Justice

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.” Matthew 5:38-41

Justice is another of the cardinal virtues we are called upon to follow in our spiritual maturation. I have a few friends who are lawyers, some of whom are practicing Catholics and others who are agnostics (simply put: who knows if there really is a God – the people who lobbied successfully for the “probably is no God” ad campaign on our city buses.).

But I thought I would rely on my 20 years training as a journalist instead and the first rule in quality reporting is to get as close as possible to the primary source for the exact wording from the authority on the matter in question. So, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, is that primary source in my estimation.

I have often puzzled about the “turn the other cheek” view of justice and came upon a Catholic publication’s explanation which I found very insightful:

“When the court translators working in the hire of King James chose to translate antistenai as "Resist not evil," they were doing something more than rendering Greek into English. They were translating nonviolent resistance into docility. The Greek word means more than simply to "stand against" or "resist." It means to resist violently, to revolt or rebel, to engage in an insurrection. Jesus did not tell his oppressed hearers not to resist evil. His entire ministry is at odds with such a preposterous idea. He is, rather, warning against responding to evil in kind by letting the oppressor set the terms of our opposition.”

When I read this, I felt vindicated for my instructions to my sons. When they have asked me how to deal with bullies in school, I tell them to stand their ground, but never to attack. I tell them that they have a duty, an obligation, to defend themselves but that they should not be the aggressors.

Basically, there seems to be three ways of responding to evil. We can choose to meet force with equal force; be completely passive and submissive; or be militantly non-violent. This is what Jesus Christ appears to be advocating, if the publication and I are correct in our interpretations (again, I am by no stretch of the imagination a Biblical scholar, student of theology or any kind of religious authority – just a blogger for Blessed Sacrament).

There are verses in both Old and New Testament Scripture that frame God’s expectations of us for being just. They are the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ Beatitudes as articulated during the Sermon on the Mount.

There is another figure that often comes to mind when I think of someone who advocates militant non-violent resistance: India’s Mahatma Gandhi.

Ghandi, a Hindu, professed to admire Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount. He reportedly explained to a missionary why he had discarded conversion to Christianity in these words: “Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

As a young lawyer in South Africa Ghandi had studied the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, and historians tell us he was seriously exploring becoming a Christian. But when he decided to attend a church service a white South African barred his entry on the grounds of his race.

I find this story tragic because, as we know from John 14:6 (“Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”), Gandhi’s decision in reaction to a racist and poor ambassador of the Christian faith has serious consequences.

Other references I consulted in preparing this blog include Exodus chapter 23:1-12 Laws of Justice and Mercy (I will let you read them at your discretion) but what strikes me about these verses is Mercy is put on an equal footing as Justice.

I pray that Jesus Christ, the Father, and Holy Spirit have mercy on Gandhi’s soul.