Prayer is Not Complete Without Social Justice

Every committed Christian knows that prayer is the lifeblood of one’s relationship with the triune God. Prayer lifts our minds and hearts to God, seeking his help. Prayer enables us to quietly listen to the gentle voice of the Almighty, guiding us along life’s journey. Prayer calms our often stressful lives with the peace of God, which as St Paul says, “surpasses all understanding.”

And as St. Augustine of Hippo learned – after unsuccessfully searching for meaning and restful peace in the empty ways of the world – prayer, especially the ultimate prayer of genuinely turning one’s whole self over to the will of God, is the answer to our search for true meaning and restful peace. Augustine summed it all up so beautifully in his ageless prayerful observation: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

And with all of this being absolutely true, prayer without social justice is not complete.

Pope Leo, in his recent address to a U.S. delegation of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, said that “Saint Vincent de Paul demonstrated that prayer and social justice are not merely complementary but are in fact inseparable.”

But people of good will, including many Catholics, mistakenly think that social justice is the essential meeting of impoverished people’s immediate needs like giving nutritious food and providing decent shelter to hungry and homeless people. As absolutely necessary as these direct service charitable works of mercy are, they are not the same as social justice.

Social justice is the necessary Catholic Social Teaching principle that prophetically addresses the systemic, root causes of the many injustices like hunger and homelessness suffered by countless brothers and sisters, and tirelessly works to change these unjust political, economic and cultural systems into systems that equally benefit all people – especially the poor and vulnerable.

Social justice is most beautifully defined as applying the Gospel command to love to all cultural, economic and political structures.

But since so many rich and powerful people are obviously not willing to let love mould these very structures under their control, Gospel-centered Christians need to courageously and nonviolently challenge their injustice in refusing to justly share their wealth and power. This needs to be central in our work for social justice.

So many people have ongoing needs that require our direct service ministries like providing food, shelter, clothing, medical and financial assistance. But we also need to work ourselves out of this job.

So, for the good of the poor and vulnerable, and for our good too, it is equally important for us to seriously challenge the root causes of poverty, hunger and oppression. In the words of St. Pope John Paul II, we need to challenge the cultural, economic and political “structures of sin.” And if we dare to boldly challenge these “structures of sin,” many of the rich and powerful will forcefully oppose us – sometimes even threaten us.

For two decades, the late Brazilian Archbishop Dom Helder Camara courageously defended the poor against Brazil’s brutal military dictatorships, nonviolently confronting them and their rich patrons to stop their military and economic oppressive injustice.

In response, the military and rich verbally and physically threatened Camara, who said: “When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”

Meeting the immediate needs of our poor and hungry brothers and sisters, near and far, using only the one foot of direct service without also stepping out with the other foot of social justice – to address the root causes and “structures of sin” – will keep us hopping around on one foot with no end in sight.

An excellent educational aid here is the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops video “The Two Feet of Love in Action.”

Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated Catholic social justice and peace columnist. He is available to speak at diocesan or parish gatherings. Tony can be reached at [email protected].