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"Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice."
Matt. 5:6
Among the four cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and
temperance, there is one, namely justice, which pious people do not
consider sufficiently. They are attentive to the different forms of
temperance, to prudence to be observed in the general conduct of
life; they try to practice charity toward their neighbor, but they
sometimes neglect certain duties of justice and consideration for
the rights of others. Those, for example, who persecuted St. John of
the Cross called themselves men of prayer and austerity, yet they
were most unjust toward the reformer of Carmel.
If man practiced the different forms of justice more perfectly, he
would make great progress in training his will. Justice, in fact, is
in that faculty to make it leave egoism or self-love,(1) as prudence
is in the intellect to oppose lack of consideration, and as
fortitude and temperance are in the sensible appetites to strengthen
them against fear and inordinate concupiscences.(2) For this reason
these four virtues are called cardinal virtues. They are like hinges
on which the doors turn that give access to the moral life. (3)
Some souls, while given to anger, are so cowardly that they seem to
have lost all will; indeed this faculty seems to have disappeared,
leaving only self-love or egoism. The reason is that the will is
considerably weakened when it is deprived of the acquired and
infused virtues which should be in it. On the other hand, a will
enriched by these virtues is increased more than tenfold.
We should remember that the four forms of justice, which we are
going to discuss, should be in the will and, above them, the virtues
of religion, hope, and charity. Thus the training or Christian
education of the will and character should be made. Character should
be the authentic imprint of reason illumined by faith and of moral
energy, a mark stamped on the physical temperament, whether nervous,
irascible, lymphatic, or sanguine, hyperthyroid or hypothyroid, in
order that this temperament may cease to dominate, and that the
Christian may truly appear as a rational being and still more as a
child of God.
Consequently, for this Christian education of the will, we shall
discuss the different forms of justice, to which correspond several
precepts of the Decalogue. After our duties toward God, they
determine those we should practice toward our parents and toward all
persons with whom we have relations: "Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbor's goods. Thou shalt not bear false witness," and so on. We
may transgress these precepts in many different ways when we forget
in practice that we should not do to others what we do not wish them
to do to us.
People often think of justice only in the inferior form known as
commutative justice, which governs exchanges and forbids theft,
fraud, calumny, and so forth. They do not sufficiently consider
distributive justice,(5) which presides over the distribution by
authority of the advantages and duties of social life among the
different members of society. In view of the common good, it
distributes to each as it should goods, work, duties, obligations,
rewards, and penalties; this distribution should be made in
proportion to merit, real needs, and the importance of the different
members of society. Even more do people forget a higher form of
justice, which aims immediately at the common good of society and
brings about the establishment and observance of just laws and
ordinances; this form of justice is called legal justice.(6) Above
it there is equity, which considers not only the letter but the
spirit of laws, and that not only of civil laws, but of all those
that govern Christian conduct.(7)
The interior life should watch over the exercise of these virtues.
Here also the acquired virtue of justice is at the service of the
infused virtue of the same name, somewhat as the imagination is at
the service of reason. (8)
COMMUTATIVE AND DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE IN RELATION
TO THE INTERIOR LIFE
The duties of justice appear in a living and concrete fashion when
we think of faults against it which should be avoided, for the
sorrow that injustice causes us reveals to us the value of justice.
The faults and acts contrary to commutative justice are not only
homicide, theft, fraud, usury, false accusations and false witness
in a lawsuit; they are also insults given in anger, affronts, unjust
blame or reproaches against inferiors, equals, and superiors. Also
included are defamation, slander, or speaking ill of another without
a proportionate motive; also secret insinuation by whispering,
mockery which lessens the esteem due to our neighbor,(9)
forgetfulness of the truth that our neighbor has a right to his
reputation and that he needs it to do good, to such an extent, says
St. Thomas, that the perfect should, not for their own sakes, but
for the good to be done to others, resist their detractors.(10)
When commutative justice has been violated in one or another of
these ways, restitution or reparation becomes a duty. Thus we must
repair the wrong that we have done our neighbor by slander or
insinuations or mockery which show we do not regard him as he
deserves. (11) Besides it is cowardly to ridicule someone who cannot
defend himself, or the absent who cannot reply.
The defect opposed to distributive justice is undue respect of
persons. We may indeed prefer one person to another and gratuitously
give more to one than to another. But the sin of undue respect of
persons consists in unjustly preferring one person to another,
taking from the latter something that is due him. This sin is more
grave in the spiritual order than in the temporal order: for
example, if we are more attentive to the exterior condition of
persons, to their wealth, than to their merits, and if we refuse
them the respect which is due them or the spiritual helps which they
need.(12)
Interior souls should be particularly watchful on this point and on
guard not to slight the friends of God, the saints whom the Lord has
chosen for Himself from the humblest stations in life. Injustice is
at times the portion of very patient servants of God because
everyone knows that they will not complain and will put up with
everything. This was often the lot of St. Benedict Joseph Labre
because people failed to see the heart of a great saint under the
rags of a beggar. On the contrary, clear-sighted souls should sense
or divine sanctity in their neighbor, even though it be under the
most humble exterior. Moreover, it is a great reward and a great joy
to discover sanctity. It must have been a great consolation to
verify the sanctity of Benedict Joseph Labre by seeing how he bore
insults and blows, when, for example, he kissed the stone which had
been thrown at him and had drawn his blood.
LEGAL JUSTICE, EQUITY, AND THE FORMATION OF
CHARACTER
Above commutative justice and distributive justice is legal or
social justice, which should have a lofty form in the Christian and
in interior souls. This virtue is concerned, not directly with the
rights of individuals, but with the common good of society, and not
only of civil society but of that spiritual society, the Church, and
the different groups in it. Legal justice leads a man to observe
perfectly the laws or constitutions of the society to which he
belongs. This virtue inclines the Christian to learn about the laws
to be observed and the instructions of the Supreme Pastor, about his
encyclicals on present-day questions. The reading and study of these
encyclicals are often neglected to the detriment of all. Social
justice should give us an understanding of the common good; it
combats individualism, which is one form of egoism.
Social justice disposes us to devote ourselves in generous
self-forgetfulness to the general good, and, if necessary, to
sacrifice our time, comfort, or personal satisfaction to it. Were we
to act otherwise, we would live on the common good like parasites,
instead of contributing to promote and maintain it. We receive much
from society and to it we are indebted. If we fail in our
obligation, we are like mistletoe, which lives on the oak tree at
the tree's expense, sometimes causing its death. Society in general,
indeed every social group, has its parasites. To react against this
vice (into which a man might fall by trying to live like a hermit
and being indifferent to the common good), we must perform the
duties of legal justice and devote ourselves to the general good,
mindful of its superiority. From this point of view, love of our
rule, of the holy laws established in the Church, is a great virtue
which protects the soul against many disorders.(13)
Lastly, above legal or social justice there is equity.(14) This form
of justice is attentive not only to the letter of the law, but
especially to its spirit, to the intention of the legislator. As it
considers chiefly the spirit of laws, it does not interpret them
with excessive rigor, in a mechanical and material manner, but with
a superior understanding, especially in certain special
circumstances in which, according to the intention of the
legislator, it would not be advisable to apply the letter of the
law, for then the adage would be verified: "Summum jus est summa
injuria." The strict law in all its rigor would then be an injustice
and an injury, because the particularly difficult and distressing
exceptional circumstances in which the person involved might be
placed would not be taken into account.(15)
Equity, which preserves us from Pharisaism and from the juridical
formalism of many jurists, is thus the highest form of justice; it
is more conformable to wisdom and to great common sense than to the
written law.(16) It has in view, over and above the text of the
laws, the real exigencies of the general good and inclines one to
treat men with the respect due to human dignity. This is a capital
point; its importance is grasped only as one grows older. Equity is
a great virtue, whence the expression: It is just and equitable to
do this, for example, to practice benevolence toward a dying enemy,
toward wounded prisoners of war who need help. Equity has thus some
resemblance to charity, which is superior to it.
If we were attentive to these four kinds of justice that should be
practiced, we would obviate many conflicts between persons, between
classes, between the different groups that ought to labor at one
work under the direction of God. These virtues, which are
subordinated to charity, would also considerably increase the
strength of our will; by withdrawing it from egoism and rectifying
it, they would increase its energies more than tenfold. This point
should be considered in connection with the Christian education of
character, which should succeed in dominating our physical
temperament and which should stamp it in the image of reason
illumined by faith. As a matter of fact, the acquired virtues cause
the rectitude of right reason to descend into the very depths of the
will, and the infused virtues bring to it the rectitude of faith and
the very life of grace, a participation in the inner life of God.
JUSTICE AND CHARITY
With a better knowledge of the loftiness of justice under its
different forms, we see more clearly the relations to charity which
should vivify it from above.
These two virtues have in common the fact that they regulate good
relations with others. But they differ from each other: justice
prescribes that we give to each man his due and allow him to use it
according to his right. Charity is the virtue by which we love God
above all else, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
Therefore it goes far beyond respect for the right of others, in
order to make us treat other human beings like brothers in Christ,
whom we love like other selves in the love of God.(17)
In brief, as St. Thomas well shows, justice considers our neighbor
another person, in that he is a distinct person; charity considers
him as another self. Justice respects the rights of another, charity
gives over and above these rights for the love of God and of the
child of God. To pardon means to give over and beyond.
We can thus see why, as St. Thomas says, "Peace (which is the
tranquillity of order in the union of wills) is the work of justice
indirectly, in so far as justice removes the obstacles to peace
(such as wrongs, injuries); but it is the work of charity directly,
since charity, according to its very nature, causes peace. For love
is a unitive force. . . ; and peace is the union of the appetites'
inclinations." (18)
THE VIRTUES CONNECTED WITH JUSTICE
IN CHRISTIAN LIFE
Justice, thus vivified by charity, is accompanied by several other
virtues that resemble it. Among them, there is one superior to
justice, the virtue of religion, which renders to God the worship
due Him, interior and exterior worship, devotion (or promptness of
the will in the service of God), prayer, sacrifice of adoration, of
reparation, of supplication, of thanksgiving. This virtue is opposed
to irreligion, or impiety, and also to superstition. It reminds us
at the same time of the worship of dulia due to the saints and that
of hyperdulia due to the Mother of God. Thus religion is inferior to
the theological virtues. To religion penance should be united to
make reparation for offenses against God.
To justice are also attached filial piety toward parents and one's
country, the respect due to merit, to age, to the dignity of
persons, obedience to superiors, gratitude for favors received,
vigilance in punishing justly when necessary at the same time using
clemency, lastly veracity in speech and in one's manner of living
and acting. Veracity, which is a virtue, differs from frankness, a
simple inclination of temperament, which sometimes borders on
insolence and which forgets that not every truth is to be told.
Justice reminds us that besides strict justice there are the rights
and duties of friendship (jus amicabile), in regard to those who are
more closely united to us. In respect to people in general, there
are also the duties of amiability, which is opposed to adulation and
to litigation or useless dispute. Lastly, there are the duties of
liberality, which avoids both avarice and prodigality.
All these different forms of justice are of great importance in the
conduct of life. At times pious people do not think sufficiently
about them; they put on the airs of a hermit more egoistically than
virtuously. Under the pretext of charity and the prompting of bitter
zeal, they may even fail in charity and justice through rash
judgment, slander, insinuation against their neighbor.
If, on the contrary, a man practiced generously the virtues we have
just spoken of, his will would be greatly rectified and fortified,
better disposed to live by the still higher virtues of hope and
charity, which should unite him to God and preserve this union with
God in the midst of the varied circumstances of life, even of the
most painful and unforeseen. To show oneself a Christian, even in
the smallest acts of life, is the true happiness of him who follows
Christ.
St. Thomas described the eminent degree of the infused cardinal
virtues when he wrote: "Prudence by contemplating the things of God,
counts as nothing all things of the world, and directs all the
thoughts of the soul toward God alone. Temperance, as far as nature
allows, neglects the needs of the body; fortitude prevents the soul
from being afraid of neglecting the body and rising to heavenly
things; and justice consists in the soul giving a whole-hearted
consent to follow the way thus proposed." (19) These are the
perfecting virtues; higher still, according to St. Thomas,(20) are
the virtues of the fully purified soul, "the perfect virtues. . . .
Such are the virtues attributed to the blessed, or, in this life, to
some who are at the summit of perfection."
Thereby we see the grandeur of the virtue of justice, which is the
second cardinal virtue. It is superior to fortitude, to temperance,
and even to virginity. Justice is often no more than an empty word
for some souls; then injustice which must at times be borne reminds
them of the real value of justice. This great reality appears
especially in the evangelical beatitude: "Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill."
The justice mentioned here is the highest degree of justice,
containing eminently all that we have just said.
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1. Cf. Ia IIae, q.56, a.6, c. and ad 3um.
2. Ibid., a.4.
3. Ibid., q.61, a. 1-3.
4. Cf. Deut. S:20 f.
5. Cf. IIa IIae, q.61, a.If.
6. Ibid., q.58, a.6.; q.60, a. I ad 4um; q.81, a.8 ad 1um.
7. Ibid., q.80, a. I ad 3um, ad 5um; q. 120, a. I f., Of "Epikeia" or
Equity.
8. Cf. Ia IIae, q. 100, a.12: "Justice, like the other virtues, may
denote either the acquired or the infused virtue, as is clear from
what has been stated (q. 63, a.4). The acquired virtue is caused by
works; but the infused virtue is caused by God Himself through His
grace." Acquired justice and its different kinds which we have just
named were admirably defined by Aristotle, who even determined in
regard to the happy mean the difference between the medium rationis
and the medium rei which is determined according to equality in
commutative justice and according to proportionality in distributive
justice (cf. Ethica, Bk. V, chap. 3; St. Thomas, IIa IIae, q.61, a.2).
But evidently Aristotle did not speak of infused justice, which is
illumined by the supernatural light of faith and of infused prudence.
9. Cf. IIa IIae, q.73-75: Of backbiting, tale-bearing, derision.
10.
Ibid., q.72, a.3.
11. Ibid., q.62.
12. Ibid., q.63, a. I f.; Ia IIae, q.97, a.4; q.98, a.4.
13. When in religious orders dedicated to the apostolate, has been
preserved the love of the rule which the saints had, then the spirit
of prayer has been kept, studies have flourished and have been made
with the spirit of faith, and preaching has been fruitful. We see this
in the thirteenth century during the age of St. Dominic, St. Francis,
St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great. When, in the
fourteenth century, the rule was neglected, the spirit of prayer and
study declined, and the ministry was fruitless. The Lord had to send
saints anew to restore the first fervor. The reason is that moral and
spiritual life is an ensemble and a harmony of either acquired or
infused qualities, and when man begins to seek himself through egoism,
his thought is not slow in descending to the level of his life, and
his apostolic zeal disappears.
14. Cf. IIa IIae, q.120, a. I f. Equity is also called in Latin epikeia,
from the Greek epi dikaion, a virtue above simple justice.
16. The lawmaker considers what happens in the majority of cases; thus
he formulates the law, which in a given case, however, could not be
applied, says St. Thomas (ibid.). For example, every deposit should be
returned to its owner; it is not advisable, however, to return to a
furious man his sword or any weapon, even if he demands it, for it is
easy to foresee that he will make bad use of it. The same holds true,
should a man reclaim a deposit of money in order to use it against the
common good of his country. In these and in similar cases, it would be
wrong to follow the written law; common sense tells us that. In these
cases a higher justice surpasses the written law. Then one does not
judge the law, but only one of its particular applications. Cf. ibid.,
a. I, c. and ad 2um. For example, if someone should ask you to take a
letter to another party which could only pervert him, you can and must
avoid giving it to him, and you may even be obliged to prevent the
continuation of the evil which might thus be done.
16. Cf. IIa IIae, q. 120, a.2: "Epikeia is a subjective part of
justice; and justice is predicated of it with priority to being
predicated of legal justice, since legal justice is subject to the
direction of epikeia. Hence epikeia is by way of being a higher rule
of human actions."
Cf. D. Lallement, Principes catholiques d'action civique (Paris,
1935), pp. 54f.
17. Cf. Leo XIII, Encyclical Graves, VI, 214 (ed. of La Bonne Presse),
and
D. Lallement, op. cit., p. 54.
18. Cf. IIa IIae, q.29, a.3 ad 3um. Likewise Pius XI, Encyclical Ubi
arcano,
I, 156.
19. Cf. Ia IIae, q.61, a.5.
20. Ibid.
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