Conference given in Bolivia, January 1950, before the directors of the Socio-economic Apostolate

Christian spirituality in our century is characterized by an ardent desire to return to the sources, to be ever more genuinely evangelical, simpler and more unified around the rigorous message of Jesus. Contemporary spirituality is also characterized by the ramification of supernatural principles to all aspects of life in such a way that faith has its repercussion not only those activities called religious but also in elevating those termed profane. Having rediscovered or at least having accentuated with extraordinary firmness our incorporation into Christ and the consequent divinization of our lives and of all our actions, nothing in the life of a Christian is profane but rather profoundly religious.

For this reason in our search for Christ we must seek for the whole Christ. It is enough to be a human person in order to be a member of Christ’s Mystical body, that is to be Christ (cf. 1 Cor 12,12-27). He who accepts the Incarnation must accept all its consequences and extend his gifts not only to Jesus Christ but also to his Mystical Body. And this is one of the most important points of the spiritual life: to forsake the least of our brothers is to forsake Christ himself; to alleviate any one of them is to alleviate Christ in person. To touch any man is to touch Christ. For this reason Christ tells us that all the good or evil one does to the least of his brothers, is done to him (cf. Mt 25). The fundamental nucleus of the revelation of Jesus, “the good news”, is, then, our union, that of all men with Christ. Then it follows that failing to love those who belong to Christ, one fails to love Christ himself.

What other meaning has the question Jesus made to Paul on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” The voice does not ask: “Why are you persecuting my disciples?” but rather “Why are you persecuting me? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9,4-5).

Christ has made himself our neighbor or better still, our neighbor is Christ who presents himself to us under one or another form: a prisoner in the jail; the wounded in a hospital; the beggar in the street; a poor man sleeping under a bridge. We must see Christ in the poor with the eyes of faith, and if we do not see him it is because our faith is weak and our love imperfect. For this reason St. John tells us: “If you do not love your neighbor whom you see, how can you love God whom we cannot see?” (cf. 1 Jn 4,20). If we do not love God in his visible form, how can we come to love Him in Himself?

The communion of saints, a basic dogma of our faith, is one of the first realities to issue from the doctrine of the Mystical Body: All mankind is in solidarity. All receive the Redemption of Christ, its marvelous fruits, a participation in the merits of Mary our Mother and of all the saints, and we can apply this truth to all Christians in the grace of God. The communion of saints makes us understand that there is among those who form the family of God, ties much more intimate than those of comradeship, friendship or even family ties. The faith teaches us that all men are one in Christ, participants in all the riches and suffering the negative consequences of all our evils.

With regard to solutions for the problem of the unjust distribution of wealth, the first principle of solution lies in our faith: We must believe in the dignity of man and in his elevation to the supernatural order. It is a sad fact, but we must affirm it, painful as it is: the faith in the dignity of our brothers held by the majority of Catholics, does not go further than a cold intellectual acceptance of this principle, and is not carried over into our practical conduct with those who suffer; much less does the injustice of which they are the victims, cause pain to the soul. We suffer for the pain of members of our families but how much do we suffer for the miners treated like beasts of burden, for the sufferings of thousands and thousands of persons who, thrown out on the streets, must sleep like animals, exposed to the inclemencies of the weather. Do we by chance, suffer for the thousands of unemployed who are forced to go from place to place seeking work, whose pitiful fortune is wrapped in a sack, thrown over their shoulder? Does our heart break for the sick, for the millions of undernourished, for those with tuberculosis, a permanent focus of contagion because there is no hospital that will receive them?

Is it not the truth that the first words that come to our lips are more than likely: exaggeration, prudence, patience, resignation. While Catholics have not taken with profound seriousness the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ which makes us see the Savior in each of our brothers, even the most sorrowful, even in the dullest miner chewing coca, in the worker lying drunk, stretched out physically and morally by his ignorance, while we cannot see Christ in them, our problem has no solution.

The intelligent cooperation of technicians who study the socio-economic milieu of the country and propose efficacious measures is urgently necessary. The hour has arrived in which our socio-economic action must cease to content itself with repeating general watchwords taken from the Papal encyclicals but rather propose well studied solutions for immediate application in the socio-economic field. I am deeply convinced that if Catholics propose a well-prepared plan that looks to the common good, they will find the help of many men of good will in all fields and the plan will become a reality.

In conclusion, let us make ours the thought of Pius XII in his Christmas message of 1939: “The rules, even the best that were ever established will never be perfect and they will be condemned to failure if those who govern the destinies of nations and nations themselves are not permeated with the spirit of good will, of hunger and thirst for justice and universal love which is the final objective of Christian idealism.” This hunger and thirst for justice cannot be stimulated more than in the consideration of the basic fact of our faith: by the Redemption we are all in Christ; he lives in our brothers. Let us make the love that we owe him concrete in those who represent him. “What you do to the least of my brothers, that you do to me.” (Mt 25,40).