Pastor's Page: February 27, 2011
The Virtues of Charity and Justice
The Virtues of Charity and Justice
"Be compassionate as your Father in heaven is compassionate." The word compassion
derives from Latin and essentially means "to feel with another". Compassion is a good synonym for
the complex word "love". When I studied the principles of psychotherapy, we were taught that
establishing rapport with the client seeking healing, was a top priority. Establishing rapport occurs
when the sincere interest of the therapist is felt by the client. It could be argued that 80 to 90% of the
positive results that may occur from the bond of therapist and client come about through
compassionate concern and rapport.
"Love your neighbor as yourself." Catholic Charities, our national outreach to the needy,
grows out of a sense of compassion for those less fortunate. Donating to Catholic Charities (and the
Catholic Ministries Appeal is the major support of our diocesan Catholic charities) is almsgiving and
direct aid to the poor and needy. Charity means direct assistance to those who are deprived of the
basic necessities of life: food clothing and shelter.
Charity is our response to people who are impacted by personal and social ills. Hand-in-hand
with the virtue of charity, is the virtue of justice. While charity is direct service, justice digs out the
causes of such ills and remedies them.
The Missionaries of Christ, a religious order founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, is a direct
service, hands on religious community. They live in the poorest of neighborhoods on the same level
of poverty that those around them have, and they care for the forgotten, the dying an abandoned
people in the blighted areas of the world's cities. This is called charity work because it brings those
who are charitable into contact with the faces of the poor, and it addresses the immediate needs of
people who suffer.
The missionaries of Christ do not do justice. They do the work of charity. The virtue of
justice, the other important response to the challenge of the gospel, tries to discover the root causes
of suffering and eliminate them. Those who do justice ask the questions, "What is causing these people to be dying in the streets, alone and forgotten?"
"What can society do to bring justice to these human beings "What structures can we create to bring an end to human want?" If we can create these structures,
we can lessen the need for charity.
Charity and justice are twin components in our response to the challenge of the gospel. We need to
do both.
Peace and love,
Father Bruce
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