Justice & Righteousness
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
28 Feb 2010
A university student once wrote a brilliant essay to prove that justice did not exist.
The lecturer failed the essay, although he agreed it was a brilliant piece of work. The student protested strongly quoting the teacher's conclusion. "How could you do this?" he asked. "It is simple" came the reply. "I accept your thesis that there is no justice".
Actually justice is not mentioned in Matthew's fourth beatitude "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness they shall have their fill". But justice is an essential component of righteousness because an unjust person cannot be righteous.
Christ is not blessing those who are just and righteous. Rather he is extolling those who hunger and search after justice and goodness who want to come closer to God and want justice to spread. The righteous are not those who have a self-satisfied indifference to the poor.
If an Australian complains that "he is not getting a fair go" all decent Australians will give him a hearing while he puts his case. "A fair go for all" is a foundational element of Australian self understanding.
On a number of occasions I have recounted with pride my meeting in the Philippines with a Marxist union leader from Brazil who claimed that Australia had done better than any other nation in the distribution of wealth, at building a just society.
I am not sure he was completely right, but we do compare well with most other societies. It we accept the fourth beatitude we shall want to improve this situation further, increase the opportunities for self help.
We know that the greedy never have enough and are regularly hungry for more, like dictators who are thirsty for more power, wider empires. Just as disease destroys our appetite and we do not feel hungry so we need to repent of our own sins and reject them before we can hunger after righteousness.
No society is ever perfect and every society with a decent level of justice will be searching for betterment, striving to reduce the pockets of injustice so that improvements are coming in fact and not only in theory.
God's righteousness joins mercy to justice and brings about peace.
The Old Testament prophet Micah got it right with the lines:
"And what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness
and to walk humbly with your God?"
