I spurn your feasts, says the LORD,
I take no pleasure in your solemnities;
Your cereal offerings I will not accept, nor consider your stall-fed peace offerings.
Away with your noisy songs!
But if you would offer me burnt offerings, then let justice surge like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream.
Pope Leo has made the appeal to social justice a signature issue of his pontificate. In his encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, he offers a helpful distinction between justice and social justice:
Justice... concerns not only the behavior of individuals, but also the way in which the structures of society are conceived and organized. In this regard, the Second Vatican Council reminds us that every institution is called to serve the human person and his or her dignity. Social justice is, therefore, characterized by the capacity of a social, economic and political order to allow everyone — particularly the weakest — to live a truly dignified life, without leaving anyone behind.
It took the murder of millions of people during the mid-twentieth century to remind the world that the worst evil is perpetrated by patriotic citizens who break no laws, comply with legitimate authorities, and ask no questions about the deeper meaning of their actions. Many honest citizens had dismissed religion as irrelevant, but remained faithful to their duties as husbands, wives, and parents. They competed for jobs in the workplace, and tried to please their employers, especially as they knew that someone else could take their positions. They didn't ask about things that were not immediately relevant to them; if they thought there might be anything wrong about their work they supposed their leaders would carry the guilt and handle the consequences, and perhaps suffer for them. But not the lower echelon workers.
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.”
As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary under the reckless administration of a real estate agent, the world must hear the cry of the poor and Pope Leo's appeal. When the Judgment comes, it will consider everyone's response to these appeals, and everyone's guilt.
