Devotional: Economic Justice and the Kingdom

Dear God of Love and Justice,

Deuteronomy 10:19 cuts straight to the bone: "You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt." Not tolerate the stranger. Not pity the stranger. Love them — because You remember what it felt like to watch Your children eat the bread of affliction under Pharaoh's hand.

I confess that I pass by Your strangers every day. The woman counting coins at the grocery checkout while the line grows impatient behind her. The father working a second shift so his daughter can have braces. The immigrant family in the parish hall, smiling nervously over coffee they cannot afford to buy but were too proud to refuse. These are the faces of Your Kingdom economy — where the last paycheck and the largest portfolio stand equally naked before Your mercy.

Catholic social teaching reminds me that the goods of the earth belong to all Your children. Pope Leo XIII called it a matter not of charity alone, but of justice. So today, Lord, do not let me mistake comfort for righteousness. Show me where my silence props up systems that grind the poor. Give me the courage of Dorothy Day, who said love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing — and meant every word.