Justice is a cry from the heart.
It is a deep longing: deep seated in the hearts of humanity. It is universal. The cry for justice is no better expressed than in the Psalms of David, particularly in Psalm 35. The “How long, O Lord” of verse 17 can be echoed by those in prison, those in times of war, those who are the victims of genocide, those being oppressed, those whose land, economy and livelihood have been stolen, those suffering abuse and torture.
How long, O Lord, wilt thou look on?
Rescue me from their ravages,
My life from the lions!
(RSV)
And how we long to be vindicated, to be proved right and just. Psalm 35 takes us to this cry of the heart too.
Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to thy righteousness;
And let them not rejoice over me!
(RSV)
Justice is the wound.
Vindication is the healing we seek.
Justice goes beyond the jurisdiction of a court of law. The court is a human construct. The court administers justice on behalf of the community. It has the role of keeping community order and balance - but, as a human institution, the court is flawed. It can err. It can endorse miscarriages of justice. It can be partial. It can act against the powerless in the service of the powerful.
Justice as a natural law does not have the same errancy. It may work in hidden ways, sometimes in full view. It may work speedily, or grind exceedingly slow. It is inexorable. Hosea describes it so well in his metaphor of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7). It is a similar idea to the Buddhist one
Justice as a natural law does not have the same errancy. It may work in hidden ways, sometimes in full view. It may work speedily, or grind exceedingly slow. It is inexorable. Hosea describes it so well in his metaphor of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7). It is a similar idea to the Buddhist one
You may forget your actions but your actions don’t forget you.
Justice is both an ethical and a spiritual idea. It is a matter of the way in which we live our lives and the spirit which is expressed in our lives. Jesus says
every sound tree bears good fruit,
but the bad tree bears evil fruit.
A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit,
Nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
(RSV Matt 7:17,18)
Isaiah points out the details of this (Isaiah 58). It is not, as many think, a matter of The Ten Commandments. It is not a matter of sticking to the letter of the law, whether it is God’s or Human’s. It is about the spirit of the law. It is about its impact on ourselves, others, the community. Jesus spelt out the standard in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5,6,7). This is a high ethical and spiritual standard – for ourselves and the human communities in which we live. If such a standard of justice was universally practised and universally informing all human laws, regulations and practice what would human communities look like then?
Perhaps someone would like to comment on the vision of a justice based human community?
As for me, I know that
my Avenger lives.
(Job 19:25).
