24 February 1992
El Salvador

My dear Lay Vincentians,

When in Rome I begin to reflect on the great social problems that confront the Church in Latin America and the violence that at times erupts in society in this continent, my mind seems to travel first to El Salvador. Perhaps it is that the murder of Archbishop Romero and of the six Jesuits, with their two housekeepers, captures my imagination more quickly than other deeds of violence. Then, too, the long struggle that has gone on here and the prominence given to the recent truce focuses my mind more on this country than on others.

The sufferings of your people have been long and protracted, and only the Lord knows the extent and depth of sorrow that must have filled thousands of hearts here in El Salvador. The night of suffering has been long indeed, but there is no night so long that the dawn does not come slowly and silently. I like to think that, during my short visit to your country, I am privileged to share with you the new hope that for the past two months is struggling to see the light.

The truth is that the solution to all the social problems of this country and of the world is to be found in the first reading of today's Mass. St. James diagnoses the ills of society with acute psychological insight: "for where there is envy and ambition there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind," (Jas 3:16) and the final sentence is very apt for the situation in El Salvador today: "Peacemakers, when they work for peace, sow the seeds which will bear fruit in holiness." (Ibid., v. 18).

Sensitivity to the claims of justice has grown notably in the last two decades. It could be said that in that time we have come to recognize injustice as the sin of the world. The documents of the Council, Church Synods, Bishops Conferences, have encouraged all Christians to interest themselves in the questions of justice in our world and, within the limits of individual vocations, to take appropriate action. Has this development, devalued the term charity? Perhaps it is for that reason that Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical, Dives in Misericordia poses the question: "Is justice enough?" In answering it he remarks: "The experience of the past and of our own time demonstrates that justice alone is not enough, that it can even lead to the negation and destruction of itself, if that deeper power, which is love, is not allowed to shape human life in its various dimensions." (p12).

St. Vincent's name conjures up in our mind the poor and also charity. Of justice, however, St. Vincent has little and almost nothing to say. That need not surprise us, for social justice was not discussed by theologians in his time as it is today, and St. Vincent was a man of his time. He was also a man of the Church and so he would have no difficulty in accommodating himself to the Church's insistence today on justice. He will, however, always remain the Apostle of Charity. Perhaps he would not be greatly interested in speculative discussion on the relationship between justice and charity. When the Ladies of Charity felt themselves discouraged before the difficulties of the apostolates that they had undertaken for the poor, he said simply to them: "I will say to you what St. Paul said: `Have you given something beyond what you have of surplus? Have you resisted even to the point of pouring out your blood?'" (Coste XIII, Fr. ed., no. 194, p. 796).

In the same vein he asks: "But how can we love God, if we do not love that which He loved? There is no difference between loving Him and loving the poor, between serving well the poor and serving Him." (Coste XIII, Fr. ed., no. 198, pp. 811-812).

The point I have been making is that a Vincentian in search of justice will never lose sight of the fact that love always holds the primacy. We are realistic enough to recognize that charity, at times, can conceal an injustice, but it must be said also that not all legal justice is objectively just. The Synodal Document of 1971 expresses it clearly: "The love of the neighbor and justice are inseparable." Justice is measured; love is unmeasured. Love is a sign of something that is unmeasured. The Vincentian must be not only one who seeks justice, but one who by his life speaks to the world of the boundless fecundity of God's love. He is one who by his activity proclaims to the world not so much that God is just, important though that be, but that God is love. In the Christian and Vincentian vision of things one cannot practice justice without love. The sin of the world may be injustice. The great commandment of Christ, Who came to take away the sin of the world, is love.