Justice And Charity in Christianity

November 2007

The Vatican Council proclaimed that action on behalf of justice is a constitutive element of the church’s mission for the redemption of the human race.  It seems to be saying that just as no Eucharist means no Church, so also no justice mans no Church.
    Pope Benedict XVI appears to contradict that in his Deus caritas est, when he says that divine charity, not the human virtue of justice, is at the heart of the gospel.  But he also says that the church cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice.  How are these two statements to be reconciled, and does the pope disagree with the Vatican Council?

I don’t think there is a contradiction.  I think our pope is urging us to maintain a balance in our most basic Christian ideas.  Faith without the balance of reason tends to lead to fanaticism, and justice without the balance of charity can lead to an ideology of power.

It is not power that redeems us, but rather love, the love of Christ revealing throughout his life and from the cross the love of his Father for us.  So also it is not power, even when working on behalf of the poor, that creates the fullness of justice, but rather actions on behalf of justice that stem from our awareness of the Father’s love for us manifested through Christ’s love for us and our responding in love.

Justice does not exist in its fullness simply when everyone eats enough and has an appropriate job and a roof over his head.  It exists in its fullness when God’s people, responding to God’s creation and cooperating through grace and the Spirit, work to realize God’s plan, God’s dream for all his people.  For ultimately God did not create the human race so that it would be happy, but so that it would be happy in God.  We do justice finally when we know that we are acting according to God’s loving dreams for us.

Look at the beautiful myth of Genesis One.  God said, “Let there be light,…let the dry land appear,…let the earth put forth vegetation,…let the earth bring forth living creatures,…let us make man in our image!”  Made in God’s image, we humans were given dominion over all things, not to abuse them but to use them as other parts of God’s creative dream.

Look at the words of Jesus.  Jesus said,  “Blessed are the merciful,…give to him who begs from you,…love your neighbor as yourself,…love your enemies,…I was naked and you clothed me,…I came that they may have life,…I am the resurrection and the life”   Jesus is not giving us a bunch of rules to follow, He is giving us himself, to know Him, to love Him, to share our lives with Him—to share his life with us.  Our actions as Christians are true when they tumble forth from our intimate, loving relationship with Jesus and through his Spirit with his Father.

Living our Christianity, it is not enough to follow rules and go to Mass on Sundays.  It is not enough to live our individual lives with some sense of righteousness.  We must act as a people, a community, called together by God, to fulfill his dream.  We could volunteer with groups like the Catholic Workers who already exist, or we could create new justice movements in our parish, but either way we must find a way to let our love realize justice in our world.