Lesson 9: Seeking to Learn What We Do Not Know and Applying Justly and Honestly What We Know PDF

# Lesson 9: Seeking to Learn What We Do Not Know and Applying Justly and Honestly What We Know ## Lesson Overview - "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and deg...

# Lesson 9: Seeking to Learn What We Do Not Know and Applying Justly and Honestly What We Know ## Lesson Overview - "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." - Frederick Douglass in "Strong to Suffer, and Yet Strong to Strive: An Address Delivered in Washington, D.C. on 16 April 1886" ## Learning Outcomes At the end of the lesson, learners should be able to: 1. Explain their interpretation of specific social-moral issues in the light of the moral teachings of the Church on human life, love and justice, peace, and integrity of God's creation (JPIC). 2. Perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy and justice in response to specific moral issues. 3. Relate specific social issues concerning love, peace, and JPIC to their personal and family lives. ## Bridging Learning Opportunity **Prompt:** Read the story below and answer the questions that follow: **Story:** Two brothers inherited a parcel of agricultural land from their parents. Every harvest time, they would equally share the produce of the land. At a certain point in his life, the older brother, impelled by love in his heart, said to himself, “It is not right for me to have an equal share with my brother. As a married man, I have a loving wife and have five children who will look after me when I get old. My younger brother is single and has no one who will look after him at old age.” Then he decided to transfer some sacks of rice secretly to his brother’s barn. On the other hand, moved as well by love in his heart, the younger brother came to this realization: “It is so unjust on my part to share equally with my brother. He is married and has many mouths to feed.” Then he transferred some sacks of rice secretly to his older brother's barn. One night they happened to meet each other bringing sacks of rice and immediately understood what had been happening. Moved by love in their hearts, they hugged each other and promised each other to nurture the value of love and pass it down to their children. **Questions:** 1. What do you feel after reading the story? What makes you feel that way? 2. Based on the story, differentiate between justice and love. ## Social and Ecological Justice and Love In its traditional sense, justice refers to giving both God and one's neighbors what they deserve. The story about the two brothers illustrates this concept. They both deserve an equal share of the produce of the land by virtue of the law. However, their love for each other enables them to consider not only what the law requires but also what the other needs that only the eyes of love can notice. The fullness of justice is reached in love. Therefore, love empowers a person to know the deeper meanings of life. It makes us know beyond facts and figures. It helps us to understand human laws in a much deeper way. It gives us knowledge of the truths of what and who we really are as persons. Love or charity is the greatest theological virtue. It grants us the power to know the meaning of all meanings, to know God Himself. It is the commitment to love God concretized through love of neighbors. Justice, thus, requires a deep knowledge of the needs of others. It is all about the promotion of human dignity and of the common good. There are three types of justice: * __Commutative Justice__ - observed when contracts and agreements are honored. A concrete example is when a lessee pays rent to the landowner. * __Distributive Justice__ - pertains to agency of the government. A case in point is when the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWD) distributes financial aid to victims of calamities. * __Social Justice__ - pertains to the members' performance of their duties towards the society, such as the paying of taxes, voting during elections, and carrying out their respective roles and functions for the advancement of human dignity and the common good. Whenever a senator or a congressman/congresswoman makes a law that promotes the common good, social justice is promoted. Each time a teacher facilitates the growth of the students in knowledge, values, and attitudes, this in itself is an act of social justice and, at the same time, perpetuation of the same in the future since students will become the next leaders of the society. More impactful and powerful is that, each time parents make an act of loving sacrifice for their child, social justice is not only practiced but given a strong foundation. It's when people think and feel that they are loved unconditionally that they can sincerely work for the common good. ## Simply put, social justice means the establishment of right relationships. In the light of the Hebrew understanding of justice in the Old Testament, right relationship is fidelity to the commands of God who liberated the Israelites from foreign domination, such as by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans. To the Israelites, justice means having a faithful relationship with God not as individual persons but as a community. If in a community the widows or orphans are forsaken, the poor are economically exploited, and other forms of injustice are perpetuated, then justice is denied to God as well. Worship of God becomes an empty ritual. ## Social Justice is an actual response to God's command to love. John 15:9-10 says, "As the Father has loved me, remain in my love. You will remain in my love if you keep my commandments just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love." This call to love is, in truth, a call to social justice. The passage evinces the love relationship between Jesus and His Father. It is not an exclusive love or self-sufficient love. Rather, it reaches out to others as shown in Jesus’s acts of healing the sick, feeding the hungry, forgiving sinners, and the like. The love that unites Jesus with His Father empowered Him to give others, especially the poor, their due. As recipients of His love, believers are called to do the same, that is, to love others, especially the poor, the way Christ loves them. ## Love is also the realization of social justice in fullness. It is very evident in the teachings, parables, and deeds of Jesus. The famous parable of the prodigal son illustrates this point. It tells the story of the younger son who asked his father for his share of the property even if his father was still alive. According to the Jewish culture, the children’s share of the property can be claimed only after the parents’ death. However, the father gave in to his son. After getting his share of the property, the son went to a far-flung place where he spent his money on vices until he became impoverished and starving. He went back to his father and asked for forgiveness. The father accepted him and threw a lavish party for his return. Clearly, love is the motivation behind the father’s actions. In today’s context, the parable should not be interpreted literally. When love is the motivation for one’s actions, the requirement of human laws is superseded. As stated in the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (2004), “No legislation, no system of rules or negotiations will ever succeed in persuading men and peoples to live in unity, brotherhood and peace; no line of reasoning will ever be able to surpass the appeal of love.” ## By extension, social justice means ecological justice. Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato si, emphasized the intertwining of the two, saying “When we fail to acknowledge as part of reality the worth of a person, a human embryo, a person with disabilities- to concrete steps by which love for their selves can be fostered. However, loving oneself cannot succeed unless it is founded on and proceeds to love for others. This is the second way: Fostering social justice is the best way to show love for neighbors. ## Both love for the self and neighbors cannot be separated from love for the environment. Pope Francis points out humanity's renewal as a prerequisite to the renewal of its relationship to the environment. He proposes integral ecology as the solution to ecological problems. It goes beyond practical solutions such as the planting of trees and cleaning the environment. It touches on the human roots of ecological problems, that is, the greed of the human person and his or her throw-away culture. The Pope offers not only personal but also economic, social, and political solutions that greatly bear upon the national and international political order. In the international political arena, he cited the need for dialogue and the need to address political power as the reason why agreements and ideas in the international world summits on the environment, such as the 1972 Stockholm Declaration, 1992 Earth Summit, and the 2012 Conference of UN on Sustainable Development, cannot be fully implemented. # Love of Preference for the Poor ## Social and ecological justice, if truly lived out, becomes an actualization of the social teaching on love of preference for the poor. One of the many foundational Biblical passages of the Church’s teaching on such love is this beatitude: “Fortunate are you who are poor, the kingdom of God is yours”. This passage evokes a lot of interpretations. No doubt, it is addressed to all people whose life is lived in recognition of God as the source of everything and the one who holds everything in existence. These people, in the poverty of their heart. ## The love of preference for the poor is at the heart of social justice. It calls human beings, especially those who claim to be Christians, to reach out to the poor. The Church is not short of exemplars in terms of showing love for the poor. Charity is an indispensable part of the life of the saints like St. Vincent de Paul, the very famous Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Sts. Arnold Janssen and Joseph Freinademetz. St. Janssen lived a life in solidarity with the poor and did a lot of charity work for them. For instance, he would give meals to beggars who would come to the seminary in Steyl, Netherlands. St. Freinademetz helped victims of typhus outbreak during. This has injustice built into it" and "that lives a heart-to-heart relationship with the Father, in union with Jesus Christ, under the gracious influence and sway, of the befriending Spirit of both the Father and the Son." This description suggests that the love of the Trinity with one another is the model of the love relationships that Christians should establish in their communities. ## Peace and Active Nonviolence ## In promoting social justice the Church of the Poor employs means always in accordance with Gospel values. Her ways are peaceful and active nonviolent. What does peace really mean then? Authentic peace transcends the effect of justice; it is the outcome of love. When Jesus resurrected, He appeared to the disciples and said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” “Peace be with you” is not a simple greeting. It is the realization of Jesus’s promise during the Last Supper to give peace to the disciples. It suggests that “peace is to accompany the disciples in their forthcoming assignments.” The disciples were to carry out the mission of spreading love. Like the disciples, today’s Christians are tasked to carry out the mission with peace as their way of attaining social justice. ## As a consequence of justice applied not only in the economic but also in the political order, social justice takes into account the basic rights of human persons, the obligations of political communities, and other political issues all over the world, such as the treatment of minorities, political refugees, and disarmament. In Short, peace exists and thrives in right relationships. It is the “harmony in the human heart and in the social order brought about by justice.” It should be borne in mind that the strategy for the establishment of justice or right relationship is neither violence nor pacifism but active nonviolence. Today’s world somehow tolerates, if not idolizes, the way of violence as portrayed or even promoted through mass media. Violence at times is used as a means to attain a certain end. Certain families even become the breeding ground of violence. It is so powerful that without it, the use of money becomes powerless. In this regard, the South African theologian Albert Nolan says, “You cannot dominate the world with your money if you do not have the weapons to protect your wealth.” ## To Jesus, violence is not the way to attain peace. In His time, the zealots went underground and took up arms against the Roman Empire. They revolted in 66 AD and only on God as their source of strength and purpose, particularly when they are up against the harsh realities of life. Being such, they are fortunate. ## Aside from its pyscho-spiritual meaning, poverty in spirit has socioeconomic and political dimensions. At the time of Jesus, the poor were deprived of everything, including the respect due them as human beings with a sacred and inherent dignity. Living on the fringes of society, they were despised and looked down as sinful people. Then Jesus came and announced the good news of God’s kingdom to them. To the rich, He said: “But alas for you who have wealth, for you have been comforted now. Alas for you who are full, for you will go hungry.” The rich are unfortunate since their attachment to their wealth makes it difficult for them to enter God’s kingdom. Pope Francis, in his Evangelii Gaudium (2013), says, “The worship of the golden calf (Ex. 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.” Money is important, but it should not be made as an idol or god. ## The love of preference for the poor. It is at the heart of social justice. It calls human beings, especially those who claim to be Christians, to reach out to the poor. The Church is not short of exemplars in terms of showing love for the poor. Charity is an indispensable part of the life of the saints like St. Vincent de Paul, the very famous Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Sts. Arnold Janssen and Joseph Freinademetz. St. Janssen lived a life in solidarity with the poor and did a lot of charity work for them. For instance, he would give meals to beggars who would come to the seminary in Steyl, Netherlands. St. Freinademetz helped victims of typhus outbreak during. It cannot be considered interference in the affairs of the State. The second principle is Church and State collaboration. It is a partnership expressed in genuine service to people and the State in general. The third principle is recognizing the dignity of every person in society because each one is created in God’s image. ## Was the active involvement of the Church during the People Power Revolution in February 1986 considered a principled political activity? During the revolution the Church was involved directly in social activities with the sole purpose of transforming the sinful societal structures to restore Philippine democracy. Some opted for an armed revolution to end the oppressive structures of injustices, poverty, and imperialism. To defend the fundamental rights of humanity and the integral development of the human person and to fight for justice and peace without causing violence are evangelical acts considered to be religious and principled political activities at the same time. In extraordinary cases where people are oppressed, and their dignity is threatened or destroyed, the Church decides to get involved directly in politics as a last resort and a Christian option. She takes an active role in organizing activities that can correct sinful structures. ## When a Christian becomes cautious and decides to remain neutral and silent about an injustice, it is an insult to God and to peace and solidarity. Rev. 3:16 says, “You are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold so I will spit you out of my mouth.” As members of the Church, we cannot decide to choose between doing social action and prayer; we must do both. Coupled with prayer, the Church engages in social action for the common good, according to what is considered moral. This action is not a passive political activity, but rather a principled one, that is, using active nonviolent ways, such as organizing and participating in rallies and protests, negotiations, and boycott with the purpose of forming social conscience. ## Rallies and protests are perceived to be the immediate course of action to end injustices, oppressive systems, and disrespect for human rights. Over centuries, the effect of such actions never had a significant transformation and changes in societal systems, which remained corrupt and sinful. The actions were performed only with critical reflection but devoid of prayer and conscience transformation. This is pure activism. To bring about significant social changes that are Christian in character, we have to consider the integration of knowledge and reflection (Scientia) with nurturance of character or conscience (Virtus) and principled political activities (Devotio). ## As members of the Church, we can get involved in politics. Our involvement should always consider principled actions based on conscience and the social doctrine of the Church. We can rally and protest in the streets to proclaim God’s Kingdom on earth and to fight for social justice, peace, and unity. As witnesses to the Word, we are obliged to get deeply involved and be seriously concerned with the future of our common home. ## The Church and the Political Community Think of a fiesta in your own community. After the mass, there is a feast with merrymaking. How does the host family entertain the guests? During this occasion, there is a tendency to give special attention to the clergy in contrast to the laypeople. There is a reserved place for the priests, and special food is served to them. These practices suggest a limited way of understanding the nature of the Church. Aside from being understood as a building where worship of God is conducted, it is oftentimes perceived as merely the members of the clergy. ## If you view the Church as the people of God, including all the baptized (the clergy and everyone without distinction), who take an active role in the Church's mission as a servant Church, then you have understood it very well. Serving all of humanity and the world, the profane, and the secular are the Church's mission. Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ brands this as secular-dialogic, the dialogue between the profane and human experience. The Church’s mission, therefore, should not center only on what is understood as belonging to the spiritual, often making the praxis of faith passive, but also as immersing in the world with all its concerns. ## The transformation of human frailty and the perfection of society by eradicating the culture of corruption are the demands of God's Kingdom. The moral obligation of the Church is to work on those demands. Therefore, her work is not limited to issuing ecclesiastical statements and announcements. She should proclaim in action the demands of God’s Kingdom, that is, to vanish the darkness of sin and night of unbelief in society. If this is not done, her faith is both meaningless and dead. ## There are two effective ways to correct errors in societies with sinful structures and systems. The first one is through conscientization. This principle means changing one’s paradigm (that is, attitude, perception, and belief) to awaken the faithful to social realities. Having an attitude of being critical about societal situations can lead to a metanoia experience that spurs social transformation. The second way is through dialogue, which leads to societal change. In this process, the Church makes a moral judgment on social issues and proposes a productive and sustainable moral course of actions. Also, she needs to work hand in hand with the State. ## There are principles that can help us understand the relationship between the Church and the State clearly. The first principle is noninterference of the State in the religious affairs of the Church, and at the same time, allowing the Church to understand her limited jurisdiction. However, this limitation does not mean that the Church is not allowed to get involved in political, social, and economic issues, especially when the well-being of the person is affected. Carrying out the Church’s prophetic and kingly mission has political repercussions since problems pertaining to faith and morals pervade the political arena. Involvement in such activities with concrete productive solutions are principled. In this. temporarily took control of power. In 70 AD they were massacred by the Roman soldiers. This shows that violence begets violence. However, Jesus’s way is that of peace and love. His act of sacrificing His life to fight against the oppression of the poor created a ripple of nonviolence that left a unique and lasting imprint on the history of humanity. The witnessing of the saints and the martyrs over the centuries is a proof of the effect of nonviolence resting not on the rickety ground but on the unconditional love of God. ## People Empowerment ## People empowerment, or simply people’s participation, is central to the attainment of social justice through peaceful and active nonviolent means. Pope Paul VI, in Gaudium et Spes (1965), says, "Since God the Father is the origin and purpose of all men, we are all called to be brothers. Therefore, if we have been summoned to the same destiny, human and divine, we can and we should work together without violence and deceit in order to build up the world in genuine peace.” ## A just community is open and inclusive. It is where the marginalized become more than mere recipients of charity work. In the context of their situation, they participate in activities for economic and human development. This principle of participation is rooted not only in the human person’s nature as a conscious and relational being but also in the Trinitarian mission of love. The three Divine Persons are one and equal to one another in power, glory, and majesty. Human beings who mirror the Trinitarian relationship are equal to one another in terms of dignity, and yet they are unique from one another. ## In promoting people’s participation, it is necessary to foster dialogue and cooperation among all people of good will both in the national and international levels. Organizations and associations by different groups and sectors, animated and guided by solidarity, must be allowed and supported. The principle of solidarity has to be steered by the principle of subsidiarity, that is, the concept that small groups and entities should be given the chance to function according to their capacities. Their roles and duties should not be assumed by higher entities. With regard to this principle, Pope Pius XI says, “Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice and at the same time a grave evil and disturbance of right order to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body social, and never destroy and absorb them.”