Thursday, December 4, 2025: A Church that sets no limits to love, that knows no enemies to fight but only men and women to love, is the Church that the world needs today.”

SUMMARY: Chapter 5: A Constant Challenge

Pope Leo closes his document Dilexi Te (I have loved you) urging us to model the compassionate solidarity of the Good Samaritan, who responds to each person as “a human being with a dignity identical to my own ...an image of God. 

That is what it is to be a Christian!” (106). The pope reminds us that Christians “cannot be limited to the private sphere” and must participate in our shared public life to alleviate suffering and its structural causes (112). With both direct assistance (charity) and organizing to transform systems (justice), we cooperate with God’s life-giving love. This is our call as followers of Christ, and as human beings.

KEY QUOTATIONS

“Any Church community, if it thinks it can comfortably go its own way without creative concern and effective cooperation in helping the poor to live with dignity and reaching out to everyone, will also risk breaking down, however much it may talk about social issues or criticize governments. It will easily drift into a spiritual worldliness camouflaged by religious practices, unproductive meetings, and empty talk ” (113)

“At times, pseudo-scientific data are invoked to support the claim that a free market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty.” (114)

“Those inspired by true charity know full well that almsgiving does not absolve the competent authorities of their responsibilities, eliminate the duty of government institutions to care for the poor, or detract from rightful efforts to ensure justice.” (116)

“By its very nature, Christian love is prophetic... A Church that sets no limits to love, that knows no enemies to fight but only men and women to love, is the Church that the world needs today.” (120)

REFLECTION

Pope St. Paul VI called political action for the common good “one of the highest forms of charity.

” The Catholic Sisters who founded NETWORK in 1971 understood this. They saw that ministering with struggling communities required not only offering direct aid but also working for policies that could transform an exploitive system. That’s why they called their work a “political ministry.

” We live our Gospel call to do justice and love our neighbors by participating in our shared public life and advancing policies that protect our Earth, strengthen democracy, and deliver health care, housing, food, and more for all of us – together healing and nourishing our communities in the example of Christ.

NETWORK advocates in Washington

QUESTION

• Call to mind past experiences of participating in direct service work (such as offering meals at a soup kitchen) and in justice work (such as joining a demonstration or contactingn government officials about an issue). How do these experiences connect to your faith?
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• How does God show up in your efforts to build a more loving world?

From A Great Tablecloth a poem by Pablo Neruda 

Let us sit down to eat

With all those who haven't eaten.

Let us spread great tablecloths,

Put salt in the lakes of the world,

Set up planetary bakeries,

Tables with strawberries in snow,

And a plate like the moon itself

From which we can all eat.

For now I ask no more

Than the justice of eating.