Justice

On Friday there was a fist-fight in the middle of the dining room. For the amount of people we serve violence is actually quite rare. But somebody had gotten ripped off, and the victim's friend saw the thief in the dining room. There was none of the usual verbal jousting - one man simply launched into the other and a little street justice was handed down.

Of course, none of it was justice at all. The guy who got ripped off is still ripped off. The pain and fear and anger he might be experiencing is just as palpable, just as real. The guy who bore the brunt of the 'justice' is now angry also and almost certainly looking for someone to vent that anger on. What has actually been created is not justice but a spiral of violence that has no way of ending - no way, that is, unless someone, until one of us, says 'No More'.

Can there be justice without retribution? Perhaps if we want to create justice, real justice, not just something that looks like justice or seems like justice but something that really and truly is justice, then we might consider finding those who are a victims of injustice and loving them. Perhaps we might find ways to restore what has been taken from them, to return to them not just the physical things they have lost but the manifest peace, comfort and security that injustice denies, that injustice destroys, that injustice replaces with fear, with want and with the undeniable anguish of the soul. We say love conquers all and we quote the scripture that says this very thing with scarcely a thought for what it means in the dust and grime of the streets we walk every day, with scarcely a thought for the simple reality that justice isn't justice at all until it seeks out those for whom it is denied. It isn't a concept, it isn't a metaphysical construct, it isn't child of the law and the labour of the courts, it's the way we must live, seeking to lift up those who cannot themselves rise, seeking to love those who despair of ever knowing freedom. Justice is love, seeking to be born into the world and it seems to me that the very act of seeking out those for whom justice is denied is an essential characteristic of justice. Justice searches for those who do not know her and it searches for them through us. 

This is what God did in Christ, at the cross, where God's 'justice' became indistinguishable from his love, where Christ's love was given it's ultimate expression in self-sacrifice. This is what it means to be who Christ is. It means we go looking for those who are suffering the weight of injustice, it means that we offer a justice indistinguishable from love and that a love for both vicitm and perpetrator. We're not very good at the self-sacrifice part but, honestly, we're not very good at the 'seeking-out' part, either.

Comments

[scott gray]

rhymes--

this is a superb essay.

when in school, i learned that we respond to injustice in three ways: by increasing awareness (informing others of the injustice), by responding directly, and by pushing for systemic change to reduce the incidence of a particular injustice in the first place. i see you responding directly, but what do you think is appropriate systemic change to reduce the injustices you are responding to?

like the two workers in the field that see sick and injured people floating down the river. they pull them out, offer aid and comfort, day after day, but at some point one says to the other, 'we have to go upstream, and see what's going on, and stop this if we can.'

peace--

scott

[[rhymes with kerouac]]

Scott - It seems to me that we have to move beyond addressing the systemic failures to something far deeper. The most recent Batman movie cost $180 million to make and took in $300 million by it's second weekend in theatres. No one even blinks at $10 million to make a movie now. Think of Sunday afternoon football. Add up the cost of a ticket, concessions, gas to get to the stadium, etc. and then multiply that by the # of people in the stadium, times the number of stadiums - never mind the television revenues. Multi million dollar salaries for hockey players, for CEO's who bankrupt their companies, gasoline companies routinely generating profits in the billions. And it's easy to point the finger 'out there' but, seriously, how many big screen tv's do we need? I have a friend who works in an appliance store and they have a $10,000 refrigerator on the sales floor - they deliver about one a month. The American people are balking at a $700 Billion bailout for the financial industry but nobody, absolutely nobody, stops to ponder the significance of a government being able to commandeer $700 Billion - BILLION - at the drop of a hat while while so many Americans continue to sleep in the streets. This is, I think, something way beyond a systemic failure - the systems we enact are ultimately a reflection of who we are. I don't know - I seriously don't know - how we begin to address the question of who we really are and how our lives reflect that.

Frankly, I think we're screwed.

[Mich]

Yeah, when you stop and really think about it, madness seems to reign supreme on this little planet of ours. No doubt about it. And, as you point out rwk, what else but the mad love of God through the Son could possibly even come close to being an answer.

The world is broken and I don't think it can be completely fixed this side of heaven by logical means otherwise great minds would have already come up with a solution that sticks. Of course, it doesn't mean that we can't help where we think we are able to. Lord, have mercy.

[scott gray]

rwk--

it seems to me you're saying we can't even get people to notice the bodies floating down stream, or if they do, to even pull them out and offer comfort and aid, let alone feel an urgency to go upstream and see what's going on, and stop it. in that case, all you can do is just what you're doing--comfort and aid, one relationship at a time.

if you get a chance, and if it interests you, read this essay and argue with me about it (i wrote it):

http://agnosticlectionary.blogspot.com/2008/08/defining-poverty.html

thanks--

scott