Saints and Social Justice

She always maintained that the easiest way to honor someone’s dignity is through small acts: shaking someone’s hand, flashing a smile, taking the time to listen. Though simple, these small gestures loudly proclaim, “You matter. You’re important. You’re worth my attention and affection.”

People often asked Mother Teresa why she loved the poor so much, how she could honor dignity in such difficult situations. In response, she liked to grasp their hand, slowly wiggle one finger at a time, and explain: “You-did-it-to-me.” In her mind, you could count the whole Gospel on just five fingers.

Christians believe that human dignity is, in the first place, the result of God’s respect for us.

“None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself,” writes St. Paul (Rom 14:7). “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it” (1 Cor 12:26–27). The Church always understands the demands of solidarity in their spiritual context, for human solidarity is founded on the communion of saints. The Christian, in working for justice and peace, is to ground this activity in its relation to the sharing of the spiritual goods of the faith. “In spreading the spiritual goods of the faith, the Church has promoted, and often opened new paths for, the development of temporal goods as well” (CCC 1942), and thus verified the Lord’s own words, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides” (Mt 6:33).

As St. John Paul II writes in Pastores Dabo Vobis:
“People need to come out of their anonymity and fear. They need to be known and called by name, to walk in safety along the paths of life, to be found again if they have become lost, to be loved, to receive salvation as the supreme gift of God’s love. All this is done by Jesus, the Good Shepherd. . . .” (82)