A presentation I gave today on Catholic Social Justice for Diaconate Inquirers and Deacons

Catholic Social Justice- November 17, 2013

 

Opening prayer

 

I’m just a soul whose intentions are good. Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.

 

The Church’s social teaching is a rich treasure of wisdom about building a just society and living lives of holiness amidst the challenges of modern society. Modern Catholic social teaching has been articulated through a tradition of papal, conciliar, and episcopal documents

 

Catholic social teaching, like everything else Christian, begins with the person and message of Jesus.  Jesus offered no specific economic or political message. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God and redemption from sin.

The early Christian community expected Jesus to return quickly.  As a result, they practiced a heroic ethic of uncompromising love, among fellow Christians.

When millennial enthusiasm began to wane, the Church drew closer to society as a whole, but it’s zeal for justice and equality was reserved to the Church.

Charity, practiced by the earliest of Christians, was not designed to heal social wrongs but to keep alive the community’s spirit of love.

 

Early Christianity, and the hope of the arrival of the kingdom, still separated Christians from the temptations and responsibilities of the broader economic and political life.

Fast forward to Christianity becoming the official religion of the empire.  Primitive communism of property, as an example, gave testimony to the equality of all believers but bred explosive social discontent.  Christianity had to assume responsibility for social order.

An organic social theory, strengthened by emerging ideas of the natural law, provided a firm foundation for Church rules governing social and economic activity.

In the 13^th century Thomas Aquinas was able to synthesize the radical demands of the Gospel with the pressing demands of a religious establishment; the Church.

Western European economic growth gave rise to conflict with the beauty and simplicity of the Gospel message.  Francis of Assisi denounced materialism and the arrogance of many merchants.  Meanwhile, others were busy bending and shaping the Gospel to justify new economic activities.

Reformation Churches arose this economic boom and in centers of economic modernization.  Early Protestantism was associated with the spirit of capitalism.

Catholics were responding to the subsequent economic and societal consequences with a spirit of rebellion; there was challenges from the Catholic Church against economic and political authority.

Tensions between modernity, in economics, culture, politics and religion too, provides the basic context for the emergence of Catholic social thought.

This became most evident near the end of the 19^th century and the teachings and writings of Pope Leo XIII.

Industrialization, nationalism, political and cultural freedom were bound to influence most severely the Catholic Church.

Beginning with Pope Leo XIII, all the way to our current Holy Father, the Church has taught social justice, and so much of those teachings are evident today, and are especially close to the Charism of the Deacon. 

While the Deacon is called to the mysteries of Word & Sacrament, he is most uniquely called to Charity; the Charism most characteristic of the Deacon.

To be the servant of all, Deacons are called to service, charity!

For anyone immersed in the workings of true social justice, and for the Deacon specifically, there must be a real emptying of self. 

If the Deacon is to model Christ the servant; if the Deacon is to be the icon of Christ the servant, if the Deacon is the visible sign to the Church of service sacramentalized, then we must have the same mind of Jesus who:

 Though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.  Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.

He humbled himself, becoming obedient, to death, even death on a cross.

The Deacon indeed is called to empty himself, to be humble and be humbled, becoming obedient, taking the form of a servant.  The Deacon is challenged to practice love, kenotic love, from kenosis, emptying self to fill up the needs of others.

The question then, for all of us here today, can we drink this cup?

If we prayerfully believe that this is what we are called to, if we can drink the cup, be prepared here and now to be present and ready to serve the poor, the suffering, the disenfranchised, the prisoner, the sick and dying, the immigrant, the weak, the marginalized.

If we prayerfully believe to this I have been called, be prepared to challenge many of the cultural, economic, and political establishments that defies the Church, denies the natural law and seeks more to be served than to serve.  We, are called to serve and not be served!

Prayerfully, as you consider social justice, the social doctrine of the Church, what sacred cows do you need to kill?  In our own lives and our family of origin and circle of friends, do we still think all inmates should be locked up and throw away the key, it is less important to feed the immigrant and offer a cool cup of water because he could be illegal, have we wrestled with our own demons relative to racism, are we ridiculously beholding to our political party, do all welfare recepients cheat and drive big cars?

These sacred cows must be killed; we must empty ourselves, we must embrace the totality of the Church’s social teaching.

My sacred cow was prison, inmates. 

I did not want to minister in prison and I made that fact known while I was in formation.  And you guessed it, I was sent to prison.  I met an elderly Deacon who was assigned to Rayburn Correctional, he took me under his wing, and I learned to minister inside prison.  When my internship was over, I had an unexpected desire to return to the prison.  Two years later, as I became a Permanent Deacon, I was assigned to that same institution to replace that elderly Deacon as the Catholic chaplain.  Many years later, I can honestly say I love everything about the ministry we offer to these men.  I’ve watched the miraculous parole release of a “lifer” who became eligible for parole largely because of his efforts on behalf of the Catholic community in the prison.  I’ve watched the reality of grief in prison at the loss of two of our “parishioners” to sudden and unexpected death.  I’ve watched inmates released, others arriving to begin their sentence and everything in between.  I love my prison ministry!

Through the Church, I and many others have come to understand that it is Holy Mother Church where God meets man and man meets God.  It is that place where God dwells among us.

She declares faithfully that man is not alone, nor should he be lost or frightened in our task of making the world more human, more kind and more loving.

Every person, unique and made in the image and likeness of God, is called to relationship with God and relationship with others in society.

The Church’s social teaching is our guide to help us live in right relationship, with Him, and with one another.

The Church’s social teaching is a proclamation of the Gospel, it makes the Gospel come alive in every age and makes its message truly present.  Catholic social teaching is the gift of the presence of the Church.

As we prepare to begin our next exercise today in Catholic Social Justice, I’m reminded of these words from none other than Phil Collins:

Have you heard the news today?

There’s not enough love to go around; this is a land of confusion.

But this is the land we live in, and these are the hands we’re given.  Use them and let’s start trying to make this a land worth living in!!!

 

For our closing prayer, let’s just meditate on these words from St. Basil:

 

"The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the man who has no shoes; the money which you put into the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help but fail to help."
Basil of Caesarea, 330-370 A.D.