Our Bishops remind us that we are called to both do charitable works, or serve, to alleviate the immediate needs of our brothers and sisters, but we are also called to work for justice, or social action to when we work to address the root causes of problems facing our communities by advocating for just public policies and helping to change the social structures that contribute to suffering and injustice at home and around the world. We walk with the Social Justice foot when we work to foster peace and justice and work for long-term change in local and global communities. We also step with this foot when we support the efforts of low-income persons to transform their communities.

The Catholic Church has a lot to say on this matter and it is contained in a written body of principles that are referred to as Catholic social teaching. This is the Church’s understanding of and teaching about justice and service. Catholic social tradition is as old as our faith. The roots of our Judeo-Christian teaching on justice and service take us all the way back to the creation story in Genesis. Because God created humankind in his image, we believe that people deserve both life and dignity.

Catholic social teaching began in 1891 when Pope Leo XIII wrote Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Labor). The Church’s understanding of justice and service has evolved and deepened over the last 123 years, with Pope Francis telling us in 2013 that even “he must open his arms to protect all of God’s people and embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important, those whom Matthew lists in the final judgment on love: the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison (cf. Mt 25:31-46). Only those who serve with love are able to protect!” Pope Francis speech on 3/19/13

But what does this mean for us?

Break the large group into groups of 2-3 participants. Give each group a piece of newsprint with the phrase “If we followed the Golden Rule…” and a marker. Share the following:

We have all heard the phrase “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” or “treat others the way you want to be treated.” Take a minute and think about the things that would be different about our community if we actually did this. If we really treated other people the way we want to be treated how would life be different? Take a couple of minutes to think about this in your group and when I say “Go!” I am going to give you three minutes to list as many differences as you can think of.

After three minutes invite the groups to share their lists.

This sounds wonderful doesn’t it? We would all like to live in a community like that, wouldn’t we? I think this sounds a lot like what Jesus describes as the Kingdom of God, doesn’t it? In the New Testament he uses similar words like kindness, compassion, forgiveness, looking out for each other, etc. Jesus’ command to us is to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” What do you think gets in our way of taking this more seriously?

Allow time for ideas to be shared. Whatever examples are shared, summarize them into the idea that the underlying cause for all these things generally is a lack of dignity and respect for others.

You just shared several great examples of things that can get in the way. What they all boil down to is not treating each other with dignity and respect. As a society we tend to base someone’s value and worth on where they live, what they do for a living, what kind of clothes they wear, and even the color of their skin, their gender or their sexual orientation. We very easily forget what we hear in the book of Genesis. “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:27)

Hold up the crumpled money again and say:

Its worth and value are the same no matter how it looks… our worth and value do not change either, no matter how we look or what we do. Our worth and value come from being children of God made in our Creator’s image and likeness.

We begin by treating those we love with dignity and respect, the way we would want to be treated, but we have to keep challenging ourselves to see all of humankind as our neighbor, and this is where the genius of Catholic social teaching comes in. By using Scripture, the wisdom of our Tradition, popes and bishops, the Church provides us with a framework of practical ways to serve our neighbor while allowing us the freedom to choose the best ways to carry it out. Our faith is not a private affair that is meant to be kept between “me and God.” We live our faith and experience the love of God in relationship to others… in community!