by Sister Clare Bass

Justice is one of the ongoing struggles among peoples throughout all of time. There’s always justice work to be done. As Sisters of St.Joseph, we have a consensus statement that is a powerful witness to who we are as a group. Our sense of justice flows out of the following statement which names our charism. In the Consensus statement we specifically say:

“Stimulated by the Holy Spirit of love and receptive to God’s inspirations, the Sister of St.Joseph moves always toward profound love of God and love of neighbor without distinction, from whom she does not separate herself, and for whom in the following of Christ, she works in order to achieve unity both of neighbor with neighbor and neighbor with God…”

This statement  goes along with the prayer of Jesus in John 17:21-23, as he says, “I pray…that they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us…that they may be brought to perfection as one…”

Therefore, we work in order to achieve unity of neighbor with neighbor and neighbor with God so that all may be one. Practically speaking, our understanding of justice is that anything that separates the human family from each other and/or anything that separates a person from the Divine is injustice. Separation is an illusion. We are all one, all of creation is One.

Whatever we each do to help bring this understanding of Oneness about is our work of justice. We have engaged in this work from our founding in LePuy, France, to our landing and foundation in the United States of America, to the present time. It propels us into the future, too, as there continues to be much divisiveness in the world today.