” worldview that follows from this vision is now so dominant that truth has come to be seen as coinciding with the possible. 

Notes: 152) Paul VI, Octogesima Adveniens, 29: Lc. 420

Discernment of the current models of economic and social development

CSDC 563. Faced with the complexity of today's economic context, the laity will be guided in their action by the principles of the social Magisterium. It is necessary that these principles be known and accepted in the area of  economic activity itself; when they are ignored, above all the principle of the centrality of the human person, the quality of this activity is compromised[1179]. The commitment of Christians will also be translated into an effort of cultural reflection aimed at a discernment of the current models of economic and social development. Reducing the question of development to an exclusively technical problem would deprive it of its true content, which instead concerns “the dignity of individuals and peoples”[1180].

Notes: [1179] Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Questions Regarding the Participation of Catholics in Political Life (24 November 2002), 3: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Vatican City 2002, p. 8. [1180] John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, 41: AAS 80 (1988), 570.

(Mk 4,11-20) The ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit 

[11] He answered them, "The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables, [12] so that 'they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.'" [13] Jesus said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? [14] The sower sows the word. [15] These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them. [16] And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. [17] But they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. [18] Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, [19] but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. [20] But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold."

CSDC 38. The salvation offered in its fullness to men in Jesus Christ by God the Father's initiative, and brought about and transmitted by the work of the Holy Spirit, is salvation for all people and of the whole person: it is universal and integral salvation. It concerns the human person in all his dimensions: personal and social, spiritual and corporeal, historical and transcendent. It begins to be made a reality already in history, because what is created is good and willed by God, and because the Son of God became one of us[39]. Its completion, however, is in the future, when we shall be called, together with all creation (cf. Rom 8), to share in Christ's resurrection and in the eternal communion of life with the Father in the joy of the Holy Spirit. This outlook shows quite clearly the error and deception of purely immanentistic visions of the meaning of history and in humanity's claims to self-salvation.

Notes: [39] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 22: AAS 58 (1966), 1043.  38

[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)].