A Place at the Lord’s Table

Catholic social teaching provides instruction for each of us as members of the human family with regard to our rights in this world and responsibilities toward one another.

The Catholic Church clearly defines a number of rights necessary for living a dignified life, namely, the right to food, clothing, housing, health care, education, security, social services and employment.
It might be useful to go to the extreme to demonstrate this principle. Let us consider the AIDS orphan in Africa—she has done absolutely nothing to create this state of life for herself, created by the death of her parents to AIDS.

Who will now ensure that she gets an education, has clothing, a home, a future? The Church would tell us that it is our (the human family’s) responsibility to care for her needs.

In 2002, the U.S. bishops shared a pastoral reflection titled “A Place at the Table,” in which they seek to inspire each and every one of us to help ensure that all of humanity has a place at the table of the family of God. This table is not only an image as the place to eat food, but the place where voices are heard and policy decisions are made.

People of wealth, power and influence often have a very strong voice at the table, so we are called to help amplify the voice or, at times, “be” the voice of the poor and vulnerable. Who will be the voice of that young AIDS orphan?

As uncomfortable as it may be from time to time, this principle of Catholic social teaching requires us to look at our brother or sister—no matter their race, creed, language, way of life—and assist them when we see unmet needs.

As followers of Jesus, it is part of his Gospel mandate to do no less.

The Call to Family

The Church has a long and rich tradition in teaching that the family is the central social institution that must be supported and strengthened. A person raised in a strong, healthy family will be able to fully participate in society and seek the common good and well-being of all.

The family, regardless of its make-up, is where we are all formed as human beings. It is where we learn our values, how to love, proper social behavior and how to treat others.

It should be the place where we learn about God. Strong, healthy, well-functioning families build individuals with strong character that then go on to build other strong, healthy, well-functioning social structures—schools, corporations, governments, future families, etc.

One need not be a social scientist to understand that children raised in healthy families are infinitely more likely to avoid those things that lead to life struggles and more likely to embrace a life that leads to a fruitful contribution to our world.

One need only ask the simple question: How would you say family life in the United States compares today to family life just 30 short years ago?

I would suggest that if we look at society from a Catholic values perspective, we would agree that healthy families are rarer today, and society in the United States is less civil and peaceful and more violent and unsafe. We can find an intimate connection between the health of family life and the overall health of our community.

The Church would guide us to invest our primary energies into our families, and to set up structures that support and sustain healthy, loving families. Here is where we change society and, indeed, the world for the better.

As the Church, as people of God, we are called at times to be the voice of the poor—and we need to work to empower those with little power to speak up and be counted.

How are we doing?

Life and Dignity of the Human Person

The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching. In our society, human life is under direct attack from abortion and euthanasia.

Did you know that approximately 1.2 million human lives are taken through abortion each year in the United States? Just this year, an Oregon couple filed suit against their medical provider for $7 million because the provider failed to diagnose their daughter with Down syndrome while she was still in utero – claiming they would have aborted her had they known.

At the other end of the life spectrum, we have our precious elderly. There are increasing numbers of Americans who believe that the “usefulness” of the aged has come to an end – that it is compassionate to “put them out of their misery.” Pope Benedict XVI has said, “…euthanasia is a false solution to the drama of suffering, a solution unworthy of man. The true answer cannot be putting someone to death, however ‘kindly,’ but to bear witness to the love that helps us to face pain and agony in a human way. We are certain: No tear, whether it be of those who suffer or those who stand by them, goes unnoticed before God.”

The fact is that all of our rights and freedoms come from God. It is God who has given us life, and it is he who has the power and authority to sustain life – from the beginning as a tiny embryo to the end of our earthly days as a valued elderly person.

We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.

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