Brought To Justice
Maybe it’s because I recently decided to apply to law school, but I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about God’s justice. Particularly, I’ve been thinking about how often we fail to see the depth, necessity and goodness of this justice.
When we call God the judge, this title often seems tinged with a negative connotation, as if our God and Creator is anxious to condemn His creatures.
First of all, let us keep in mind the words of C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell.”
The Catechism makes this point with fewer rhetorical gestures and more doctrinal detail: “Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgement on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He ‘acquired’ this right by his cross . . . Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love” (CCC 679).
These points are essential for us to remember, but to make them is not my primary aim. Rather, I want to take time to explore just what the title “Judge” conveys.
In a jurisdictional sense, what is a judge’s job? To see a complex situation in all of that complexity, not discounting the importance of details. To understand individuals’ webs of relationships, motivations and attitudes as clearly and completely as possible. To make decisions with broader knowledge of how lives will be altered by the decision before him or her.
To be a judge is to see with lucidity and to see people as individuals in unique, difficult, multifaceted and consequential situations. If these are the qualities of a judge on earth, how much more will our Lord judge us with total fairness and care. We may fall in love with the God of Mercy, but as we increase in intimacy with and knowledge of Him through the Holy Spirit, we can appreciate His simultaneous identity as the God of justice – and the fact that He is both of these perfectly and completely.
As we grow in understanding of the fact that the Lord knows us completely, may it impel us to ask for the grace to see ourselves more completely, probing the corners of our hearts for disguised motivations, untreated wounds, skirted feelings of jealousy or malice.
Asking for the openness to see our own sinfulness doesn’t sound like a very desirable activity. As I seek to do it myself, I don’t anticipate that it will be very . . . shall we say . . . pretty. Grace does not always manifest gracefully, but its effects in our hearts are beautiful. Thus, by this painful and ugly process, we will come to know our own weaknesses and imperfections, and thus be able to invite God into those grimy places and ask Him to purify them by His mercy, which He always rejoices to offer.
In other words, through asking for greater understanding and appreciation of the just God, we can come to understand with more nuance and gravity just how much we need – and how grateful we are for –- the merciful God.
Let us finish with Jesus Christ’s own words to St. Faustina about mercy: “Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God. All the works of My hands are crowned with mercy.”
