The Perspective of Justice

Not Just A Set of Rules

The law of God is our strength. It challenges us to establish a right order with God (the first three commandments) and with our fellow human beings (the last seven commandments). Our sins are signs of weakness that we must overcome.

“Christ is the power of God”; his weakness is more powerful than our strength. Our dying with Christ in Lent is an identification with the power of Christ crucified.

Our calling, then, is to be strong, not weak. The commandments represent not just a set of rules but an ideal of a social order for which we are to give our lives, as Christ did on the cross.

We cannot stand by idly as the world rides roughshod over the ideal established by God’s law. We must be strong. We must overthrow injustice, just as Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers.

The oppressors of people and their evil systems must arouse our anger. “Get them out of here!”

(Christ’s) message is an invitation to orient every act in accordance with the dictates of divine law, which demands the unflinching adherence of all, despite sacrifice.

Along with such a deepened understanding must go action. It is utterly intolerable for Catholics to restrict themselves to the position of mere observers.

Pope John XXIII, 1959 Christmas Broadcast

Gerald Darring

**From Saint Louis University