August 12, 2009

The universal call to charity requires both word and deed

The following is Part 2 in a three-part series on Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, “Love in Truth” (“Caritas in Veritate”). It is by Jonathan Reyes, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Denver.

The call to charity is universal because it involves every human good.  Our care for one another needs to consider the “whole person”, who, in the words of the Holy Father, is “constituted not only by matter but also by spirit, and as such, (is) endowed with transcendent meaning and aspirations.”  This means we need to understand not only the physical needs of our neighbors, but also their spiritual needs, most important their need for “communion” both with other people and with God himself  (“Love in Truth,” 53).

Such a vision of the whole person means Christians cannot be content to limit their vision to only particular needs in those around them.  It is in some sense easy to read this encyclical and see in it little more than an affirmation for the things we are currently doing, whether that be evangelization, feeding the hungry, advocating for justice, or any other of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.  But the real challenge of this encyclical is that it reminds us that no one of these things is sufficient: the common good requires that the Christian people do all of these. 

Of course not any one of us can do everything, and all of the goods are not equally important.  There is a hierarchy.  Still, we can never simply reduce charity exclusively to one issue such as justice or world hunger or life.  It is always all of these because the Church “forcefully maintains the link between life ethics and social ethics.”  The regrettable tendency therefore to isolate “life issues” or “peace and justice issues” does not stem from a full vision of either charity or justice. 

Further, we can never reduce charity or justice to merely material concerns. As Pope Benedict writes, “testimony to Christ’s charity, through works of justice, peace and development, is part and parcel of evangelization, because Jesus Christ, who loves us, is concerned with the whole person” (15).  Thus we cannot be content to preach the Word to someone and not also see their needs for material care or justice or freedom.  Nor can we seek to feed people or advocate for them without also seeing their need to be fed spiritually, to meet their Creator, the source of their eternal joy.  This may not necessarily change what we do as individuals to serve our neighbor, but it ought to inform and perhaps change the way we think about it.  The Holy Father gives the example of education, which can never be reduced simply to “classroom training and vocational training” but must amount to the “complete formation of the person” including “moral formation.”  True education must do more than prepare people to get a job.  It must participate in forming them for a virtuous life in Christ as well.

This more integrated vision of the goods of the person may also lead us to consider more integrated ways of serving others.  Instead of centers devoted to the care of a specific issue, for example, we can perhaps imagine spaces where the care of the whole person is considered, from the spiritual need to encounter the living God to the need for food and clothing and counseling and shelter and job training and education and advocacy.  This integrated vision led the early Church to form “houses of hospitality” and they were always connected with the churches.  In this way places were created where love of God and love of neighbor met in tangible ways for the sake of the whole person and the community.  Of course it is never an act of genuine love to coerce, thus the Church never imposes the Gospel, but she must joyfully propose it out of love for everyone. 

In conclusion, the Holy Father’s encyclical is another opportunity to rededicate ourselves to the life of charity, to receiving God’s love and offering it to others in both word and deed.  It is also an opportunity to rethink the ways we are doing this, in particular to think about ways of integrating the concrete expressions of charity and justice in our world.  The ability of Christians to respond to both aspects of the universal call to charity was central to the transformation of the culturally fragmented and decadent culture of the late Roman empire, and it will be essential for transforming a culture of death into what the late John Paul II called a “civilization of love.”

Panel Discussion on ‘Caritas in Veritate’
What: Panel discussion on latest encyclical by Pope Benedict XVI
Panelists: Jonathan Reyes, president Catholic Charities Denver; Alejandro Bermudez, Catholic News Agency director; Father Daniel Cardo, St. Malo Retreat Center chaplain
When: 7 p.m. Aug. 26
Where: Bonfils Hall, John Paul II Center, 1300 S. Steele St.
Cost: free
Information: Rossana Goni, 303-629-0500