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Monday 22 June 2015

Laudato si : My aching back




"Work is a necessity, part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfillment.” Laudato si 128


“And to Adam he said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labour and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life.” Genesis 3:17

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Vox,

Are you suggesting that the encyclical is teaching something contrary or against the passage you cited from Genesis?

Why not 'both and' instead of 'either or'?

Mark said...

Dear Vox,

I am not certain as to your point in having quoted Laudato si #128..."Work is a necessity, part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfillment".

I will only note that Pope Francis' teaching in question is 100 percent in union with the teaching of the Catholic Church.

That is demonstrated by the following from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2427 and #2428:

"Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another.

"Work honors the Creator's gifts and the talents received from him.

"It can also be redemptive.

"By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work.

"He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish.

"Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.

"In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary."

Mark Thomas

Our Lady of Good Success-pray for us. said...

Well spotted, Vox. The world, for Faithful Catholics, is a fallen thing. The world for the utopist just needs the right secular governing body to make it perfect, despite what Our Lord teaches us.

Anil Wang said...

Vox, you're mistaken here. Read the previous chapter and you'll see that God gave Adam charge to guard and protect the garden and to name the animals. Work is very much part of the pre-fall state and it is part of the Angelic state as well and our life in heaven. The Liturgy is called the work of the people is it not?

What Genesis 3 refers to is labour which is quite different. It is part of our disordered state that bodily, we toil, and spiritually we do not offer all our labours to the Lord.

Osusanna said...

Adam and Eve didn't need weed-killer before the fall.
Thanks Vox.

Osusanna said...

It means Adam and Eve didn't need weed killer before the Fall.

TLM said...

Thanks Vox, I am in agreement with 'Viterbo' on this, I'm wondering why others didn't seem to quite grasp your meaning, but thanks again and spot on.