Charity and Justice
We are well acquainted with the two-fold commandment that Jesus quoted, to love God with all we've got and to love our neighbour as ourselves. (See Matthew 22:36-40.) To be commanded to love is somewhat paradoxical. The act of loving, of course, can only be done voluntarily: we cannot be dragged kicking and screaming to love; we choose to love or not to love. But, for us as Christians, it is nevertheless a matter of obligation. 'Love, or take the consequences.' The paradoxical nature of Jesus' command helps us better understand what Jesus intends here. He is NOT commanding us to have warm, fuzzy feelings in our hearts for God and our neighbour. Trying to work up such feelings inside of ourselves would not be a good place to start rolling out how to fulfil the Great Commandment. This love is to be exercised in action, not emotion, by acts of compassion and kindness.
But there is a prior starting point that the prophet Micah points out:
You have been told what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.Micah 6:8
We cannot in all honesty compliment ourselves on our compassion and kindness if we are denying JUSTICE to our neighbour, whether explicitly or by silent complicity with others, whether those others are family and friends or local and higher governments which we elect - or failed to exercise our vote. Worse still, our acts of compassion and kindness can become a screen or camouflage behind which injustice hides or excuses itself.
The fundamental principles of the International Confederation of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul state:
Vincentians work as a team within the Society and also in collaboration with other people of good will to:(Rule and Statutes 1.1 Fundamental Principles)
• serve the poor,
• discover and help redress situations of social injustice that cause poverty, suffering and need.
As the meme says, there's a big problem when charity is a substitute for justice.