A column in the Catholic Times wants us to remember what we are meant to do when sent into the world. Without an understanding of the social gospel, we will not be armed with the tools for our mission. We are called to carry out the teachings of Jesus, which comes with our mission call and what we call the social gospel.
The columnist gives us an example of a person who prepares for the future by saving two thousand dollars every month: 24 thousand dollars in one year, two hundred 40 thousand in 10 years. A house in the metropolitan area of Seoul with that money would be difficult to find, and few who could save 2,000 dollars a month.
Difficulty in buying a house and educating a family continues to increase. Many find it difficult to get out of debt. Young people in their twenties and thirties on average are not making two thousand a month, and when they look at the future, there is little hope, and give up working for the future, and instead 'let us enjoy ourselves' is the results. Those in the business world are figuring out ways of captivating these young people to buy and search for pleasure, all helping to produce the culture of death.
Family debt increases and we have a breakdown of communication giving rise to conflicts in the family. The ones who should be sharing are not, and they want the ordinary folk to do the sharing with the' wage peak system' where retirement-age workers continue to work with a smaller salary to allow the young to enter the labor force. The columnist does not see this as the answer. He wants a more substantial approach to the problem.
We have little knowledge of the structural evil in society that influences us daily without our knowledge: "Sins give rise to social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness. 'Structures of sin' are the expression and effect of personal sins. They lead their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they constitute a "social sin" (From the Catechism of the Church).
"But evangelization would not be complete if it did not take account of the unceasing interplay of the Gospel and of man's concrete life, both personal and social. This is why evangelization involves an explicit message, adapted to the different situations constantly being realized, about the rights and duties of every human being, about family life without which personal growth and development are hardly possible, about life in society, about international life, peace, justice and development- a message, especially energetic today about liberation" Evangelii Nuntiandi #29.
