Transcript

John Donne, the famous English poet, famously wrote: No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.

St. Thomas Aquinas would agree.

Each of us comes into the world in a network of relationships with others.

Even though each of us is a unique individual, human beings are, by nature, social.

We have families, neighbors, friends, coworkers, fellow citizens.

Now, justice, which is the theme of this session, is therefore an extremely important topic, and an important moral virtue for precisely this reason.

In fact, Aquinas would say that there is no act that a person can commit that is not in some way an act of justice, because our actions always affect others in some way.

No man is an island.

Insofar as one's higher goods are shared in common with others, including the good of the family, the good of the city, the good of the church, every individual's pursuit of his own good is always necessarily wrapped up with others' pursuits of their goods.

So think of a very simple example.

A mother's pursuit of her good is wrapped up with her son's pursuit of his good and vice versa.

What mother doesn't want to see her child flourish?

And what child isn't affected by his or her mother's life and pursuit of her goods?

So even when an individual is most alone, we might say physically alone, apart from other people in physical proximity, an individual is never alone morally speaking.

Even our most secret acts affect how well we can render others their due, whatever that due may be.

And this is, in fact, how the Christian tradition defines justice.

It's to render to another what is his due.

We judge whether an action is just by whether we have rendered another his due.

So one thing that should be immediately obvious by just looking at this definition is that justice is with respect to another.

We're not properly speaking just towards ourselves.

You're not just to your hands or to your feet.

And justice is, properly speaking, only between persons, because only persons can, in the proper sense, be due something under the title of justice.

And this is why we would say justice has to do with a kind of equality.

Our common human nature, or more specifically for Thomas Aquinas, the fact that we are all rational animals, individuals of a rational nature, this is what most fundamentally grounds the equality of justice, and thus, of what is due to another.

And we could add another theological perspective on this.

We are all equally created in the image of God, and so fundamentally, we are all equally persons, and therefore, we owe each other a certain respect in justice because of that.

Now, dating back to the time of the ancient Greeks, pagan and Christian intellectuals and authors have recognized that complex relations of justice bind individuals to each other.

So that leads to there being several different kinds of justice.

Traditionally, we would speak about, for example, justice that regulates exchanges between individuals, and this is called commutative justice.

It's normally what you think of when you first start talking about justice.

Its measure is the agreed-upon equality between what is being given and what is being received.

So for example, you might make an arrangement with your neighbor.

I'll wash your car this week.

You wash my car next week.

There is an equality of exchange there, one car wash for one car wash.

But this equality can be expressed in other ways.

For example, if you were to say to your neighbor, I'll give you $10 if you wash my car.

Now, in this case, a case of a commutative exchange, the rendering to another of what is his due is established by the terms of the exchange agreed upon by the two parties.

So in this case, he promises to wash my car, and I promise to give him $10.And if I were to break this promise, to breach the terms of this agreement, I would be failing in justice.

But justice informs other kinds of relationships too.

One kind includes those relations where the other to whom something is owed or due is not another individual, but in fact, the whole community.

So this kind of justice recognizes that each individual owes something to the family, and especially to the political community to which he or she belongs.

Now, we call this form of justice general justice or legal justice.

It's a matter of rendering justice to the common good, and therefore, to the political community.

So it's a matter of this legal justice that you follow the speed limit and drive in a safe manner, that you pay your taxes on time, that you respond positively to legitimate calls for the community's defense.

One doesn't have to agree that the due established by the political authority is always prudent.

Sometimes our political leaders make judgments that we wouldn't make.

But if the law is promulgated by the, the rightful authority are just, we should be ready in justice to follow them.

All things being equal, to disobey a just law is to fail in justice.

Now, we might add a footnote here that there are some cases where there are unjust laws, and that's another case.

We don't have time to get into all of that today, but just to note that the obligation of justice towards the community is an obligation, a real obligation that each of us have in true justice.

Now, a third kind of justice is called distributive justice.

Distributive justice governs how the political authority ensures that individual citizens receive not only their equitable share of commonly held goods like water, electricity, and transportation, a share which isn't necessarily arithmetically the same, but a fair share.

It also ensures the equitable access to common benefits like security, education, and prosperity.

On the part of the political authority, to fail to ensure this equitable distribution, this fairness, or worse, to begin to treat the common good as a kind of personal possession or particular good of the ruling class, that is to fail in justice.

Grace does not abolish, but intensifies the demands of justice at every level.

Christian citizens and Christian leaders are obliged both by nature and by grace to render to others their due.

And even to surpass the rule of justice when charity calls for it.

As Jesus says, To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.

And from him who takes away your coat, do not withhold even your shirt.

At the very least, the just Christian lives a public life in which he avoids injuring his neighbor in word or deed.

In word, the Christian refuses to bear false witness against his neighbor or to revile others or gossip about them.

These are obligations in justice.

A Christian will also refuse to deride others or to curse them.

Indeed then, the Christian refuses to undermine the good name of our neighbor.

And also, the Christian refuses to take the life of the innocent and would never consent to physically injuring or imprisoning another, and refuses to take another's property through theft or robbery or through cheating or usury.

More positively, the just Christian renders what he owes to God through acts of religion.

So a Christian gives what is due to God by worshiping God as the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity move us.

And also, Christians render what they owe to their country through acts of patriotism.

This is a part of our piety towards our homeland.

A Christian also renders what he owes to family through acts of piety and renders what he owes to benefactors through acts of gratitude.

It is just to be grateful to those who do good things for us.

And finally, the just Christian also speaks the truth to others.

He doesn't lie to them, and he engages others, especially the poor and disadvantaged, with a friendly and generous spirit.

So the Christian takes every aspect of justice seriously.

Jesus tied closely the justice of Earth to the justice of heaven.

Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.

And so this is a very good reason why we as Christians take justice very seriously, praying that God will render to us the merits of our good acts and, as we beseech him for mercy, will forgive us when we are unjust.