Sunday, December 7, 2014
Lk 24, 25-32 + CSDC and CV
Luke 24, 25-32 +
CSDC and CV
CV 64a While reflecting on the theme of
work, it is appropriate to recall how important it is that labour unions
— which have always been encouraged and supported by the Church — should be
open to the new perspectives that are emerging in the world of work. Looking to
wider concerns than the specific category of labour for which they were formed,
union organizations are called to address some of the new questions arising in
our society: I am thinking, for example, of the complex of issues that social
scientists describe in terms of a conflict between worker and consumer.
CDS 313 Work, above all within the economic systems of the
more developed countries, is going through a phase that marks the passage from
an industrial-type economy to an economy essentially built on services and
technological innovations. In other words, what is happening is that services
and activities with a predominant informational content show a much greater
rapidity of growth than traditional primary and secondary sectors. This entails
far-ranging consequences for organizing the production and exchange of goods,
defining job requirements and providing effective social protection. Thanks to
technological innovations, the world of work is being enriched with new
professions while others are disappearing. In fact, in the present phase of
transition there is a continuous movement of workers from the industrial sector
to that of services. As the economic and social models connected with big
factories and with a homogenous working class lose ground, the employment
prospects in the third sector improve. In particular, there is an increase in
job activity in the area of personal services, in part-time, temporary and
“non-traditional” employment, that is, work that does not fit into a category
that would classify the job-holder either as an employee or as self-employed.
[25] And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! [26] Was it not
necessary that the Messiah should suffer 8 these things and enter into his
glory?" [27] Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he
interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures. [28] As they
approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he
was going on farther. [29] But they urged him, "Stay with us, for it is
nearly evening and the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with
them. [30] And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took
bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. [31] With that their
eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight.
[32] Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning (within
us) while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?"
CDS 552 Among the
areas of the social commitment of the laity, service to the human person
emerges as a priority.
Promoting the dignity of every person, the most precious possession of men and
women, is the “essential task, in a certain sense, the central and unifying
task of the service which the Church, and the lay faithful in her, are called
to render to the human family”[1155]. The first form in which this task is
undertaken consists in the commitment and efforts to renew oneself interiorly,
because human history is not governed by an impersonal determinism but by a
plurality of subjects whose free acts shape the social order. Social
institutions do not of themselves guarantee, as if automatically, the common
good; the internal “renewal of the Christian spirit” [1156] must precede the
commitment to improve society “according to the mind of the Church on the
firmly established basis of social justice and social charity”[1157]. It is
from the conversion of hearts that there arises concern for others, loved as
brothers or sisters. This concern helps us to understand the obligation and
commitment to heal institutions, structures and conditions of life that are
contrary to human dignity. The laity must therefore work at the same time
for the conversion of hearts and the improvement of structures, taking
historical situations into account and using legitimate means so that the
dignity of every man and woman will be truly respected and promoted within
institutions.
Notes: [1155] John Paul II,
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, 37: AAS 81
(1989), 460. [1156] Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno: AAS
23 (1931), 218. [1157] Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quadragesimo Anno:
AAS 23 (1931), 218.
[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)]
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