Jesus
is very hard on the Pharisees today. He
tells them that they invent all of these externals for themselves to follow,
yet in their words and actions, charity of heart and justice are nowhere to be
seen. In the convocation we had last week as a diocese up in Southaven, we were
talking about how difficult it is to talk about social justice in today’s polarized
political climate, because social justice in the our modern world today is
almost always interpreted as to how it is addressed in the political
sphere. We need to take it out of the
political context, and see it as doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church,
just as authoritative as its teaching on other matters of religion and
spirituality. God always held a people
accountable as to how they treated the least among them. Having done a lot of
missionary work and having worked as both a public school teacher and a priest
in the Mississippi Delta, I can tell you that there are no easy answers as to
how to apply justice and eliminate poverty.
However, we all are called to try to apply justice in our own lives and in
society as best we can. No matter how
hard it is.
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