Folks,
At the
Catholic Online news site, Deacon Keith A. Fournier wrote an interesting article called “
’Social Justice’ and ‘Peace Justice’ Catholics”. In it he argues (not without a certain amount of correctness) that the terms ‘social justice’ and ‘peace and justice’ have been hijacked by pro-abortionists, and that the pro-life contingent of the Church ought to rightly take back these terms. He correctly states that there is no greater example of social justice than the defense of the lives of the most innocent and helpless members of society. He advises that we all should be ‘Peace and Social Justice’ Catholics. But I have a problem with that, for it presupposes that our goal is universal peace and social justice on this Earth. The fact of the matter is that there will be and can be no universal peace and social justice until the return of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The object is not to feed bellies, but to save souls from sin. This was the message Jesus gave to the crowd in
John chapter 6. Jesus had fed the 5000 with loaves and fishes and then He and His disciples cross the lake of Galilee to Capernaum during the night. The next morning, when the crowd awoke, He was nowhere to be found, so they reasoned He must have gone across the lake during the night. Thus, they walked around the lake and found Him in Capernaum, asking Him, “"Rabbi, when did you get here?" He responded, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
Indeed,
Matthew 10:34-36 states, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man 'against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one's enemies will be those of his household.'”
Here is the fact of the matter: without righteousness and holiness before the King of kings and Lord of lords we can and should expect NO peace, NO social justice. Peace and social justice BEGIN with repentance – they are the fruit of holy, chaste and virtuous lives. Setting as our goal peace and social justice is myopic, or describing ourselves as peace and social justice Catholics is a misnomer.
Matthew 6:33 states, “But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.”
2nd Chronicles 7:14 describes it in another but equally valid way, “…and if my people, upon whom my name has been pronounced, humble themselves and pray, and seek my presence and turn from their evil ways, I will hear them from heaven and pardon their sins and revive their land.”
In this nation we call the United States of America we have rampant pornography, glorification of the physical union of sodomists, sexual promiscuity, uncontrollable drug addiction and alcoholism, murders and all manner of thievery, and on top of all that we sacrifice our unborn children to false god of personal convenience in much the same way that the people of Israel and Judah sacrificed their children by immolation to Molech and Ba’al. As
Ezekiel 16:20-23 states: “The sons and daughters you had borne me you took and offered as sacrifices to be devoured by them! Was it not enough that you had become a harlot? You slaughtered and immolated my children to them, making them pass through fire. And through all your abominations and harlotries you remembered nothing of when you were a girl, stark naked and weltering in your blood. Then after all your evildoing--woe, woe to you! says the Lord GOD—“ Thus, we do NOT deserve peace and social justice. We deserve God’s righteous wrath.
So many people think that because God is Love He will never punish us. We forget what
Hebrews 12:5-6 states, “My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges.” God’s Justice is the reverse side of the coin whose obverse side is His Love. We cannot have one without the other, and God will NOT tolerate our disobedience, our immorality and licentiousness, and our murderous ways forever. We need to repent once and for all so that we can have real peace and real social justice.
