BRINGING OUR ECONOMY BACK TO LIFE.

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER. YEAR B.
April 19, 2009.
(First reading: Acts 4: 32-35) (Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24)
(Second reading: 1 John 5:1-6) (Gospel: John 20:19-31)


BRINGING OUR ECONOMY
BACK TO LIFE.

What is an economic system.
It is the organized manner in which a given society arranges and manages the production, distribution and consumption of goods in order to meet the needs of its members.

The fundamental purpose of an economic system is then to ensure that all human beings, without exception, participate in the production, distribution and consumption of all economic goods.

The fact that a few people appropriate for themselves the wealth while the vast majorities live in poverty and under exploitation is an indication that the world's economic systems have failed to live up to their responsibility and purpose.

An economic system that fails to meet the needs of all human beings is a "dead" economic system and, therefore, in need of being "brought back to life".

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles depicts an economic system which has truly risen from the dead. The following is that system: "No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common... There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceedings of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need"(Acts 4:32-35).

In the economic system described by the the Acts of the Apostles, everyone benefits from it. It is the only economic system that can fully serve the needs of humankind; the only economic system fit for a life of resurrection(1).

May today's world strive at bringing back to life the economic system of the first Christians.
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Footnotes.
(1) Those who do not believe that the resurrection of Jesus reaches all ways of societal life (the economic system being one of them) will be imitating Thomas (The one who did not believed that Jesus had risen from the dead).