The buzz word of Christian Gen Y today is Social Justice. It is every where. And thank God. We all need more.
But, we have to be careful of how we use social justice. Because it can entrap us by it’s law.
If I am focused solely upon equality and rectifying issues, situations and problems to be ‘right’ by our standards and the standard of the law, I am bound.
When a friend wrongs me, or my little brother steals money from me, if I am driven by a justice spirit I will not rest until that person has received their just-deserts. I will give them the silent treatment for a few hours or perhaps a day or two. I will find a way of letting them know they have wronged me and need to ‘fix their problem’. And when they do, I will forgive them, but simply out of obligation, because really, they don’t actually deserve forgiveness. I made them resolve their wrong.
Justice says, you bombed us so we’ll bomb you. You killed my son now I’ll kill your mother. Your company is responsible for me losing everything I have, so I’ll get vengeance.
Read the paper, watch the news, talk to your coworker. Justice is every where. It festers in peoples minds. It binds them with bitterness which will eventually manifest in rage and sickness.
One of the older ladies at work walked past my desk today. She commented that a certain colleague hadn’t shown up, and no one had received word from her. My face clouded over with concern. I know this lady is annoying, and she certainly rubbed me up the wrong way yesterday, but what if something had happened? I know a little of what’s going on for her at the moment, and it’s not the happiest of days. This lady leaning over my desk, wrinkled up her nose at me and scoffed, “What, are you frrrriends with her?” The distain and revulsion in her voice upset me. This women hated her so much that it so misaligned her moral compass to recognize that this lady is falling apart at the seams and slowly killing her body. The desire for justice and to make ‘things right’ was causing absolute hatred between two women who work side by side 5 days a week. It broke my heart.
We will never have full justice as Jesus intended unless we let go of our expectations and pride.
It hurts, to forgive someone. Or to love someone who has betrayed you. When humility meets grace in action, Justice and Jesus unite.
Jesus never punished those who had done wrong. The tax collectors knew how to seek forgiveness or pay penance for what they had done wrong. The woman at the well was freed from past stigma through one conversation that simply offered life and freedom, no condemnation attached.
We sign our grace with a footnote of reason and conditions. We give away our love for recognition in return. Fallen by nature we cling onto the fear we will give away too much and the lesson will not be learnt. We feel the need to correct another’s failings because it reassures our insecurity.
I often pray a silly prayer, for Him to break my heart, so I see, feel, hear and touch what breaks His. It is debilitating and it wrecks me, but only momentarily. Because when I see the poor and His eyes in their blindness, I can’t help but respond.
Less of me and more of Him. Abandoned to my earthly desires and consumed by His heart and His eyes.
Matt 25:40 “I tell you the truth, just as you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me”.
Mother Teresa said
‘If you are kind, people will accuse you of selfish motives; be kind anyway. The good you do today, most people will forget; do good anyway. Give the world the best you’ve got and it may never be enough; give your best anyway. In the final analysis it’s between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway.’
