Now that a year has passed since the encyclical "Caritas in veritate" was published, it is worth highlighting some of its most important themes. One of these is the close relationship between charity and justice.

First of all, charity. Charity is not just giving a little money or time, used clothes, or words of comfort. It is the principal Christian attitude, which is all-encompassing and all-encompassing. And in relation to justice, "love - 'caritas' - is an extraordinary force that moves people to commit themselves with courage and generosity in the field of justice and peace".

If this is so, then we should ask ourselves - especially Christians, who know that "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8 and 16): how is it possible that we are not more committed in these areas? And the answer can only be: we do not love well - "authentically," according to the encyclical - or we do not love enough. But this imperfect and limited love of ours can be purified by Christ, if we come to know him and identify ourselves with him.

Secondly, "Charity goes beyond justice," the text continues, "because to love is to give, to offer 'mine' to the other; but it never lacks justice, which leads to giving to the other what is 'his', what corresponds to him by virtue of his being and his actions".

Indeed, justice as a human virtue does not in itself lead to giving "what is mine" to others. In itself, justice as a human virtue does not lead to giving "what is mine" to the other. This is proper to charity or love. However," the document continues, "I cannot 'give' to others what is mine without first giving them what is rightfully theirs. Before giving "what is mine" I must recognize "what is his" and give it to him. That is why "he who loves others with charity is first of all just towards them". In final, "it is not enough to say that justice is not foreign to charity, that it is not an alternative or parallel way to charity: justice is 'inseparable from charity', intrinsic to it".

From this the text deduces that justice is already a first form, a first path for charity; an integral and necessary part of charity; its "minimum measure" (Paul VI), since love must be "with works and according to the truth" (1 Jn 3:18).

So charity demands justice, on the one hand. On the other hand, "charity surpasses justice and completes it by following the logic of submission and forgiveness" (John Paul II). People -images of God- cannot relate to each other only on the basis of rights and duties, but also through "relationships of gratuitousness, mercy and communion".

In short, and what follows is a whole program of coherent Christian life: "Charity always manifests the love of God also in human relationships, giving theological and salvific value to every commitment to justice in the world. In other words: anyone who lives justice is already in line with God. Since justice is an "initial love" and whoever loves knows God in some way, he who lives justice places himself - at least germinally - in a line of knowledge and love of God, and therefore contributes to the earthly and eternal good of others.

Third: living justice requires working for the common good. "Every Christian is called to this charity, according to his vocation and his possibilities of influencing the polis," that is, the multiform social, cultural and political activity. It is quite clear: service to the common good, "like every commitment to justice, is part of that witness of divine charity which, acting in time, prepares the eternal".

Fourth: consequently, the Church's social doctrine, which promotes justice and the common good, is a service to evangelization and "has been attested to by the Saints and by all those who have given their lives for Christ the Savior in the field of justice and peace. Moreover, the Gospel, and with it the charity that is its heart, "is the principal force at the service of development".

In other words, "witnessing to the charity of Christ through works of justice, peace and development is part of evangelization". The commitment to justice, because it is a necessary manifestation of charity, is part, and an essential part, of evangelization.

Someone might object: there have been and probably always will be injustices, and there are many of them; so what is the point of hastening to remedy them? Following its "theo-logical" logic, the encyclical says: it is the charity of Christ that urges us (cf. 2 Cor 5:14), that is, the truth of charity. Therefore, "this urgency is not only due to the state of things, it does not derive only from the avalanche of events and problems, but from what is at stake: the need to achieve an authentic fraternity". Briefly: it is not only the current economic "crisis" that should move us to seek the good for all, but human and Christian coherence, authentic solidarity and fraternity to which every Christian is expressly committed to bear witness.

In this regard, it is worth reproducing a text of Josemaría Escrivá: "When your selfishness separates you from the common desire for the healthy and holy well-being of men, when you become calculating and are not moved by the material or moral miseries of your neighbors, you force me to throw something very strong in your face, so that you will react: if you do not feel the blessed fraternity with your brothers and sisters and you live on the margins of the great Christian family, you are an inclusive poor man" (Furrow, no. 16).

And so it is. He who is in an incluse is because he has been abandoned, he does not know his family, although surely those who take care of him will try to replace the family he lacks. He who has no family is a tree without roots. Without family there is no development of the personality, neither on the human level nor - much less - on the most plenary session of the Executive Council Christian level. We Christians, God's family, aspire to make the world the family of God's children. How could we stop "reacting" against selfishness when we have, by grace, the gift of charity, the greatest light and strength to live justice?

Some concrete consequences of living justice "from within" charity, according to the encyclical: respect life in all its stages, care for the poor and needy, strive to reduce social inequalities, procure access to work for all, guarantee religious freedom, be open to gratuitousness, promote solidarity and trust in the economic market, place the purpose of Economics at development of all, that is, in the common good - beyond immediate benefits - also taking into account future generations. Quite a program!
In any case, justice to the reality of persons and things begins by recognizing that God exists and that he is the origin of love. For this reason - Benedict XVI points out - "humanism that excludes God is an inhuman humanism". In fact, "the awareness of God's indestructible love is what sustains us in the hard and passionate commitment to justice, to the development of peoples, amidst successes and failures, and in the constant task of giving a right ordering to human realities".