Doing Justice

Doing Justice 

There is a fundamental difference between social justice in the Christian tradition and that which is found in secular places.  Secular social justice philosophers will confuse charity and justice, and this confusion has spread to Christian circles as well.

Very often one will hear it said that giving things to the poor is charity and being a ‘do gooder.’  However, the Christian tradition holds that providing aid to the poor is not charity – it is an act of justice, because the goods of the earth belong equally to the poor and to the rich.  In giving bread to the hungry and clothing to the naked we are not being charitable; we are being just.  Consider the following statements from leaders in the early church:

St. Ambose (De Nabuthe, c.12, n.53, cited in Populorum Progressio of Paul VI): “You are not making a gift of your possessions to poor persons. You are handing over to them what is theirs. For what has been given in common for the use of all, you have arrogated to yourself. The world is given to all, and not only to the rich.”

St. John Chrysostom (Hom. in Lazaro 2,5, cited in CCC 2446): “Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.”

St. Gregory the Great (Regula Pastoralis 3,21, cited in CCC 2446): “When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy, we are paying a debt of justice.”

The Decretals (Dist. XLVII, cited in ST II-II, q.66, a.3, obj 2): “It is no less a crime to take from him that has, than to refuse to succor the needy when you can and are well off.”

St. Ambrose (cited in ST II-II, q.66, a.6): “It is the hungry man’s bread that you withhold, the naked man’s cloak that you store away, the money that you bury in the earth is the price of the poor man’s ransom and freedom.”

People who engage in helping the poor often discover this truth in the midst of such work.  Kerry Weber, associate editor of America magazine, reflected on her experience of doing the corporal works of mercy for an entire Lenten season.  She shares her reflections in a book she wrote, Mercy in the City:  How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job.  Kerry discovered what these early church leaders had taught:  these actions are actions of justice, not charity.  We are providing to the poor what every person deserves in justice.

Similarly, Jane Knuth, a member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Michigan, discovered the same lesson as she began volunteering at a local St. Vincent de Paul thrift store.  She recounts her experiences in a book titled, Thrift Store Saints:  Meeting Jesus at $.25 at a Time.  Jane’s reflections can best be summed up from a line in the Gospel of Luke.  When at the end of the day the master comes to reward his servants, the servant says, “We are merely servants.  We have only done our duty.”  Duty involves justice, and this is what we provide in giving immediate assistance to the poor.

In the essays we read from Msgr. John Ryan, he asks us to consider what is enough in our lives.  Very often we have more than enough.  We have excess, and we have an obligation to share that excess with the poor.  This obligation is one of justice, not of charity. 

Secular social justice advocates look down upon such sharing and even discourage it, arguing that we are not getting to the root causes of poverty in failing to change structures that keep people in poverty.  However, this overlooks the fact that poverty has many causes, only one of which is structural.  If we focus only on structures and fail to provide for a person’s immediate needs, have we not incurred the wrath of the Letter of James, for we have failed to help the person in all of their dimensions. 

However, the Christian notion of justice forces us to consider the fundamental question of what is enough for ourselves and demands that we share with the poor.  Christian social justice is not merely concerned with structural change, but more fundamentally it is concerned with metanoia – change and conversion within each person.  We cannot seek change in structures if we ourselves will not change our behaviors, if we ourselves will not ask what is enough and share with others around us who lack what is due to them.  Structures will change when we change.