Start by quoting the first two sentences of the first paragraph of Caritas in Veritate – “Charity (or Love) in truth”.

Charity in truth, to which Jesus Christ bore witness by his earthly life and especially by his death and resurrection, is the principal driving force behind the authentic development of every person and of all humanity.  Love — caritas — is an extraordinary force which leads people to opt for courageous and generous engagement in the field of justice and peace. 

And in paragraph 2 Benedict says:

Charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine.  Every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law.

Remember that Pope Benedict published this encyclical in June this year, not just for the benefit of Catholics but because he is addressing world leaders and thinkers in the hope they will listen.  The encyclical deals with many aspects of charity and the Pope says that it is love, that extraordinary force, which leads people to strive for justice and peace.

The Justice and Peace Group have asked that this weekend be used as a reminder of how important justice is to us all.  It coincides with Racial Justice Sunday – great strides have been made in our country to eliminate the worst of this but we still have a way to go.  We are also reminded of our responsibility to trade fairly with other parts of the world with the presence of Linett and her Traidcraft stand today.  The parish is always very generous on such occasions and we have a good record of support for CAFOD.  Our Manna Centre collections are becoming legendary (!) and there will be another one of these in October.  In a week’s time we will have a chance to consider our responsibility to the environment, a subject on which the Pope reflects in his encyclical.

All these subjects, and more, are ones the J&P Group is tackling but it desperately needs more parishioners to help.

I had an interesting birthday present [hold up the Poverty & Justice bible] given to me by a member of the J&P.  Perhaps he thinks I don’t read the bible enough!!  This is a bible with a difference – the same words as any other but with every verse that refers to poverty or justice highlighted.  There are over 2,000 such verses which shows that God has plenty to say on social justice.

Can there be global justice when we know that a billion of our fellow human beings go to sleep every night hungry but a billion others are overweight?  There is an injustice about the way we in the developed world use more than our fair share of the planet’s resources.  It’s a staggering fact that if all the people of the earth consumed as much as we do, then we’d need THREE planets to sustain us.  Something as basic as water to drink and irrigate crops with is in short supply for many.  It’s not far-fetched to say that we in the West are actually stealing water from poorer nations by importing goods, and even food, that use someone else’s drinking water for their production.  These kinds of injustice are causing poverty to flourish.

Shortly after the Pope landed in Africa in March this year he referred to hunger, poverty and ecological damage.  He pointed out that Africa suffered disproportionately from the global phenomena of food shortage, financial turmoil and climate change – and I could add to that political corruption (Fr Arbo spoke to us about this in his time here).  Yes, many of us are suffering from the credit crunch, but it’s unlikely that we’ll go hungry.  We in Britain will probably avoid the worst effects of climate change but the poorer nations will bear the brunt of it as time goes by.  This is not the justice that Our Lord taught and as Catholics we shouldn’t be content with the way things are.

But what can we do about it in this place, in the way we live, within our own spirituality? 

• We can pray, as many Catholics concerned with justice do.
• We can act as a community to give our time, and money to causes such as CAFOD or to support the Fr Arbo’s charity which the J&P Group would like the parish to sponsor as a theme next year.
• We can try to live more simply, deny ourselves a little bit more and by so doing obey Our Lady’s request at Lourdes to do penance.  She would surely understand the slogan “Live Simply that others may simply live”.

On the subject of penance, Catholics used to abstain from meat every Friday.  This was a distinguishing characteristic of Catholics for most people.  We were ahead of our time!  It is now said that the habit of eating too much meat is a prime cause of ecological damage, leading to deforestation in Brazil, and huge quantities of CO₂ being released by animal production and food distribution.  So perhaps being a traditional Catholic might be best for the planet after all !

And now here is the J&P’s suggestion for one example of living simply and getting fit.  Next weekend, the congregation is invited to leave their cars at home and come to Mass by foot, bike or public transport.  LET ME SAY: the elderly and infirm are not expected to do this.  As you leave the church today, the youth of the parish, who are working with J&P on this event, will be handing out leaflets.  I do encourage you to take part in what should be an enjoyable experience and a wonderful expression of parish unity.

You will all be thinking – well it’s alright for him he only has to walk 20 yards!  Rest assured, I shall play my part – walk to and from church 50 times perhaps…………!  [In fact Fr Bryan walked to the station where he met about 10 people who walked back to the church with him.]

And now we have our beautiful cycle racks installed (supplied completely free of charge by Bromley Council following lobbying by J&P), those of you who like to get on your bike can now park securely and I do encourage you to use them.