Cardinal  Felipe Arizmendi , Bishop Emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and head of the Doctrine of the Faith at the  Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM) , offers Exaudi readers his weekly article.

FACTS

Clodovis and Leonardo Boff are brothers, both Brazilian Franciscan priests, who have held contrasting positions for years. Clodovis insists on the need for prayer, liturgy, more catechesis on the Christian mysteries, including heaven, a more explicit proclamation of Jesus Christ, etc. His brother Leonardo, who no longer exercises the priestly ministry, emphasizes the social aspect of the Christian message, liberation from unjust structures, and more recently, eco-theology; that is, the fight against the destruction of nature, all with a theological dimension. The two reflect the contrasting attitudes in the Church, especially in recent years. Some Catholics emphasize social issues, while others emphasize the so-called “spiritual” aspects, as if social ministry were not part of spirituality.

On the occasion of the recent CELAM assembly in Rio de Janeiro last May, for the 70th anniversary of its founding, Clodovis sent a letter to the bishops complaining that, in their documents, they continue to emphasize social issues, leaving Jesus Christ aside. He said:  “Forgive my frankness, but you keep repeating the same old refrain: social issues, social issues, social issues… and you have been doing so for more than fifty years. Dear brothers and sisters, don’t you see that this melody has become tiresome? When will you bring us the good news about God, Christ, and his Spirit? About grace and salvation? About conversion of heart and meditation on the Word? About prayer, adoration, and devotion to the Mother of our Lord? In short, when will you finally convey a truly religious and spiritual message? This is precisely what we need most today and what we have been waiting for all these years.”

Is it true that, when we address social issues, we forget Jesus Christ, the Gospel, prayer, and spirituality? There may be cases, it’s true. There is no shortage of pastoral workers who are deeply dedicated to social issues, but who seem more like members of an NGO, since they give little importance to prayer and liturgy. On the other hand, there are also those who insist so much on prayer, devotion, piety, and religious practices that they are annoyed when we remind them that love of God without love of neighbor, especially the fallen, is incomplete and can be false.

LIGHTNING

Jesus Christ perfectly harmonizes both dimensions, the vertical and the horizontal. He is a man fully dedicated to the service of the people, especially the excluded and those who suffer, but who spends long hours in prayer, in profound communication with his Father. He shares the sublime moment of his transfiguration with his closest friends, but when Peter insists on staying there, he tells them that they must come down from the mountain and be close to the people who await him. The spiritual and the social are intimately united; neither one without the other. Like the cross, which has a vertical pole and a horizontal pole, and it is the vertical that supports the horizontal pole.

Let us recall some documents of the Church’s Magisterium, which insist that we must unite the Christian message with social love. For example, the Second Vatican Council, in its Decree on the Ministry and Life of Priests,  “strongly recommends to them the daily celebration of Mass”  and prayer (PO 13),  but at the same time says:  “Although they are indebted to all, priests have a special responsibility for the poor and the weakest, with whom the Lord presents himself as an associate, and whose evangelization is given as proof of the messianic work”  (PO 6).

Saint Paul VI made us see that both dimensions, vertical and horizontal, are indispensable, otherwise we lose our identity as followers of Jesus:  “There is no true evangelization unless the name, the doctrine, the life, the promises, the kingdom, the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, is proclaimed” (EN 22). But he also told us: “Between evangelization and human promotion (development, liberation) there are in fact very strong ties… It is unacceptable that the work of evangelization can or should overlook the extremely serious issues, so agitated today, that concern justice, liberation, development and peace in the world. If this were to happen, it would be to ignore the Gospel doctrine about love for one’s neighbor who suffers or is in need”  (EN 31).

Saint John Paul II, whom some accused of being conservative, said quite clearly:  “If we have truly begun with the contemplation of Christ, we must know how to discover him, above all in the faces of those with whom he himself chose to identify.” The text of Matthew 25:35-36 “ is not a simple invitation to charity: it is a page of Christology, which illuminates the mystery of Christ the Redeemer. On this page, the Church proves her fidelity as the Bride of Christ, no less than in the sphere of orthodoxy”  (NMI 49). But he warned us:  “We must ask ourselves whether a pastoral care oriented almost exclusively to the material needs of the recipients has not ended up disappointing the hunger for God that these peoples have, thus leaving them vulnerable to any supposedly spiritual offer. Therefore, it is indispensable that all have contact with Christ through the joyful and transforming kerygmatic proclamation, especially through preaching in the liturgy”  (Ecclesia in America, 73).

Benedict XVI, the great theologian of profound spirituality, told us in Aparecida:  “Being disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ and seeking life in Him, implies being deeply rooted in Him…. Could this priority not be a flight into intimacy, into religious individualism, an abandonment of the urgent reality of the great economic, social and political problems, a flight from reality into a spiritual world?… Only those who recognize God, no reality and can respond to it in an adequate and truly human way… Faith frees us from the isolation of the self, because it leads us to communion. The encounter with God is, in itself and as such, an encounter with our brothers and sisters, an act of calling, of unification, of responsibility towards one another and towards others. In this sense, the preferential option for the poor is implicit in the Christological faith, in that God who made himself poor for us, to enrich us with his poverty… Love of God and love of neighbor are fused together: in the most humble we find Jesus himself and in Jesus we find to God” (Address at the Inauguration of Aparecida, 3).

In Aparecida, the Latin American episcopate contradicts Clodovis’s assertion, since the foundation and center of everything is Jesus Christ; but a Christ who leads us to others:  “Knowing Jesus is the greatest gift any person can receive; having encountered him is the best thing that has happened to us in life, and making him known through our words and deeds is our joy”  (DA 29).  “Christians, as disciples and missionaries, are called to contemplate, in the suffering faces of our brothers and sisters, the face of Christ who calls us to serve him in them: The suffering faces of the poor are the suffering faces of Christ. They challenge the core of the Church’s work, of pastoral ministry, and of our Christian attitudes. Everything that has to do with Christ has to do with the poor, and everything related to the poor calls out to Jesus Christ”  (DA 393).

Pope Francis warns clearly:  “No mystical proposals without a strong social and missionary commitment, nor social or pastoral discourses and practices without spirituality”  (EG 262).  “The Church urgently needs the lung of prayer. At the same time, we must reject the temptation of a hidden and individualistic spirituality, which has little to do with the demands of charity and the logic of the Incarnation”  (EG 263).  “To be evangelizers of soul, we must also develop a spiritual zest for being close to the lives of people, to the point of discovering that this is a source of a higher joy. The mission is a passion for Jesus, but, at the same time, a passion for his people” (EG 268).   Jesus himself is the model of this evangelizing option that introduces us into the hearts of the people. How good it is for us to see him close to everyone!  (EG 269).

And Pope Leo XIV told us, regarding the recent Gospel, about the two sisters, Martha and Mary: “It would be wrong to see these two attitudes as opposed, as well as to make comparisons of merits between the two women. We must unite these two attitudes: on the one hand, “being at the feet” of Jesus, to listen to him while he reveals to us the secret of each thing; on the other, being diligent and ready for hospitality, when He passes by and knocks at our door, with the face of a friend who needs a moment of rest and fraternity” (Angelus, 20 July 2025).

ACTIONS

Let us know how to combine both attitudes: a great love for God, much prayer, conscious participation in the liturgy and pious practices, but from there draw strength and inspiration to love others, especially those who suffer in body or spirit.