A Spirituality for Justice and Peace Groups

Introduction

Justice & Peace Groups typically have a passion for the Justice and Peace agenda and a programme for action. They also need a spirituality which draws on the richness of Catholic faith and worship. What follows is an initial attempt to trace the main lines of a spirituality for people involved in the Justice & Peace movement. This spirituality takes its inspiration from the mystery of God’s love.

There can be little doubt that love belongs to the deepest nature of Catholic faith and of the Catholic Church. Three phrases from the Johannine writings confirm this insight. The source: God is love. The historical reality: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. The commandment:  Love one another as I have loved you. Love has to be the ultimate wellspring of the motivation which makes Christians champion the cause of justice and peace and be witnesses to the social doctrine of the Church.

Love of God and neighbour

Our love for God is a response to the love of God who loved us first. “This is the love I mean, not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away.” It is fundamental to Catholic faith and spirituality to recognise God’s love for us in Christ as the source even of our response of love for God, which opens then to the love of all those whom God loves, to love of one another, to love of our neighbour, to love of all our brothers and sisters in the human family. Christians recognise a profound unity in love of God and love of neighbour. We are rightly suspicious of people who claim to love God and fail to show compassion, forgiveness and mercy to their brothers and sisters. We call them hypocrites. As religious people, we are afraid to fall into that trap. On the other hand, we fear those who claim to love their neighbour but deny the existence of God because we sense that they may end up oppressing and destroying their neighbour with inhuman ideologies, as we have seen in the 20^th century and with the more grotesque developments of atheistic humanism and with the unfortunate by-products of impersonal globalisation and technological progress.

So God’s radical initiative of love brings us to faith, to worship, to adoration and prayer. It also brings us to love every human being and to respect their God-given human dignity. This has to be the spiritual foundation of the commitment to justice and peace..

I am happy to quote the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. “This doctrine (i.e. the social doctrine of the Church) has its own profound unity, which flows from a Faith in a whole and complete salvation, from Hope in a fullness of justice, and from Love which makes all mankind truly brothers and sisters in Christ: it is the expression of God’s love for the world, which he gave his only Son (Jn 3,16). The new law of love embraces the entire human family and knows no limits, since the proclamation of the salvation wrought by Christ extends to the ends of the earth (Acts, 1,8) (CDSC 3).

This is a commitment of a profoundly religious and spiritual nature. It therefore has to be nourished by the Word of God, by the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, and by prayer and reflection. A commitment to justice and peace is not an activism. It is a commitment to action for justice which is deeply rooted in the life of faith and of prayer.

Love for true human dignity

The love which is the source of the commitment to justice and peace is a love for true human dignity. The message of Populorum Progressio, whose 40^th anniversary we are marking, and of so much of Catholic social doctrine, is that authentic human development attends to the whole person, both material and spiritual. A love for human dignity will not tolerate poverty, political oppression, unjust economic and social inequalities, unjust discrimination on the grounds of race, religion or gender. At the same time, a love for human dignity will promote spiritual development in culture, education and religious expression. It will condemn the violation of religious freedom and freedom of conscience. Human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. This is our human dignity. This is the basis of human rights. Our commitment to justice and peace needs to draw on this religious insight so that we can attend to the development of the whole person.

Love for the sacredness of life

Life is God’s first and greatest gift to us. God gives us life. He offers us new life in Christ. He holds out to us the promise of eternal life. The right to life is the first human right, and is the condition for the exercise of all other rights. According to the Catholic Church, the right to life is from conception to its natural end, and this implies the illicitness of every form of procured abortion and of euthanasia, which, as well as being deeply sinful, are immense social evils. Anyone who is committed to justice and peace must also be committed to the defence of human life. There can be no dichotomy between pro-life and pro-justice. There can be no dichotomy between pro-life and pro-peace. There can be no defence of human rights if that defence does not begin with the defence of life. There can be no defence of peace while unborn human life is denied the peace to grow and develop. The threat to the sacredness of life is the first and fundamental injustice and social evil. I may be like a voice crying in the wilderness, but I would love to see the Justice & Peace movement expand its remit to include the pro-life case. I am heartened in this regard by the statement of Cardinal Renato Martini, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice & Peace, who, in deploring the decision of Amnesty International to adopt a pro-choice policy in its defence of human rights, has shown that the defence of the right to life of the baby in the womb is fully within the competence and duty of the Justice & Peace Movement. I have no doubt that the spirituality of both the justice and peace movement and of the pro-life movement would benefit from the pro-life agenda coming under the competence of Justice & Peace.

 Love for justice

When we speak of justice, “love faces a vast field of work…so many needy brothers and sisters are waiting for help, so many who are oppressed are waiting for justice, so many who are unemployed are waiting for a job, so many peoples are waiting for respect. How can it be that even today there are still people dying of hunger? Condemned to illiteracy? Lacking the most basic medical care? Without a roof over their head? The scenario of poverty can extend indefinitely, if in addition to its traditional forms we think of its newer patterns. These latter often affect financially affluent sectors and groups which are nevertheless threatened by despair at the lack of meaning in their lives, by drug addiction, by fear of abandonment in old age or sickness, by marginalization or social discrimination…And how can we remain indifferent to the prospect of an ecological crisis which is making vast areas of our planet uninhabitable and hostile to humanity?...Or by contempt for the fundamental rights of so many people, especially children” (CSDC 5).Much of this is traditional terrain for the justice and peace movement. It specialises in these issues and continues to be a prophetic voice in the Church and in the world.

 Love for Peace

 Parliament has approved the renewal of Trident, the independent nuclear deterrent. The Justice and Peace movement joined the chorus of protests. Over the years Justice and Peace has been in the forefront of campaigns against wars, against the arms race, and against nuclear weapons in particular. Christ is the Prince of Peace. His command of love is the antithesis of war, violence and destruction. If even a proportion of the huge sums of money spent on armaments were set aside for development, much of the misery presently afflicting the human family could be alleviated. This is social sin, global sin, the sin of the world. The cause of peace is also traditional terrain for Justice and Peace, and will continue to be so. Every Christian, everyone committed to the justice and peace agenda, needs also to seek the peace and reconciliation which Christ alone can bring to our lives. Each one of us needs to be reconciled to God and to each other. Each one of us needs the forgiveness of sins. The love of peace in the world begins with the need for peace in the heart and soul of each one of us.

 Love for Freedom

 There cannot be any doubt that the dignity of the human person implies a just freedom. Freedom is listed as a fundamental human right to be promoted and protected. Freedom is part of integral human development. In speaking of freedom, the Church’s social doctrine suggests that emphasis is given to the paramount value of the right to religious freedom. Since Catholic emancipation, we have taken religious freedom for granted in this country. I wonder if Justice & Peace may have to raise its voice to defend the religious freedom of Catholics, Christians and other believers, not just far away, but here at home.

 Love for Creation

 Justice & Peace sensitivities are increasingly being brought to bear on environmental matters. The world at large is concerned about the present and future of “the planet”: the conservation of the world’s natural resources, the preservation of species, climate change and carbon emissions. It is vital that Justice & Peace should bring an authentic Christian voice to urge human beings and governments to exercise a wise and humble stewardship of the earth and of its resources for the sake of humanity and of all species now and in the future. An authentic Christian voice will remind people that we cannot seek a perfect world without God. It will speak with the serene conviction that Christian word for this environment in which we all live is not the planet, but is the creation, the created world, the created universe, because life is always the gift of God and will not find its fullness except in God. It will offer and support solutions to environmental issues which are rooted in God’s purpose for humanity and for the created universe. This Christian voice will be nourished by the Eucharist in which the bread and wine transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ is a glimpse of the mystery of the new heavens and the new earth.

 The Eucharist and Justice

 The Eucharist is the central activity of the Catholic Church because the Eucharist is the sacrament of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the sacrament of his real and substantial presence as the food of life. Because the Eucharist happens in Church as a sublime and beautiful liturgical activity, it may seem distant from the poverty, injustice, and misery of that many people have to suffer. In reality, however, nothing could be further from the truth. In his post-Synodal Exhortation on the Euycharist, Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI has given us some heartfelt teaching which underscores the relationship between the Eucharist and the concerns of justice, peace, development and the environment. Because the Eucharist is the memorial of Christ’s loving sacrifice for every human being, the Eucharist commits us to a universal love of our neighbour. The Eucharist commits us to a commitment to justice which is real and active. And the Eucharist as the bread of life and food of our souls commits us to overcome hunger, misery and economic injustice.

 Conclusion

The activity of Justice & Peace Groups remains a prophetic leaven in the Catholic community. This activity needs always to be directed by the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church and underpinned by a profound spirituality which comes from the mystery of God who is Love.

Based on an Address at a Day of Recollection for the Justice & Peace Group of Pantasaph, North Wales, marking the 40^th Anniversary of Populorum Progressio, 24^th March 2007

+Philip Tartaglia

Bishop of Paisley

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

15^th June 2007