Homily - Chapel of the Resurrection – Feb. 18, 2011 – Mary Zastrow
Over my past four years at Valpo, I have come to learn that justice is an exciting word on
campus. With the Peace and Social Justice Symposium, study abroad opportunities, SALT, and
Martin Luther King Day festivities, Valpo students leave enthusiastic and refreshed to go out and
serve society’s disadvantaged all in the name of justice. As many of you already know SALT
has the long-standing tradition of having one on one meetings where “SALTers” get to know
each other through discussing their individual passions for topics in social justice. I think out of
all of the one-on-ones that I have had, just about all have said that they loved volunteering and
serving the community. No one can deny the fact that it just feels good to act for justice.
It is easy to forget just how difficult sometimes justice can be. There are times when it
just doesn’t make sense. On one of the SALT spring break trips that I took last year to Kentucky
to repair homes for the underprivileged in Appalachia, I thought that I was going to have one of
those moving experiences where I was going to see justice truly at work. While I did enjoy
working with my fellow volunteers and learning how to do construction work, I could not help
but wonder if the family I was helping truly deserved it. Families who benefit from this program
are required to put in a small amount of labor with the project if they are physically able. Over
the course of the week not one of the four adult members of the family put in any kind of service.
There was no time devoted to thanking us, and throughout the experience I could not help but
wonder why they had not spent money fixing their dilapidated home when much of the time the
family was sitting in front of the TV or going to town to purchase fast food or cigarettes. Where
was that same enthusiasm that I usually feel when justice is being served?
Justice seems so much easier when we confine our ideas about the poor to the people who
are grateful for help and who are working hard but seem to be caught in a faulty system. This is
an especially American view, which teaches that it is everyone’s personal responsibility to help
themselves. When we are confronted with people who do not fit this mold, justice just doesn’t
make sense. Justice is for those who have had wrong done unto them and not the ones who have
inflicted the situation upon themselves, right?
Praise be to God that this is not the case. As I reflected over my experience in Kentucky,
I realized that I did have that “aha moment” for justice, but it was not in a way that I had thought
about before. Justice in Christianity is not for the deserving. Justice is an act of mercy. This
mercy is a reflection of Jesus Christ who had the ultimate injustice put upon him. He, in his
perfection, was the one who had to take the punishment of dying on the cross that was meant for
us in our unworthiness. It is in response to this act of mercy, for which we are undeserving, that
we work for justice the way that Christ did. He did not look for those who fit a perfect mold, but
as St. Paul writes, Christ died for us while we were still sinning. Since our acts of justice stem
from his mercy, our joy found in service to the impoverished is found in Jesus and not the
worthiness of those being served.
One is then left to ask what this idea of justice is like in a secular world. As some of you
may know, I am going to law school next year where justice is understood through logic and
reason. This may not seem compatible with Christian justice, which is seen through the eyes of
mercy. Whether it be through the practice of law, social services, community organizing, or any
other profession promoting justice, we as Christians can know that we are witnesses of the mercy
that Jesus Christ demonstrated. We are not only in service to the poor and in need, but more
importantly for God’s children. Knowing this as we work is in the systems of this earthly world,
we strive to make God’s justice a reality for all people.