Since the beginning of time people have been concerned with social justice issues. Social justice is helping people using Gods love as a tool to do it. St. Catherine of Siena, and the prophet Isaiah, were two people who knew what social justice really meant and they were concerned with it. Also the Lutheran church is very concerned with different types of social justice issues. Through these three sources we are able to see the different types of social justice issues that arose in their times and through exploring them we will find out that they are not unlike the ones that exist today.
Also we will find out that even though not all three of the sources are Christian they all act like the Christian church teaches us to in order to tackle social justice issues Catherine of Siena grew up in Italy during the fourteenth century. Many things were happening at this time in the world, people had a lot of the same concerns about the future as we do today. The fourteenth century was a time of many wars, of famine, and of many sicknesses including the bubonic plague. Also church at this time was full of people who were losing faith, and it was spiting into two parts.
They also had many of the same problems as we have today such as poverty, problems between ethnic groups, hunger, oppression, and homelessness. There was also corruption among the powerful just like today. This is why study Catherine of Siena because many of her concerns for the state of society and social justice issues are not unlike ours today. One concern that Catherine has for society is she feels that self-centered love may destroy us and we must rid ourselves of it You understand, therefore, dearest brothers and lords, how self-centered love destroys the city of soul, and also destroys and overturns our earthly cities(Catherine 40). Catherine feels that there is a lot of selfishness in the world today and we must stop it before it destroys us.
She also feels that selfishness will destroy our souls. It is like the devil working with in us. She also says that if something is not done soon about the selfishness in the world it will not only destroy our souls but also our cities. For instance, a selfish king will try to rule the world, and by trying to rule the world this king will probably destroy many people and cities along the way.
Also a king that is selfish will never grow and if he never grows he wont be able to help his people. Selfishness is just one concern that Catherine has for the state of society. If you think about we also have this concern. We would like people to be less selfish and help out others in order to have harmony in this world and to live out Gods will. Another concern for society that Catherine has is she seems to think that people have trouble coping with there problems. We find this out by a letter that she wrote to her brother who was having some troubles in Italy.
She tells us that all we have to do in order to get through hard times is be patient I beg you, therefore, to hold the weapon of patience firmly so that you may receive benefit from all your troubles(Catherine 21). As you can see Catherine sees patience as a weapon that can help you get through many things especially hard times. She knows that this is a difficult task so she gives three suggestions how this may be done. The most important and interesting one is Firstly, I want you to think about the shortness of live, for you are not certain even of tomorrow (Catherine 21). This is a very good suggestion not only for the time of Catherine but also for us today.
We all have hard times and if we are patient we will get through them. A good way to do this is to do what Catherine says, think about how short life really is and you will begin to see that your problem maybe isnt so .
