The social teaching of the Church is often described as its best-kept secret. Gerry O’Hanlon SJ from the Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice introduces Messenger readers to this rich source of wisdom for our lives together that is to be found in the social teaching of the Church.
Pat was dissatisfied with his lot. He was unemployed in pre-Celtic Tiger Ireland and all his efforts at community development in a demoralized and disadvantaged suburb of Dublin seemed to have come to naught. All he had was his wife and five children, and he gave vent about this over a cup of tea with Brother Bill. He felt bad, not least because he was doing so little for God. Bill simply said: ‘Pat, your wife and children are God’s great gift to you; they are more than enough. God is happy with you’. Twelve years later I was out for a drink with Pat and he remembered this encounter with the now-deceased Bill and how it had helped him to carry on in every part of his life with hope and courage.
Everyday life
What Brother Bill did was simply remind Pat that for a Christian, life is all one; that relationship with God involves all the bits and pieces of everyday; that there is no separation between what is spiritual and the rest. And so, as we have seen over these past months in looking at the social teaching of the Church, to be a Christian is to be involved in all that matters to human beings in this life – family, work, global justice, war and peace, the environment and so on.
As The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2005) puts it: ‘In the experience of believers, there cannot be two parallel lives in their existence: on the one hand, the so-called “spiritual” life, with its values and demands; and on the other, the so-called “secular” life, that is, life in a family, at work, in social relationships, in the responsibilities of public life and culture’ (n.546).
A better world
In effect, this means that the concerns of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) for such basic values as truth, justice, love and freedom are concerns of us all. Whatever our station in life, as children of God, we are addressed by Catholic Social Teaching to realize God’s dream for a more just and loving world.
This will be a world which respects material wealth and well-being, fairly distributed, but recognizes too, that there is no earthly paradise, that our hearts are set on something more. In this context, the growing dissatisfaction and unease with the increasing accumulation of material goods, which is making itself felt among citizens of the wealthier nations, is entirely understandable. Catholic Social Teaching offers a sane, life-affirming response to such questions.
Get the message out
Why is this teaching not more evident in action? One reason must surely be its status as ‘best-kept secret’. The Compendium notes: ‘This doctrinal patrimony is neither taught nor known sufficiently, which is part of the reason for its failure to be reflected in concrete behaviour’ (n. 528).
There are opportunities here for the Church at parish and other levels to improve this situation – through homilies, parish study groups, twinning with parishes in developing parts of the world, etc. The fruits will richly reward these efforts.
Catholic Social Teaching is a treasure which can be of enormous value to our world, and be a prime example of the role of the Church as a servant of the Kingdom of God. Remember, for instance, Pope John Paul II’s stance against the ideology of communism.
Laity
Many years ago my brother, as a young man, went along to his Parish Priest and asked how he might participate more fully in the life of the Church. He was met with polite but utter incomprehension: what could a young lay person mean by such a request?
Times have changed. This is the era of the laity, and CST certainly stresses again and again that the main opportunity and responsibility of the Church’s mission to put CST into action falls on the shoulders of laity. Sometimes this will be as part of organizations which are affiliated to the Church – e.g. St. Vincent de Paul – but often it will be as individuals doing their best in their own situations to follow the stirrings of the Holy Spirit and promote social justice.
CST gives great encouragement to lay people in such circumstances. It does this not by claiming to have a detailed blueprint for action applicable to every situation, but rather by trusting that with good formation, lay people may with prudence respond well to whatever arises.
Practical virtue
This is not a prudence which equates with either shrewdness or diffidence; rather, it is a practical virtue which, with the background of a living faith and appropriate formation, enables the Christian to decide with wisdom and courage the course of action that is to be followed. It is only through the actions of lay people like this, cooperating with other men and women of good will, that the dream of a ‘civilization of love’ may be realized.
Twelve years on and Pat could still remember how Brother Bill had helped him to recognize the presence of God in his life through his relations with others, the essence of what CST is about. Who can help us recognize this presence in our lives, and in so doing make us more responsive to the cries of the poor which reach us from so many parts of our world?
It is this softening of our hearts and sharpening of our minds which will make us more responsive also to our own search for meaning. The ultimate goal of this search is found in the heart of God, a heart which is open to all other human beings, especially those who long for the recognition of their dignity and ache for a glance of love.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (June 2007), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
