The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 254: Social Justice

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

We begin to look at social justice as outlined by the Catechism by diving into two aspects: respect for the human person and equality and differences among men. The dignity of the human person is at stake without social justice. Fr. Mike highlights that since we are all made in the image and likeness of God, we are all equal in dignity and are to love everyone including our enemies. With that, we must recognize that we are not all the same and work towards fairer conditions for all. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1928-1938. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism Any Year Podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism Any Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church discovering our identity and God's family. As we journey together to our heavily home. This is day 254.

Congratulations for making it today. We're eating paragraphs 1928 to 1938. As always, I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which includes the foundations of faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in your reading plan by visiting AscensionPress.com slash cyy. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications

today is day 254 paragraph 1928 to 1938 social justice is article three social justice yesterday we had article two we concluded article two and article two was all about our need to participate in social life we talked about authority the common good remember that responsibility and participation today social justice is article three're going to highlight two essential elements of social justice. One is respect for the human person. Remember, we spent a lot of time with, I think I've said this every day in the last six days. We spent a long time talking about the individual human dignity, right? We're made of God's image and likeness. So, social justice can be obtained only in

respecting the transcendent dignity of man, right? That's paragraph 1929. So social justice is a thing. We want not just individuals to have justice, we want our society to be just. Yes, that is important, but it's essential that that is based off of the respect for the individual, respect for the human person.

And we're also gonna talk about equality and differences between people. In fact, that's the going to talk about equality and differences between people. In fact, that's the next little bullet is equality and differences among men. So those are the two pieces we're going to highlight today. When we talk about social justice, keep this in mind always, always. Whenever we talk about social justice, in fact, the term, I believe this term was coined by Catholics. I think it would maybe some Jesuits who originally talked social justice. And this is going to be the, you know,

we use that phrase quite often in our culture now, but this is gonna be what we believe is true Christian social justice as opposed to something that might try to override or subordinate the dignity of the human person. Again, it's all the peace. And so keep this in mind. We're talking about respectfully human person

as well as equality and differences between people. So as we launch into today, article three talking about social justice, talking about social justice. I guess I'm excited you guys, that's the reason. I guess I learned my words together. We're gonna say a prayer and just call upon the Lord and call upon the name of Jesus Christ

and his Holy Spirit to guide us and to not just inform us, but also convict us. So we pray, Father in heaven, we do praise you and we do belong to you. We know that you love us. And so in this moment we give you permission in the name of your son Jesus Christ to love us. We give you permission to not only love us with the affection of your true fatherhood,

but we give you permission to love us in such a way that changes us. Oh God, help us to receive your love in a way that does not leave us the same, but transforms us into people who are new, people who are yours. So that we can care for our brothers so that we can love the people around us, the way you love us. Oh God, let your love change us, but let your love not stop with us. Let it be the kind of love that comes from you as its origin flows through us and meets the needs of the people around us. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ,

our Lord, amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is a 254 reading paragraphs 1928-1938. it is a 254 reading paragraphs 1928-1938. Article 3, Social Justice Society ensures social justice when it provides the conditions that allow associations or individuals to obtain what is there do according to their nature and their vocation. Social justice is linked to the common good and the exercise of authority. Respect for the human person. Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent exercise of authority. Respect for the human person. Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man.

The person represents the ultimate end of society, which is ordered to him. St. John Paul II said, "...what is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt. Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it.

They are the basis of the moral legitimacy of every authority. By flouting them or refusing to recognize them in its positive legislation, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy. If it does not respect them, authority can rely only on force or violence to obtain obedience from its subjects. It is the church's role to remind men of goodwill of these rights and to distinguish them from unwarranted or false claims. Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that everyone should look upon his neighbor without any exception as another self, above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity. No legislation could by itself do away with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which

obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a neighbor, a brother. The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged in whatever area this may be. Christ said, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. said, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. This same duty extends to those who think or act differently from us. The teaching of Christ goes so far as to require the forgiveness of offenses, he extends the commandment of love, which is that of the new law, to all enemies. Liberation in the spirit of the gospel is incompatible with hatred of one's enemy as a person, but not with hatred of the evil that he does as an enemy.

Equality and differences among men Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature and the same origin Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine Beatitude, all therefore enjoy an equal dignity. The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it, as Gaudium at Spes estates. Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the ground of sex, race, color, social conditions, language or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible

with God's design. Uncoming into the world, man is not equipped with everything he needs for developing his bodily and spiritual life. He needs others. Differences appear tied to age, physical abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes. The benefits derived from social commerce and the distribution of wealth. The talents are not distributed equally. These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular talents share the benefits with

those who need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods. They foster the mutual enrichment of cultures. Saint Catherine of Siena, speaking poetically in the voice of God, states, I distribute the virtues quite diversely. I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others. I shall give principally charity to one, justice to another, humility to this one, a living faith to that one. And so I have given many gifts and graces both spiritual and temporal

with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another. I have willed that one should need another, and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me. There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are an open contradiction of the gospel. God who must be as further states, their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race

is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace. All right, there we have it, paragraphs, 1928 to 1938. We're starting off from the very beginning again. Keep in mind, all of these things, they make up a hole. So, so we can't ever discard one truth for another truth, maybe for this before,

maybe I've said this before. Heresy is a refusal to live in tension, you know, right? Heresy's if refuses to live in paradox. And so, you know, what heretic does is emphasizes one truth or at the expense of another truth. And so, one of the things we need to keep in mind is this, this article three on social justice is so good, it's Orthodox, right? It is coherent because it does not emphasize social justice at the expense of individual justice, right? So there's such a goodness here, there's a coherence here.

In fact, it's even part of what we talked about a couple weeks ago when it came to justice, what is justice? of what we talked about a couple weeks ago when it came to justice. What is justice? Remember when we talked about the virtues and we discussed the cardinal virtues of justice, temperance, prudence, fortitude? That seems like a long time ago, but justice is giving someone what they're owed. It's giving someone what is their due. That's very, very simple. And so we recognize in paragraph 1928, rather very beginning here, it says, society ensures social justice

when it provides the conditions that allow associations or individuals to obtain what is their due, right? That's the definition of justice. So society ensures social justice, right? When associations and individuals have justice, according to their nature and their vocation. It's linked to the common good.

Again, this is one of those situations where we want to hold it all in our grasp, right? We never want to drop something in favor of something else. We don't want to drop a truth, we'll say it like I don't want to drop one truth to pick up another truth. We're going to hold them in tension. And I love again, 1929, the next paragraph, we've said this at the very beginning, the outset of this day's episode. Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent indignity of man. So remember, each individual is greater than any country. One individual is greater than any nation, any government, any corporation, right?

Why? Because every nation, every government, every corporation will cease to exist at some point. But there is no individual, there's no human being who will ever cease to exist. Every one of us will exist forever either in glory with the Lord and heaven or in what Scripture calls in everlasting shame and in damnation and hell. But every one of us is destined to live forever, whereas governments, nations, corporations, societies, at some point they will cease. And so what's that stake here, the quote from John Paul II, is, what is that stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator,

and to whom the men and women at every moment in history are strictly and responsibly in debt. And so it's just so, so key. Why would we want social justice? Because the people next to us are made against image likeness. Because the people who would get justice are the people who made against image likeness and as Christians, what's been placed upon us, what's been placed upon us is this recognition

that not only is every human being on this planet made against image likeness, therefore, in some way, we are all brothers and sisters of the human race. But also, made in God's image and likeness. Therefore, in some way, we are all brothers and sisters of the human race. But also, the Lord God, Jesus Christ himself, has died for everyone. He's given his life for every person, even those people who don't believe what we believe,

even those people who are our enemies. And Jesus commands us to even treat our enemies like our neighbors, to treat our enemies as family. It's remarkable. So, that's in paragraph 1930 and 1931. It says, everyone should look upon his neighbor without any exception as another self. Remember what is the great second rate commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself. Above all bearing in mind, his life in the means necessary for living it with dignity. And so again, it goes, I love this next part because it's just so important. He highlights the limit of law.

He says, no legislation, goodbye itself, do away with the fears, prejudices, attitudes of pride and selfishness, which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Right? So, so there's no law. There's no law that will bring about justice. There is no law that will bring about love. There's no law that will bring about love. You can never eradicate hatred. You can never eradicate prejudices.

I mean, racism or sexism or any other kind of prejudice that exists. You can't legislate that out of existence. It goes on to say such behavior, those things, those attitudes of pride, selfishness, prejudices, fears, those behaviors will cease only through the love or charity that finds in man, in every man, a neighbor or a brother. I mean, just keep that in mind. How often, you know, how often are there times where we get so mad at someone or we pre-judge like prejudice, that's what prejudice is to pre-judge.

We pre-judge the behavior of somebody or with their actions or we look at them and say, oh, who is that person? And if you got to know them, your mind completely changes. Once you realize, oh, this person is actually a friend, or even if we look at others, the way you, if you have siblings, I do this all of the time. I'm so grateful to my parents for having my five brothers and sisters, the six of us.

I'm so grateful for knowing my cousins and knowing my extended family. And for being able to be in relationship with my siblings who have kids, because in them, these people I love, and know really well, and love so well, that I can meet a new person, and someone who might be a little abrasive, someone who I wouldn't necessarily,

I might think a certain thing about them, if again, if they're a little abrasive, if they're kind of like, however they come across, and I think, oh, oh, no, no, no, I have a sibling just like you. I get it. And there's something about, I love that lens of saying, this is the person. In fact, man, I came across the story of this man,

his name's Tim Ballard. And Tim Ballard runs this program called Operation Underground Railroad, where he saves kids, principally kids, from child sex trafficking. And at one point, there was the story he was telling about, here's this kid, and they had this thing operation to debust the people who were buying and selling this young man. I mean, he was like eight years old. And to save this kid. And at one point, the operation kind of went south, and they weren't going to go to the safe place. They're going to have to, he, if he was going to actually rescue

this child and put those other people under arrest, that he was going to have to go to a place where it wasn't safe. I have to go to like the enemy's territory, essentially, to the bad guy's territory. And at one point, he was like, I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I should do this. And what he did was he said, okay, what if this was, and he said, whenever he went into an assignment, if there was ever a big question of, should I do this, should I not do this. And what he did was he said, okay, what if this was, and he said, whenever he went into an assignment, if there was ever a big question of, should I do this, should I not do this? He said, I would always try to find one of my own children. He has a number of children. I think he has eight children. If I'm one of my own children, whose age most closely approximates the age of the kid that maybe we should

rescue him, maybe we shouldn't rescue him. And he said, okay, so he had a son. And the son was about the same age as this child who they could rescue. He said, if that was my son, I should make up a name. That was my son, Luke, what I not go. He said, no, if that was Luke, I would do anything for him. And so when a name tells this incredible story of rescuing this boy who had been bought and sold so many times and bringing him out of that life and bringing him to a place of Freedom true freedom and that's and that's obviously it's a extreme example It's a very extreme example, but it's what every one of us is called to do

To find in every person around us a neighbor or a brother in perif 1932 says this The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even more urgent when it involves the disadvantage in whatever area this might be, right, that those who need help, those who can't help themselves. We are called this Christians to do something and I'd love this. 1933 keeps on going and says, because here's what we do, maybe this is what you do, but this is what a lot of us do. We put up the objections and say, well, yeah, but what about, what about, what about those who aren't part of our tribe, right? What about those who, who don't think what we think or don't believe what we believe don't acts like we act? It says in 1933, this same duty, right? The duty to do it to the least of these brethren. The same duty extends to those who think or act differently from us. The teaching of Christ goes so far as to require the forgiveness

of offenses that he extends that commandment of love to all enemies. Man, it's so important. Now, the last line of 1933 is also very important, because I think again, the church is so powerful and beautiful in its teaching and it says, liberation in the spirit of the gospel is incompatible with hatred of one's enemy as a person. So if I'm gonna live in the spirit of Christ, if I'm gonna live in the spirit of the gospel, that's incompatible with hatred of one's enemy as a person. But not with hatred of the evil that he does as an enemy. So I can't hate my enemy.

I can't hate the evil he does as an enemy. And this is in so many ways what we're talking about when we say, okay, we love the sinner, but hate the sin. That's a real thing. And yet, maybe some people say that's cliche, maybe some people say that's too shallow, maybe some people really dislike that phrase.

At the same time, we must love the people around us. We must love our neighbor, we must love our brother, we must love the sinner. But we may not love our neighbor. We must love our brother. We must love the sinner. But we may not love the sin. We actually can hate the sin. And we actually work to stop that. Work to stop the sin. What work to stop the evil that someone's perpetuating.

Now, lastly, equality and differences among men, and this is so important for us. We recognize that every one of us is equal in dignity. Period of 1934, 1935, 1936, it highlights this so clearly that we are made in God's image and likeness. Therefore, we equally endow with rational souls. We have the same nature, the same origin, redeemed by the same sacrifice of Jesus Christ,

all participated, invited to participate in the same divine beatitude, all destined for heaven. Therefore, all enjoy an equal dignity. There is no room in the Catholic church for any kind of racism or sexism or any kind of thing like that. We are equal, equal equal dignity. There's no room in Catholic church for any kind of racism or sexism or any kind of thing like that. We are equal, equal in dignity. And therefore, there's rights that come out of this. Here's the church. I've given once again, and God, Him, it's best. Every form of social or culture of discrimination, in fundamental personal rights on the ground of sex, race, color,

social conditions, language or religion must be curved and eradicated as incompatible with God's design. Any immutable characteristic, right? Any immutable characteristic. And if there's any unjust discrimination about that, that must be eradicated. That's not compatible with the gospel with God's design. And yet at the same time, we recognize that we're different. We're equal but not the same.

And I know the plusy versus circus and separate equal was a not that was not accurate. And that's not a good court case But we do recognize that this is how reality is this is what is true about humanity is what's true about all of us Is that we are equal in dignity and yet we are not the same there are differences and Uncoming into the world. This is 1936 man It's not equipped with everything he needs for developing his bodily and spiritual life, he needs others. And again, think about this, a baby, just as simple straightforward, a baby needs others. But also at any stage in life, we need others. Because there are differences tied to age, whether that be early age or old age, there's

differences tied to physical abilities, intellectual and mortal aptitudes. I can't fix my car. I want it breaks down. So I need others, right? And I can't give myself an appendectomy. We need others. And the recognition that we talents have not been distributed equally. Some people are smarter than others. Some people are stronger than others. Some people are more competent. Some people are kinder than others. There is an equality and dignity, but there is not a sameness. Those differences belong to God's plan. Why? That's a good question. Why? Well, one reason maybe is those differences encourage and often oblige each one of us to be generous, to be kind, to share what we have. Then maybe those differences mean that, okay, kind, to share what we have.

Then maybe those differences mean that, okay, we get to take care of each other. Think about, again, when it comes back to children, there are so many times I've talked to parents who have said that, yeah, it's when I finally had children and I realize, I can't just choose to whether to love them or not, I have to love them. I have to choose to love them always.

Or else they're not taking care of, and that has expanded their hearts, that's it actually made them into better people. Think about, if you just lived a selfish life, we didn't care about anyone around you. I didn't see the needs of people around me. Therefore, I didn't have to be generous, I didn't have to be kind, I didn't have to share my goods. At the same time, and this is the last point, in 1938 says, there also exist sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. Those are an open contradiction of the gospel.

So because of the dignity of people, and because we're not all the same, because there are differences in socioeconomic status and in abilities, and that means that we have to, we have to strive for fairer and more humane conditions. That when there's excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples, that that's a source of scandal. And it mitigates against justice and human dignity, as well as social and international peace. There's something we get to fight against it, but we get to fight against it with each other, and we get to fight against it with the grace that comes from God. So tomorrow we're going to talk about human solidarity, and there's that need, that's where conclude this little article, and then we'll go on to the next day. Super, super good

God's law and God's salvation of law and grace. So beautiful. But tomorrow we have our last paragraphs as well as some nuggets talking about human solidarity that we just we need each other. We need friendship. We need social charity and we need to take care of each other like brothers and sisters. So let's start by praying for each other. Let's pray for each other, like brothers and sisters. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike.

I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.