XXIII — HUNGER AND THIRST FOR JUSTICE

Presence of God. — Give me, O Lord, a deep and effective desire for justice, so that I may draw near to You, infinite justice.

Meditation

1 — “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice” (Mt. 5:6), Jesus said, and He intended to speak of that general justice which inclines man to live in perfect accord with the divine will, so that this holy will may be desired by him as the unique and indispensable nourishment of his spiritual life. Nevertheless these words can also be applied to the particular virtue of justice, without which, moreover, there can never be accord with God’s will, and therefore there can never be holiness. If you wish to live united to God, who is infinite justice, you must be hungry and thirsty for justice in all your actions, in all your relations with neighbor. Hunger and thirst indicate pressing needs that cannot be stifled: it is a question of life or death. As food and drink are absolutely indispensable for life of the body, so justice is absolutely indispensable for a virtuous life, and its duties are so essential that no motive can exempt us from fulfilling them. If an act of charity toward neighbor imposed on us a grave inconvenience or notable damage, we would not be obliged to perform it; but the same inconvenience or damage can never dispense us from satisfying a duty of justice toward others. Serious motives may at times authorize us to postpone fulfillment, but the obligation will always remain, and even if we were prevented from fulfilling it materially, we would have to supply for it at least morally. It is therefore appropriate to speak of hunger and thirst for justice, not in the sense of reclaiming our rights, but in the sense of cultivating in us so living a desire, so pressing a need for justice in all our relations with others, that we do not feel satisfied until we have fulfilled to the end all duties deriving from this virtue.

2 — Justice too, like all the other virtues, has its bitterest enemies in our passions, and first of all in egoism. Egoism not sufficiently mortified and overcome always finds a way to make certain duties imposed by justice appear too heavy, and to devise pretexts and loopholes to exempt us from them. At other times egoism, besides being attachment to one’s own interests and rights, takes the particular form of jealousy, and in this case too it is cause of injustices. One who is jealous, or worse, envious, is almost unconsciously led to diminish others’ merits, to criticize and always find defective their way of acting, and thus comes to damage the esteem they should justly enjoy with superiors, equals, or inferiors. All this is contrary not only to charity, but also to justice.

Another source of injustices is partiality, preferences for some particular individual to the detriment of others who have identical rights. And it is not rare that this way of proceeding masks itself under appearance of charity. But one cannot speak of charity when, to favor, defend, sustain one person, or to be more liberal with her, one fails in justice toward others and at times perhaps toward an entire community. A soul that has hunger and thirst for justice will keep careful watch over itself to prevent any defect of this kind from insinuating itself into its conduct, even in slight form. As long as passions remain in us — and they will always remain — we have reason to fear ourselves and must be diligent in examining the motives of our actions. A great love for justice, for truth, for the common good is needed; much rectitude is needed to unmask all those little passions that can make us deviate, even a little, from the way of justice. Let us mirror our justice in infinite Justice, and we shall always find something to correct, to improve. “Blessed is he who keeps right and practices justice at all times,” sings the psalmist, because “the upright shall behold the face of God” (Ps. 105:3; 10:7). May the desire to unite ourselves to God, infinite Justice, impel us to an ever more perfect practice of this virtue.

Colloquy

“O Lord, increase in me hunger and thirst for justice, so that I may fulfill with love all duties that are of justice and obligation toward You and toward neighbor, neglecting none and executing them all willingly, even when displeasing to nature. May this hunger impel me to progress more and more in virtues, always considering little what I have already attained and much what still is lacking. May this hunger and thirst give me a most ardent desire for your grace; may they impel me with great fervor to the holy sacraments, and especially to the Sacrament of the altar, to feed on You, O Jesus, who are my justice.

“O Jesus, You had such hunger for justice as not to feel bodily hunger; and so, once very tired and in need of refreshment, You said to your disciples: ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.’ And You had so ardent a thirst as to desire with living anxiety to set your lips to the most bitter chalice of your Passion, so that You said: ‘I have yet to be baptized with a baptism, and how I am constrained until it be accomplished!’

“O my beloved Redeemer, inflame me with the fire of your love, from which this hunger and thirst proceed, so that I may always have it for your service, as You had it for my ransom” (cf. Ven. L. Da Ponte).