"Just as human activity proceeds from man, so it is ordained toward man. For when a man works he not only alters things and society, he develops himself as well. He learns much, he cultivates his resources, he goes outside of himself and and beyond himself. Rightly understood, this kind of growth is of greater value than any external riches which can be garnered. A man is more precious for what he is than for what he has. Similarly, all that men do to obtain greater justice, wider brotherhood and more human ordering of social relationships has greater worth than technical advances. For these advances can supply the material for human progress, but of themselves alone they can never actually bring it about. Hence the norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the Divine Plan and Will, it should harmonize with the genuine good of the whole human race, and allow men as individuals and as members of society to pursue their total vocation and fulfil it.
With the consciousness of this total vocation, there grows the sense of greater responsibility. But it is only in freedom that man can direct himself towards goodness. Our contemporaries make much of this freedom, and rightly so, to be sure. For God has willed that man be left in the hand of his own counsel so that he can seek his Creator spontaneously and come freely to utter and blissful perfection through loyalty to Him. Hence, man's dignity demands that he act according to a knowing and free choice. Such a choice is personally motivated and prompted from within. It does not result from blind internal impulse nor from mere external pressure. Man achieves such dignity when emancipating himself from all capacity to passion, he pursues his goal in a spontaneous choice of what is good, and procures for himself. through effective and skilful action, apt means to the end.
Christ's redemptive work, while of itself directed to the salvation of men, involves also the renewal of the whole temporal order. Hence the Mission of the Church is not only to bring to men the message and grace of Christ, but also to penetrate and perfect the temporal sphere with the spirit of the gospel.
It is clear that men are not deterred by the Christian message from building up the world or impelled to neglect the welfare of their fellows. They are rather more stringently bound to do these things."
Fr G.M.A. Jansen. (Norbert Jansen OP). pp 8-9, Pro Veritate Vol VII No. 2 Jun 15. The Secularisation of the Church. June 15 1968
https://www.sahistory.org.za/sites/default/files/archive-files4/PvJun68.pdf
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