Reflection - Justice

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041519.cfm
Isaiah 42:1-7
John 12-1-11

A recent trip to the Holy Land was an event which made the problem of achieving justice for all the peoples caught up in the turmoil of the region unambiguous. We were in the nation of Israel, the homeland of the Jewish People, and our guide was a native Palestinian Catholic Christian, but not a citizen. Justice was a smoldering and personal issue for those living there. Today’s reading from Isaiah rekindled for me the fires of that question. You could hardly miss why.

Here is my servant whom I uphold, he shall bring forth justice to the nations.
Not crying out, not shouting, until he establishes justice on the earth.
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice.

Justice is a recurring theme in both Old and New Testaments; but it is a theme we have great difficulty in understanding and applying.

We say that justice is blind, meaning that all people should be dealt with on an equal footing. Some would equate justice with law, presuming that all laws are, themselves, just, both in what they say is legal or illegal and in their ability to balance truth and falsity, the good and evil in every situation. For example: The elderly couple has retired to their newly acquired seaside cabin. A developer wants to build expensive condos in an area that would include that couple’s dream home. The government wants the higher taxes the condos would provide and . . . they have the power of Eminent Domain. The elderly couple will have trouble equating the law with justice.

Some see justice as fairness or equity — one for you and one for me — the standard from our childhood; they presume that divisions can always be balanced, yet it would be easy to identify multiple examples where such divisions are themselves divisive. Try parceling out the acreage of Palestine and the fallacy becomes evident.

The nineteenth century author, George Eliot, said that “Justice is like the kingdom of God; it is not without us as a fact, it is within us as a great yearning.” She got it wrong.

We might agree that within ourselves we yearn for justice. But justice is outside us as a fact and it is not blind, in spite of what we might have heard. It is we, ourselves who are blind to what is just; and that is precisely because we cannot seem to grasp that true justice is outside us.

Our view of right and wrong is closely related to justice and for the matter at hand may make it a bit easier to perceive the false notion behind the common rationale.

When the Ten Commandments come up for discussion they are commonly designated as “laws.” That assignation is correct if by “laws” we mean something along the line of natural law. The usual sense of “law,” even in this context, however, is more along the lines of civil or criminal law. In other words, these are rules imposed on us, so there is a certain inclination to ignore them as we see fit or to interpret them in our favor. After all, do transgressions of law even count if no one knows or is affected? When the Ten Commandments were given to Moses, an entirely different sense of purpose for the “law”was explained.

See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.

If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.

But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,
I declare to you this day, that you shall perish. (Deuteronomy 30:15-18)

These words would be echoed by Jesus but in a far simpler form.

I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)

The Ten Commandments were not given as a set of rules composed to be an obstacle course designed for life’s racetrack. Nor were they created separate from ourselves and then imposed. Neither are they simple guidelines, suggesting proper and appropriate ways to conduct our lives. Nevertheless, we made them any and all of these.

Rather, the Commandments fall into the same category as all things with “some assembly required.” They are part and parcel of the being God made. They are descriptions of what God has created in humankind and reside therein. A couple of applications might give sharper focus to this picture. Set before each of us are life and good, death and evil. Our choice! The very nature of our being requires that we acknowledge that “God is God, and there is no other” if we would have life. The very nature of our being requires that we not kill our fellow man if we would have life.

Then turn away from evil and do good
and you shall have a home for ever;
for the Lord loves justice
and will never forsake his friends.
(Psalm 37:27-28)

In a simplified form this Psalm reads: Then turn away from evil and do good, for the Lord loves justice. So we are back to justice. And just as God willed to create beings whose fullness of life and happiness was only possible in the context of certain behaviors (which he specified for our benefit), so too does justice reside in God’s will.

Humanity’s justice results from a fractured attempt to legislate what is good and true and right — at least as we presently see it. Divine justice is much simpler; it is the will of God. We pray at very Mass: “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.” And the response: “It is truly right and just.” Why? Because it is God’s will that we should do so. We pray in every Our Father: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Why? Because in choosing God’s will we have chosen to have life in abundance.

Finally, I want to return to Israel. This land was promised to Abraham and his descendants; God does not renege on his promises. While we cannot expect to understand what God is doing, we need not be blind to true Justice. We should rather acclaim with the Psalmist:

Let the nations be glad and exult
for you rule the world with justice.
With fairness you rule the peoples,
you guide the nations on earth.
(Psalm 67)

That is our premise, the place from which we start.