"...man needs to look inside himself ..." - Pope Benedict XVI

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we begin the final Chapter of Pope Benedict XVI’s Encyclical, “Charity in Truth”:
CHAPTER SIX - THE DEVELOPMENT OF PEOPLES AND TECHNOLOGY

1. The development of peoples is intimately linked to the development of individuals. The human person by nature is actively involved in his own development. The development in question is not simply the result of natural mechanisms, since as everybody knows, we are all capable of making free and responsible choices. Nor is it merely at the mercy of our caprice, since we all know that we are a gift, not something self-generated. Our freedom is profoundly shaped by our being, and by its limits. No one shapes his own conscience arbitrarily, but we all build our own “I” on the basis of a “self” which is given to us. Not only are other persons outside our control, but each one of us is outside his or her own control. A person’s development is compromised, if he claims to be solely responsible for producing what he becomes. By analogy, the development of peoples goes awry if humanity thinks it can re-create itself through the “wonders” of technology, just as economic development is exposed as a destructive sham if it relies on the “wonders” of finance in order to sustain unnatural and consumerist growth. In the face of such Promethean presumption, we must fortify our love for a freedom that is not merely arbitrary, but is rendered truly human by acknowledgment of the good that underlies it. To this end, man needs to look inside himself in order to recognize the fundamental norms of the natural moral law which God has written on our hearts.

What a mind and heart, God gave to Pope Benedict XVI!!! He is so simple yet so profound in whatever he writes – at least he has always be so for me. How grateful I am to have beeen reading this encyclical and seeing what I had not see before I read it! May God help me to live His Truth as He continues to teach; by His Grace, may I continue to listen to Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the true Magisterium of God’s Holy Church. May all of us who have been baptized into the Body of Christ hear what Christ has taught us by His Life, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension. May we keep as Mary our Mother did, all He said and did, pondering them in our hearts. May we seek and do His Will as Mary did, who is our Mother and Model.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners NOW and at the hour of our death. Amen.