Five matters have been on my mind in the weeks since Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election, each of them connected to my work as a moral theologian.

The church's teaching on servile work as it developed over the centuries is another indicator of how the church constantly sought ways not only to extend its evangelization but to challenge itself to recognize fully the others for whom Christ died.

The works of mercy are the practices that Christian disciples collectively engage to respond to the needs of others. Both the Beatitudes and the works of mercy are our pathways, one inner, one outer, to lead us into fellowship with the poor in spirit.

The Beatitudes provide a course of training that develops our vulnerability so as to recognize the poor in spirit. In this sense, they are a remarkable guide to life.

Vulnerability, defined as the capacity the human being has to be open and responsive to another human being, is a central mark of what makes us human.

If you do not recognize, you do not act. Recognition is the beginning of the moral life, writes Jesuit moral theologian James Keenan, S.J.

Through their grief after Jesus' crucifixion, the disciples became more vulnerable in their love for Jesus, which enabled them to recognize his risen, vulnerable presence. These words—grief, vulnerability and recognition—are thus inextricably linked to the Pentecost story and, in particular, to the role the Spirit plays in their lives and our lives in the church.

“I do not think that the present anxiety about recognizing the ‘gay’ Catholic is unlike the first-century anxiety regarding the Gentiles becoming Christians,” Jesuit moral theologian James F. Keenan writes.

A close look at the Catholic moral tradition around sin, mercy and confession shows that it developed from its inception pathways to holiness that were collective, merciful, hospitable, inclusive, exemplary and grace-filled.

Social trust cannot be achieved without working through the long-standing resentments of those populist masses who perceive themselves as the ‘deplorables’ of the elite.