How far back does Catholic Social Teaching go? In Scripture, it goes back to Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” Catholic Social Teaching is founded on the Truth that all people are created in the image of God.
In history, it goes back to the Law that God gave the Israelites in the Sinai desert. Today’s first reading is part of that Law and part of Catholic Social Teaching.
Whom should we love most? God.
As both the Gospel and the second reading today show, the hearts of the faithful are to belong to GOD FIRST. But, as what Jesus says in today’s Gospel shows, loving God includes loving “our neighbor.”
The teaching of our faith has included that from the beginning. However, the questions, “Who is my neighbor?” and “How do I love him/her?” have developed over time. They are the content of Catholic Social Teaching. The answers to those questions as we know them today began in the Magisterium in 1891 with Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, The Condition of Labor. [The Magisterium are the documents developed by councils, popes, and canon law through history.]
Each year, as we move into the weeks preparing for the Solemnity of Christ the King at the end of November, our readings lead us to consider what is most important to God and to us as we face both our own deaths and the final judgement of the nations at the end of time. In the Gospel of Matthew, themes of our need to love our neighbor as well as ourselves are strong in the readings for the next several Sundays.
As I read various things across the polarities present in the Church today and as I listen to news, it seems there is substantial misunderstanding of Catholic Social Teaching. For that reason, as well as how well it fits with the liturgical season and readings, I want to include discussion of one or two principles of Catholic Social Teaching in the Sunday reflections for the next few weeks.
Exodus 22:21-27 & The Inherent Dignity of the Human Person
God gave Moses the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20. Today’s selection from Exodus 22 are “details” for how those 10 Commandments are to be practiced. They are social matters: Respect any foreigners in your community. Do no wrongs to widows or orphans (the most vulnerable people in the community.) Lend money to someone in need—without interest. In managing financial affairs, take nothing that is essential for someone’s health or safety. The list goes on in Exodus 22 and 23. Taken together, they mean “Love those around you in ways that respect their dignity and their needs.”
The inherent dignity and value of each and every human person is the foundation principle of Catholic Social Teaching. We are ALL created in the image of God. Therefore, we are ALL due basic human respect.
Among the documents of Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes tackles this issue and gives clear teaching. In paragraph 27 it says:
“Whatsoever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction; whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things are others like them are infamies indeed. They poison human society, and they do more harm to those who practice them than to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonor to the Creator.”
You could say that this list is the list from Exodus transposed into the world of today. It is appropriate we take it seriously as the US Church completes Respect Life month.
Matthew 22:34-40
When today’s Scripture conversation happens, it is still the same long conversation between Jesus and Jewish faith leaders. Here, the question of the greatest commandment is asked as a debate. The same question is asked in this Holy Week setting in Mark 12:28-34. Luke, however, puts this statement earlier in Jesus’ ministry. In Luke 10:25-28 a lawyer asks Jesus: “What is the greatest commandment?” Jesus answers there as he does in Matthew today: “Love God first, then love your neighbor as yourself.” But then, in Luke, the lawyer asks a follow-up question, “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus then tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Pope Francis used the question and the story of the Good Samaritan as the center of his encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, Christian Fraternity. When I led discussion groups of Fratelli Tutti, I was very surprised when I looked up interpretations of the Good Samaritan parable through the centuries. While it is obvious to 21st century me that a core meaning of the parable is “If you see someone lying on the side of the road, help him out, no matter who he is,” I discovered that great theologians through the centuries had not seen that practical moral meaning. That meaning did not develop until in the 1800s–as a part of Catholic Social Teaching.
Our neighbor today is seen within the church as any and every person. The catechism states our current understanding:
1931 Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that “everyone should look upon his neighbor (without exception) as ‘another self,’ above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity.”
1932 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. “As you did it to one of the least of my brethren, you did it to me.”
1933 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. 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 the evil that he does as an enemy.
I Thessalonians 1:5c-10
Thessalonica was a pagan city in what is now northern Greece. Paul evangelized the community on his second missionary journey. He found ready converts among both the small Jewish community there and among the Gentiles. However, after he had been there only a couple of months, some others of the Jewish community forced Paul and his companions to leave the city.
Paul sent Timothy back to give the fledgling community more instruction. At the time Paul wrote this epistle, Timothy had returned to Paul with reports of the community’s fidelity to the faith. Even though they were ostracized by both the Jewish and Gentile communities they lived in, they were living their faith. A tiny community of Christians was thus “a model” for the continent of Europe. Paul tells them how important it is for them to live their faith and remain true to it.
Ah, yes, that remains true for us today!
Applications
Today’s reflection holds a lot of content. This is a week when prayer led to seeking and finding information. With this information, now we can ask in prayer:
- Do I love God first and most? What does love God first look like when I am considering contemporary social issues?
- What does love my neighbor as myself look like? Am I a beacon of fidelity to “Love God first, love EVERY neighbor in a way that seeks the good of EVERY other as much as my own good?
- And a thought from the last line of paragraph 1933 in the catechism quoted above: how do I hold in balance how I show love to a person with what I see to be evil actions? How do I do both?
Prayer
Lord, help me always love You first and most, then, as You fill me with Your wisdom and Your love, help me to love others—especially help me to love anyone whose life or basic dignity is threatened or trampled by the world around us.
