A well-known social justice story goes something like this: One day some villagers, who lived by a river, noticed a body floating down it. With sorrow and respect, the villagers rescued it. The next day, more bodies began to appear. The villagers continued to act responsibly and compassionately. But they never investigated what was happening up river to produce the bodies. In our Sunday Gospel, we hear the familiar story of the good Samaritan, who rescues a man assaulted by robbers and lying in the road. Many Catholics I know are very like those villagers. They compassionately respond to the bodies in their path — giving to many charities, personally helping homeless people, feeding people and so on. It seems much harder for us Catholics to get involved in exploring why people have to be robbers in order to live, that is, to look at the systemic problems in our neighborhoods, states, nations and world that produce victims and victimizers.
Social issues are very complex; inevitably politics is involved. Pope Francis, in his encyclical Fratelli Tutti: On Fraternity and Social Friendship, suggests that social justice is “commanded love.” Here he is citing Thomas Aquinas’ distinction between “elicited” and “commanded” love. Elicited love is the love of the good Samaritan; it flows from the virtue of charity, a “heart response” to individuals and peoples. Commanded love, Pope Francis explains, “spurs people to create more sound institutions, more just regulations, more supportive structures…. It is an act of charity to assist someone suffering, but it is also an act of charity, even if we do not know that person, to work to change the social conditions that caused his or her suffering…” (187). This commanded charity is the spiritual heart of politics, he adds.
Perhaps like me you’ve never thought that writing a letter to your representative in Congress was an act of love! When we listen to Pope Francis, we are challenged not only to be good Samaritans but also to be good advocates, good “commanded lovers,” acting to change things that cause the sufferings and injustices of our time.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post July 13, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Loving Acts: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.