Week 5 Justice
The Basics
1807 Justice
is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their
due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the “virtue of religion.”
Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish
in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons
and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures,
is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct
toward his neighbor. “You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the
great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.”
Questions for Reflection
Describe justice in your own words.
What does it mean to give your fellow man his due?
What does it mean to give God His due?
What are some ways you are just and some ways you are unjust toward God and man?
Questions for Reflection
Describe justice in your own words.
What does it mean to give your fellow man his due?
What does it mean to give God His due?
What are some ways you are just and some ways you are unjust toward God and man?
A Deeper Look
John Paul 2 January 1 2002- on World day of Peace
Peace: the work of justice and love
2. Recent events, including the terrible killings
just mentioned, move me to return to a theme which often stirs in the depths of
my heart when I remember the events of history which have marked my life,
especially my youth.
The enormous suffering of peoples and individuals,
even among my own friends and acquaintances, caused by Nazi and Communist
totalitarianism, has never been far from my thoughts and prayers. I have often
paused to reflect on the persistent question: how do we restore the moral and
social order subjected to such horrific violence? My reasoned conviction,
confirmed in turn by biblical revelation, is that the shattered order cannot be
fully restored except by a response that combines justice with forgiveness. The
pillars of true peace are justice and that form of love which is
forgiveness.
3. But in the present circumstances, how can we
speak of justice and forgiveness as the source and condition of peace? We can
and we must, no matter how difficult this may be; a difficulty which often
comes from thinking that justice and forgiveness are irreconcilable. But
forgiveness is the opposite of resentment and revenge, not of justice. In fact,
true peace is “the work of justice” (Is 32:17). As the Second Vatican Council
put it, peace is “the fruit of that right ordering of things with which the
divine founder has invested human society and which must be actualized by man
thirsting for an ever more perfect reign of justice” (Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, 78). For more than fifteen
hundred years, the Catholic Church has repeated the teaching of Saint Augustine
of Hippo on this point. He reminds us that the peace which can and must be
built in this world is the peace of right order—tranquillitas ordinis, the
tranquillity of order (cf. De Civitate Dei, 19,13).
True peace therefore is the fruit of justice, that
moral virtue and legal guarantee which ensures full respect for rights and
responsibilities, and the just distribution of benefits and burdens. But
because human justice is always fragile and imperfect, subject as it is to the
limitations and egoism of individuals and groups, it must include and, as it
were, be completed by the forgiveness which heals and rebuilds troubled human
relations from their foundations. This is true in circumstances great and small,
at the personal level or on a wider, even international scale. Forgiveness is
in no way opposed to justice, as if to forgive meant to overlook the need to
right the wrong done. It is rather the fullness of justice, leading to that
tranquillity of order which is much more than a fragile and temporary cessation
of hostilities, involving as it does the deepest healing of the wounds which
fester in human hearts. Justice and forgiveness are both essential to such
healing.
It is these two dimensions of peace that I wish to explore in this
message. The World Day of Peace this year offers all humanity, and particularly
the leaders of nations, the opportunity to reflect upon the demands of justice
and the call to forgiveness in the face of the grave problems which continue to
afflict the world, not the least of which is the new level of violence
introduced by organized terrorism.
