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Social justiceA talk by Michael j. Spoula
2004 Version 
Prayer: The Social Justice Our Father
by Michael J. Spoula
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name
Let my life glorify your holy name.
Thy Kingdom Come,
Help me build your kingdom using the bricks and mortar of love byserving my brothers and sisters.
Thy will be done
Your will is that we love one another, Gracious Father let me surrender your will.
On earth as it is in heaven
Help me use your grace so that I may be your hands and feet in this wonderful garden we call Earth in which you have placed me.
Give us this day our daily bread
Strengthen my weak knees and my tired arms so I may tirelessly serve you through those that need my help.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespassagainst us,
For we have all sinned against you Lord and we are already forgiven by you. Let us learn how to forgive those who are not perfect in our eyes, letus see them instead with your eyes and treat those people with the samecompassion and mercy you have already treated us with,
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
For all on heaven and on earth, in the sky and below are yours, teach usto share and love the children you call our Brothers and Sisters. Amen. Tonight our topic is social justice. It is good that we speak of this topicbefore you make your final decision to enter the church or not. A word of  warning here. What we are talking about is not necessarily CatholicDoctrine, it is Christian Doctrine. Many of the concepts cross the line
 
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from the Church to the denominations. So in general no matter whichbrand of Christianity you embrace, your responsibilities will beremarkably the same. Why should we as individuals be concerned withsocial justice? We human beings are social animals. Whatever we dohas an effect on the rest of human kind. We make choices in our life and we tread down paths of our own choosing. We can tread the road of aHitler or a Stalin and bring misery and suffering to the world or we canchoose the path of Mother Teresa and bring relief to untold thousands of people by what we do and say. As a social animal we interact with oneanother so the consequences of our actions, good or bad, are never in avacuum. The Church consists of those of us here on earth, sometimescalled the Church Militant, those members in Purgatory and those in thebliss of heaven, sometimes called the Church Triumphant. We are onecommunity that stretches from the beginning of the human race untilthe end of it sometime in the near or distant future. Our actions haveaffects on all three communities. Think of our actions as if they were arock being thrown into a quiet pond. The rock hit’s the water and fromthe epicenter the ripples go out, one after another, and each ripple, nomatter how tiny has some effect on the whole. This is a key conceptbecause it introduces our responsibility to one another. If what we do orsay has an effect on others, then it is our duty as a professed follower of Christ to be sure that what we do matches what we claim to be. Asecond question we must answer is; what in fact is justice? Is justice
 
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 just what is “fair?” Is it fair, for example that in the United States wepay about $1.75 for a gallon of gasoline, and we fill our tanks with only acouple of hours worth of our labor, while it takes the citizens of Japan orEurope an entire day’s labor to purchase as much gas as we bought.Our justice has to go beyond what is fair. The Christian symbol for justice cannot wear a blindfold for we must have sharp eyes to see whatis going on in the world around us. Justice then, will entail for aChristian person an element of self sacrifice. Ouch! Self sacrifice is not aconcept that sits well with us Americans. We need to watch and not only wait for ways to help our fellow humans. We Christians must searchthem out as well. This is our right and duty as adopted sons anddaughters of the King. We are together a community of saints and acommunity of sinners. What makes us saints is the death of Jesus onthe cross. What makes us sinners are the ways we fail to return thatlove to Him. I think social justice constitutes the fine print of being aCatholic Christian. I want to caution you here. When we are speaking of integrating social justice into our life, we must not confuse the work wedo with “requirements to get into heaven.” Salvation is pure gift which was paid for when Jesus died on the cross (“Father, Forgive them.”) Thegift was confirmed when Jesus rose on the third day. No, our laborscannot purchase heaven for us. So then why do we care about Social Justice at all? We care because we are Christians and again, it is ourright and duty to share the love we have been given with others. We do
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