In his article “Splitting the Inner Atom,” Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that we can never be challenged too strongly about social justice. A key, non-negotiable component of the gospel is the summons to reach out to the poor, the excluded, and those whom society deems expendable. It’s all too easy to conclude that, given the mega-problems of our world, it doesn’t matter much how we live in the deeper recesses of our private worlds as long as we are doing the correct battle on the big front. Do we believe that God cares much whether or not we say our morning prayers, gossip about a colleague, reconcile with someone over a petty dispute, or keep our sexual lives fully in line with the biblical ideal? Does God really care about these things? Yes. God cares because we care. Significant, global issues notwithstanding, issues of personal integrity are generally what make or break our happiness, not to mention our character and our intimate relationships. In the end, they aren’t petty concerns at all. They shape the big things. Social morality is simply a reflection of private morality. What we see in the global picture merely magnifies the human heart. Thomas Merton said when you change a heart, “you have helped bring about some permanent structural, moral change on this planet.” Everything else is simply one power attempting to displace another. Private morality and all that comes with it – private prayer and the attempt to be honest and transparent in even the most minor and most secret things – is the core of all morality. Private morality is not unimportant, an unaffordable luxury, a soft virtue, or something that stands in the way of commitment to social justice. It’s the actual place where the moral atom needs to be split.