Episode Transcript  

One

Defining Justice

The second of the Cardinal Virtues is justice. We might think, sometimes, that justice is a legal concept, or maybe some kind of abstract value of fairness. But actually, justice is a lot more concrete than that. Because justice is a virtue that informs all our actions.

Justice, in its essence, is the virtue by which you are able to give people what you owe them. Put differently, in justice, you give people what they have a right to expect from you. But here’s an interesting question: what gives people the right to expect anything from you? Where did they get that right in the first place?

Two

The Divine Foundations of Justice

How can someone say, “I’m owed this,” or even, “I have a right to this”? Notice that only certain things have rights, not others. No one owes anything to a rock; there’s nothing that belongs to a tree by right. Merely material things don’t make claims on us, and don’t enter into questions of justice. 

This is a critical point: only persons deserve justice.  All human beings have been created by God with a spiritual soul, in order to be in His image and likeness. That’s why human beings must be treated justly, because of their special stature in relation to God. 

As the Declaration of Independence states, “They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” and these rights must be taken seriously. The American Founding Fathers recognized this essential truth: that God is the source of human rights, and that justice depends on recognizing His unique love and gifts to humanity. 

If we see the human person merely as a random collection of atoms, instead of as a child of God, we won’t be able to maintain justice. No wonder then that historically, whenever a society attempted to rid itself of God and religion, the stage was instantly set for widespread injustice. God is the safeguard of justice.

Three

Justice and Relationship

Justice is the virtue that’s primarily concerned with the way we deal with other people. That’s what makes justice so important, and the reason why it comes right after prudence in the order of primacy. 

With justice, we don’t just realize our own private good. We are also empowered to cultivate the good of relationships. Because it focuses on other persons, it’s a broader, more encompassing virtue than fortitude and temperance, which focus primarily on the self. 

Justice is therefore absolutely essential if we want to be happy. Without it, we’ll fail in building relationships with those around us, and what’s more pitiful, more miserable, than a human being left only with himself? Such a person is trapped and stifled within the narrow limits of himself; he’s self-enclosed, lonely, and unfulfilled. 

This brings us to a super-important truth: those who commit injustice are worse off than those who suffer injustice. Plato said the one who commits injustice is more to be pitied than his victim. Vatican II, after listing a long string of horrible crimes, said that the perpetrators of those crimes debase themselves more than those they act on. 

Because, after all, a just person has healthy, properly ordered relationships with others, and so has many avenues of escaping his solitude and emptiness, enjoying the goods of friendship and society. But an unjust person cuts off every bridge between himself and another person, and ends in the hell of their own loneliness.

Four

Justice and Balance

Justice is often rightly associated with the notion of “equity,” or “fairness,” or “balance.” But it’s really important to emphasize that when we talk about justice and equity, that doesn’t mean that in a just society everybody winds up being totally equal in talent, or wealth, or health, or authority.

That’s silly. Almost the only thing that is really equal among all people is our common human nature. With everything else, there’s always going to be a lot of more and less. But because we are all equal according to our nature, we all have to treat each other as equally important in the most basic sense. We are all equally God’s children; we all have the same right to be shown respect and goodwill. And, importantly, when we interact with each other, especially in a contractual way, we have to recognize that the good you do for me demands that I do a proportionate amount of good for you. 

So, for instance, if my boss gives me a fair day’s wage, I owe him a proportional amount of service in return. And if someone comes to do work on my house, if he does good work, I owe him an amount of money that’s proportionate to the value he’s contributed to me. 

So equality does matter for justice, not in the sense that I have some bogus right to have an equal amount of money or fame or influence as anybody else, but in the sense that when we receive money or goods or services, we should consider ourselves obliged, and indebted, and should try to give something of roughly equal value in return.

That’s justice. It goes for families and friends, towns and economic systems, and international communities.

Five

Justice and Love

Justice is a great virtue. It preserves the fundamental good of relationship by making sure that when I pursue my good, I don’t do it at the expense of your good. But actually, for relationships really to thrive, we have to go beyond the limits of strict contractual equivalence. The fulfillment of justice can be found, ultimately, only in love. Because love is the greatest virtue. It unites one who loves with the one who is loved.

With justice, there’s still a tension between your good and my good, and I have to be careful that I don’t damage yours by seeking mine. But with love, that tension disappears. Because I love you, the good that I want, that I desire is your good. So we don’t have to count the pennies, we don’t have to quibble over what you owe and what I owe. 

Just as normal marriages have a joint account, it’s not my money vs. your money, it’s our money, so does love say, “The good I want, the good I will work for, is your happiness.” That’s how God loves us. That’s how, by His grace, we may become capable of loving one another. 

So think about where you might be limiting yourself to mere contractual equivalence or fairness. And ask for the gift to love that person as another self, and to will their good as you will your own. Ask for the gift to follow Christ’s injunction, and love your neighbor as yourself.

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