Heritage Community Foundation Presents
Alberta Online Encyclopedia

This Site
The Encyclopedia

Church, Justice And The Works Of Mercy

  • Church, Justice And The Works Of Mercy

David Ridley

Conclusion:  The Oblates and Justice as Tsedaka

The Hebrew word that corresponds to the Latin-derived word "justice" is tsedaka41 "an endless, never fully achieved reaching after peace and reconciliation."42 This makes the practice of justice difficult, for we can only know if it has been done after action has been taken and after those affected have been heard and those implicated have the possibility of release and forgiveness.  In modern liberal society, the practice of love and justice are held apart-- justice is not tsedaka but a matter of self-interest to maintain the good order of society.  Enforcement, judicial and penitential agencies do this.  But justice as tsedaka is more than this.  Life under substantial conditions of justice can be degrading and spiritually vacuous, as witnessed in wealthy and orderly societies.  Calls to overturn the current order in the name of "justice" often prove to be tyrannical and oppressive.  Tsedaka gives priority to the results of the just act over whatever good intentions may accompany an act of charity or contrition.  "Justice" is practicable, relational, continual and not easily defined in the present or future, often contrary to the demands for justice we face as a society and wish to respond to in effective ways.  This mutual interdependence on others, whether within the context of family, work and political life is foundational for human freedom and dignity and is an understanding of justice which characterizes modern Catholic tradition.  It also makes plain that relationship is a central aspect of arriving at just and peaceful solutions.

Given the Oblates lived experience with First Nations people, they can continue to make an essential and particularly Canadian contribution towards "justice" for these people and a reconciliation with the larger society.  Because of the practical nature of the congregation and the circumstances of isolation in many of its historic missions, there is a foundation of concrete life and faith practice which gives the Oblates a special disposition to attend to those marginalized by poverty, political alienation and social exclusion.  The real problems of the communities and people that the Oblates have worked with have always been right before them and this concreteness-- distinct from materialism- is central to ministry for liberation and for "justice, peace and the integrity of creation."

I began by referring to the debate within the order over the emergence of ministry for justice and liberation as a reflection of change within the Church and the outcome of diverse people who take vows to live in common.  Some months ago I read through a selection of Dorothy Day's writings and was reminded of the curious and seemingly paradoxical nature of her collaboration with Peter Maurin in co-founding the Catholic Workers Movement.  Day was an impatient young journalist steeped in social and political radicalism.43 She thought in terms of mass political movements, class struggle and the liberation of the oppressed.  Peter Maurin was twenty years her senior, born in the ancient Languedoc region of France and one of 23 children from a peasant family rooted to the same farmland through fifteen hundred years.  Labouring for skid row meals and beds, Maurin proclaimed to anyone who would listen his vision of a Catholic social philosophy where community, purpose and meaningful work could flourish.  Compared to Dorothy Day, Maurin was of another place and time, a man bound to the soil and the rhythms of local and personal action.  Their fortuitous New York meeting in 1932-- a meeting which Day saw as a direct answer to a prayer to Mary Immaculate-  led to the founding of the Catholic Workers Movement.  The "Houses of Hospitality" associated with the movement fed the hungry, clothed the naked and sheltered the homeless. Besides these works of mercy, Day and Maurin laboured for a transformation where people would live by different values, forming "the kind of society where it is easier for people to be good."44 Cut from different cloth, Day and Maurin found common cause in integrating their faith with the pressing social issues of the day.

Perhaps the Missionary Oblates equally find themselves in paradoxical relationships and potential, moving through a time of difficulty with some of the communities they have served for generations, reconsidering their ministry and the nature of their relationships with those communities.  Such changes entail radical reflection and there is a temptation to dissociate past practices from present and anticipated work.  Yet this reflection must not diminish the relationships that have existed through time and continue to exist.  Keeping this appropriately complex and detailed historical consciousness of their missions, whether in their personal, communal or institutional aspects is essential.  It enables the Oblates to purposefully review and continue their work.  Equally and perhaps more importantly, it will serves the larger society in understanding the predicaments and tragedies of the past which have not been bereft of joy and accomplishment.  This helps make possible the work of reconciliation which heals the wounds not only for First Nations Canadians and the missionaries past and present among them, but for the larger society.

Sections

Albertasource.ca | Contact Us | Partnerships
            For more on Missionary Oblates in Western Canada, visit Peel’s Prairie Provinces.

Copyright © Heritage Community Foundation All Rights Reserved