Master·evangeli.net
Today's Gospel + short theological explanation
The "principle of gratuitousness” in economic activity
EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)Today, it must be acknowledged that the economic growth is being weighed down by malfunctions and dramatic problems. The current crisis presents us with choices that cannot be postponed concerning nothing less than the destiny of man, who, moreover, cannot prescind from his nature.
The human being is made for gift. Both in the order of thinking and behavior, not only that traditional principles of social ethics like transparency, honesty, responsibility, cannot be ignored, but the "principle of gratuitousness” and the "logic of gift", as an expression of fraternity, can and must find their place within normal economic activity. This is a human demand at the present time, but it is also demanded by economic logic.
—In the global era, economic activity cannot prescind from gratuitousness, which fosters and disseminates solidarity and responsibility for justice and the common good. This is, ultimately, a deep and specific form of "economic democracy".