01-01-2007 - Traces, n. 1 INSIDE america Charity and the Purification of Justice Charity is faith in action in the area of human relations, including the building of a just society. Because of its inseparable link to faith, charity is never superfluous, even in the most just of States According to Pope Benedict XVI, “In order to define more accurately the relationship between the necessary commitment to justice and the ministry of charity, two fundamental situations need to be considered” (Deus Caritas Est, 28, 29). First, we must keep in mind the “distinction” between Church and State (“distinction” is better than our usual “separation”). The Second Vatican Council recognized the “legitimate autonomy of the temporal sphere.” The basis for this distinction is not that faith deals with a different aspect of life beyond our social and political convictions. The distinction between Church and State is the requirement of the respect for personal freedom. Second, the Church is the “social expression of the Christian faith.” Faith is an “encounter with the living God” that opens up new, broader horizons of awareness and life that go beyond the sphere of reason. Still, the acting subject, the person that believes, is the same one who reasons. Faith and reason are united in the one act through which we respond to the encounter with God. Therefore, faith and reason intersect without any clash or contradiction. Politics is a means to build a just society, that is, a society that recognizes the rights inherent in the dignity of the person as recognized by reason. As such, by nature politics and faith are distinct. Still, it is the same person of faith that uses reason to build a just society. Since faith and reason intersect, so do faith and politics. Charity is faith in action in the area of human relations, including the building of a just society. Because of its inseparable link to faith, charity is never superfluous, even in the most just of States. (“Charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is part of her [the Church’s] nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.” “There will never be a situation where the charity of each individual Christian is unnecessary, because, in addition to justice, man needs, and will always need, love.”) Still, the one who believes is the same citizen who acts politically, therefore faith and politics intersect, and so do charity and politics. The Pope sees this intersection as the “purification of reason.” Faith is a “purifying force for reason.” It “liberates reason from its blind spots, and therefore helps it to be ever more fully itself.” Still, reason remains reason. Political decisions are expressions of reason, since a reason purified by faith still remains reason. Therefore, the political activity of the man or woman of faith does not seek to impose his or her faith on anyone. At the same time, the believer cannot say that his or her faith has nothing to do with his or her political choices. These are based on judgments of reason, but a reason purified by faith. For example, the believer cannot say that, as a person of faith, he will do everything possible to help anyone in need–for example, an illegal immigrant–but, politically, he will not support immigration policies that seek to expand the horizon of our perception of the demands of justice. In the Pope’s words, “It remains true that charity must animate the entire lives of the lay faithful, and therefore their political activity, lived as ‘social charity.’”