We can never be challenged too strongly about being committed to social justice. A key, non-negotiable summons that comes from Jesus himself is the challenge to reach out to the poor, the excluded, and those whom society deems expendable. Therefore, the vast global issue of justice should preoccupy us. Can we be good Christians or decent people without letting the daily news baptize us? The majority of the world still lives in hunger, thousands are dying of one pandemic after another, countless lives are torn apart by war and violence, and we are still, as a world, a long way from dealing realistically with racism, sexism, abortion, and the integrity of physical creation. These are major moral issues; we may not escape into our private world and simply ignore them. Thomas Merton believed that the real battle we face is one of changing hearts. He says you have helped bring about permanent structural, moral change on this planet when you change a heart. Everything else is simply one power attempting to displace another. In his teaching about the vital importance of honesty in small things, John of the Cross says: “It makes no difference whether a bird is tied down by a heavy rope or by the slenderest of cords; it can’t fly in either case.” You can generate more energy by splitting a single atom than you can by harnessing all the forces of water and wind on earth. Private morality is not an unimportant, unaffordable luxury, a soft virtue, or something that stands in the way of commitment to social justice. It’s the deep place where the moral atom needs to be split – Fr. Ron Rolheiser.