I’m all for charity, and this is the season to be generously charitable. It is a good thing to share one’s resources so that others, who have less, are able to receive more. Acts of charity humanize our society. Acts of charity build both personal and national character. They increase the positive morale of everyone. Indeed, why can’t we celebrate Christmas in the spring, summer and autumn? Imagine the outpouring of charitable contributions, and the good it would do, if we could replicate Christmas-giving four times a year.
I’m all for charity. But charity isn’t enough. Charity isn’t justice. Every week in church we recite this prayer:
I pledge, o God, to discover how much is enough for me to be truly fulfilled, nether rich nor poor, and to consume only that. I pledge, o God, to be part of the discovery of how much would be enough for everyone — not only to survive but to thrive — and to find ways for them to have access to that. May this offering of restraint and justice teach me to live like Jesus, healing my life and the life of the world.
We say this prayer to remind ourselves that charity must go deeper for real hope and healing. We must ourselves practice restraint, moderation and compassion if the injustices that have given rise to the need for charitable giving are to be corrected.
Justice is about a change in consciousness — and structural change. It involves our willingness to live more simply, to share more generously and to desire that which benefits more than just us and our own tribe. Or, in other words, justice is a loud “No” to the American way of life that has created a culture of permanent war, of increased surveillance of the citizenry, of huge divides between the rich and the poor with the inevitable result of a locked-down militarized police state. Justice reorients our understanding of our own responsibilities to be the change we wish to see.
As such, justice is also a very loud “Yes” to that which embodies the way the world ought to be. It is a yes to those who demand a redistribution of wealth so that the mighty can no longer accumulate millions and billions while the masses live hand to mouth, week to week. It is a yes to the demand that our national military be reduced, that privatized militaries be banned and that corporations be accountable to local control. In other words, justice reconstructs society and shakes the foundations of the status quo.
Given that the “Babe of Bethlehem” grew up to become a threat to law and order, doesn’t it cause you to wonder why the babe’s followers have not? This Christmas let us think on these things, and ask ourselves what gift of justice we might offer the babe who was born in a barn.