Krista Stevens

Beatitudes Society Fellow, 2007: Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good

A friend once told me that pastoral care was standing at the bottom of a hill, waiting to patch up all of the sheep that had escaped through the open gate at the top of the hill and had fallen down to the bottom. Justice was asking why the gate was open and what we could do to close it. The question underlying this story of the sheep tumbling down the hill is an important one – how do we reconcile pastoral care and justice, two callings of our lives as Christians? At the heart of this question is the virtue of charity.

Charity is a gift of friendship and union with God through Christ, through which we have friendship and love for others and for ourselves. Charity involves love of God above all things but also involves loving all things in relationship to God. As Christians, then, we must ask ourselves what this love of others, grounded in our union with God, calls us to do.

If you ask most people what charity means to them, they would most likely identify the virtue as something along the lines of benevolent giving of money, food, clothing, or time to meet the basic needs of people who are without. This understanding of charity is not without merit. After all, it’s Jesus who says, “‘for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me….” (Mt. 25:35-36). Meeting the basic needs of people and experiencing the ministry of presence with others through pastoral care is undoubtedly an important practical application of our love of others. Stemming from our inherent human dignity, all people should have access to food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, etc.

I often find myself asking, however, whether this benevolent giving – patching up the sheep – is enough. Might charity, the manifestation of our union with God and others, call us to something more – to address the systems of injustice that keep large portions of our global population struggling to meet their basic needs? Don’t we need to ask why the gate is open and how we can prevent the sheep from tumbling down the hill? These questions fall into the category of justice, but justice cannot be separated from charity. Section 1813 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that “theological virtues [like charity] are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues [like justice].” Justice, then, is one of the ways in which charity comes to expression. Charity leads to and calls for justice, a point often overlooked in our society and sometimes in our ministries.

The Beatitudes Society, somewhat uniquely, provides an opportunity to focus on this justice mission of our Christian faith – not at the expense of charity or pastoral care but as a natural development and articulation of charity. The different organizations for which the Beatitudes summer fellows worked share in this mission of addressing the wider systems of injustice and oppression. My work this summer with Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good was invaluable in this regard. Being plugged into an organization like CACG has been an important part in my ministerial development, allowing me to be involved first-hand in national movements for justice and peace. Working on projects addressing things like SCHIP, the Iraq War, and broader cultural trends of consumerism and individualism was a thought-provoking experience of learning to bridge this gap between pastoral care and justice.

Strengthening the progressive Christian network for justice, compassion, & peace