5 - Building Justice
5 - Building Justice
5 - Building Justice
Ric A. Cervera
The question of justice, and the problems of stealing on all levels, due primarily to the widespread poverty, the violation of human rights, and the exploitation of both persons and natural resources, are major problems of our country.
You shall not covet your neighbors house, or anything else that belongs to him fosters social justice by prohibiting the distorted desires of the heart from which stealing and exploitation of our neighbor arise.
It forbids not only unjust craving but also envy at anothers success, such as seen in Cains envy-hatred-murder pattern.
The Tenth Commandment lays bare our powerlessness to check all our disordered desires, and thus reform our lIves not only exteriorly but especially interiorly.
Christs encounter with the rich young man brings out the almost diabolical hold which riches have on us. We thus come to realize our basic need to be saved by Gods merciful love and power.
The Churchs social doctrine offers: principle for reflection; criteria for judgment; and criteria for action.
Typical concerns of the Church are human rights and new insights, such as the notion of social sin.
What are the Churchs guiding truths for Filipino Catholics in political life?
The basic truths for political involvement proposed by the Church are: pursuit of the common good as objective
basis; in defense and promotion of justice for all; inspired and guided by the spirit of service; imbued with the love of preference for the poor; empowerment of the people to be carried out both as process and goal of political activity.
The term social sin is used to describe situations or structures which cause or support evil, or fail through complicity or indifference to redress evils when it is possible. Such sinful structures are always rooted in personal sin.
Typical social sins in the Philippine context include prostitution, pornography, consumerism and militarism.
The Seventh and Tenth Commandments protect property from theft from above (rich and powerful robbing the poor) and theft from below (the have-nots robbing the well-to-do).
The intrinsic dignity of every human person and the basic human solidarity are the basis for the Churchs social teaching.
Work as one distinguishing characteristic of human beings, is an essential key to the social question, especially when seen in terms of the person who is the subject/ agent of work and the primary basis for its value.
workers interest.
The right to work also involves the duty to work, and the right to a just salary involves the duty to work honestly. Both rights and duties are enhanced by a proper spirituality of work which develops the insight of seeing work as sharing in the activity of the Creator.
This option is a Christian preference by which the Church desires to bring the message of salvation to every human being, to every culture and social environment, but in the first place to those who are most in need. It follows the teaching and example of Christ himself, and the exercise of Christian charity to which the whole tradition of the Church bears witness.
Christian charity implies an absolute demand for justice, and justice attains its inner fullness only in love.
Christian Filipinos today face a major responsibility in working to build a just society.
We are called to bear witness to the human and Gospel values that are intimately involves in the economic, social and political areas of activity.