Technology is the practical application of knowledge and the products of such application. All that we make comes from a variety of technologies.
Imagine that all technology is just one thing, a small cube that contains everything needed to make almost everything. It would be a genuinely excellent good.
Thinking about technology as a single good may help us consider what the Church teaches about all goods: earthly goods belong to everybody. If the world only produced our hypothetical good that contains everything, and if everyone did not possess that one good, then the immoral outcome would be a world of those with everything and those with nothing. That analogy illustrates what can happen when the goods of the world don’t go to everyone.
The right attitude to have about technology is this: all of it, especially the most superior technology, belongs in the hands of everyone. That summarizes the doctrine called the “universal destination of goods.”
The Church proposes that the proper use of technology (and all goods) is according to God so that they bring about righteousness, joy, peace, and comfort and contribute to the common good. That’s brilliant.
If technology is the thing that makes human work possible, then it varies in importance with human work. How important is work? The Church answers: “The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and beneficiary. By means of his labor man participates in the work of creation. Work united to Christ can be redemptive. (Catechism 2460)”
Technology is being used correctly when everyone can use it to do the work God calls us to do.
Collect
Mass for the sanctification of human labor
O God, who willed to subject the forces of nature to human labor, mercifully grant that, undertaking in a Christian spirit what we are to do, we may merit to join our brothers and sisters in practicing sincere charity and in advancing the fulfillment of your divine work of creation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Prayer over the Offerings
Receive, O Lord, the offerings and supplications of your Church and grant that, through the human labor we offer you, we may have a part in the work of Christ the Redeemer. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
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