The Virtue of Justice: “It’s not fair!”

By Dr Gerard Gaskin, Director of Catholic Education Tasmania

In today’s world, many people cry out for justice, particularly victims of injustice and those affected by warfare and oppression. In everyday life too, we rely on the justice system to protect us from crime and to defend our rights. But what is justice?

The great Catholic theologian, St Thomas Aquinas described justice as “a habit whereby a person renders to each one his due by a constant and perpetual will”. This means essentially: to give to each person what they need or deserve. For parents and teachers this may mean giving our children only what they need or deserve, and not more than that.

At times, to give justice may mean to provide unequal gifts or treatment. We know that sometimes, one child needs more support or encouragement than another does. And so, we give the extra support the child needs. This does not mean we love our children unequally, but rather that we are striving to give to each according to their need.

For our children and students, justice can mean righting a wrong that someone else has done to them. The need for justice is real, and we are compelled to respond justly. At other times they may protest loudly: “It’s not fair!” However, their claim to justice may be just a way of getting something that they want.

My own children have, at times, insisted that my wife and I were terribly unjust when we did not give them permission to go to this or that party, or to buy them this or that expensive present, or required them to come home at such-and-such a time of night. As they grew older, we hoped that they would begin to appreciate that saying no to some of these things was actually a very just thing to do – as it was intended to protect them from a harm that only we, as parent, could foresee.

At times, to act justly calls us to exercise the other virtues – even heroically so. To discern what is just, requires us to use the virtue of prudence: to carefully weigh and measure what is the true and just thing to do. We may have to decide whether to act at all is right or wrong.

Justice requires the virtue of courage too – sometime even at the price of suffering or death. Many Catholics have endured ridicule, injustice and deadly persecution because they stood up to the tyranny of Communism. Pope Saint John Paul II refused to buckle to the demands, first of the Nazis, and then, to the brutal Communist occupiers of his beloved Poland. The history of the Church is enriched by the stories of countless martyrs who gave their lives rather than to turn away from their belief in Christ. For them, it would have been an offence against justice to surrender their faith in God.

God is the origin of all justice. Many beautiful icons celebrate the image of Christ the judge. We know we will meet Jesus at the point of our death. He will be the one to provide us with Divine justice. Perhaps if we keep that image of Jesus as the merciful judge constantly in our minds, we too will exercise the virtue of justice in our daily lives.

Living a regular sacramental life is a very effective way of leading our children to a life of justice. When our children receive Jesus frequently in the Eucharist, they become closer to Him – more like him – more prudent – able to act more justly. When our children receive the Sacrament of Penance regularly – receiving God’s mercy – they become ever more conscious of their own weaknesses and failings and more able to forgive others too.

St Paul advises us never to be harsh judges of others: “No matter who you are, if you pass judgement you have no excuse. In judging others, you condemn yourself, since you behave no differently from those you judge.”(Romans 2:1-11)