VIRTUES ALLIED TO JUSTICE
THIRD PART
P. 222 I. Justice and generosity are different virtues, and are frequently regarded as opposites; yet Liberality, though not prescribed by statute law is still a duty of natural and of Christian justice. This is specially a duty incumbent on those who have received an abundance of this world's goods. The products of the earth, the mother of all, are intended primarily for the support of the life of all in a suitable manner. If, in the natural course, wealth accumulates largely in individual hands, it should be used with a sense of responsibility to the community and to God. Through the organization and self-restraint of the community, some receive more than the share of the earth's productions which their labours have earned, and are enabled to enjoy it in security. They in turn should render service to the community in proportion to their privileges. If they insist on their personal rights and rigid legal claims, they are guilty of an offence which is not the less real because it is not punished by the law. Wealth should not be hoarded for private advantage, but should benefit the whole community. It should be like the waters of the earth, which flow by ten thousand channels into the accumulation of the ocean, and are given back to the earth in the form of vapour and rain. For the accomplishment of this justice it is absolutely necessary that economical principles and civil laws should be supplemented by the Christian law of Liberality. Without this, the operation of natural forces turns law and social order into an engine for the oppression of the poor, and weak, and ignorant multitudes who are the bulk of human society.
II. Sternness and rigour are qualities of justice which regard the due apportionment of punishment. It is in accordance with the law of nature and of revelation that evil doings should produce evil consequences. As men are constituted, some severity is necessary in order to deter from crime and protect the community. To depart from this is an offence against mercy no less than against justice, for it encourages criminals to new excesses of cruelty against their victims. Weakness is not the same as the divine quality of mercy. The soi-disant tenderness towards wrong doers sometimes results from effeminacy of sentiment, some times from indifference to the wrongs which others suffer, sometimes from a positive sympathy with crime itself. Consider the harmonies of the universe as shown in the equal balance of expiation and offence; and the justice of God in the punishment of sin. Tenderness and sternness are not inconsistent qualities in God. So you must not allow an undue straining after mercy to make you forget that justice also is a divine perfection which must be reproduced on earth. Outside the influence of religion we often find sternness replaced by brutal severity, and mercy parodied by a weakness which is fatal to justice.
III. Perfect justice requires that the rigour of justice be constantly modified. Rights pushed to their extreme often become wrongs. The strict letter of the law needs to be tempered by Equity. Without this benignity of interpretation, inflexible law sometimes inflicts worse evils than those which it is intended to remedy. We have to be careful lest we injure the more valuable thing, the souls of men, while guarding that which is less valuable, their material rights. The Holy Ghost cautions us: "Be not over just; and be not more wise than is necessary" (Eccles. vii. 17). Apply these principles to the private judgments that you form about the conduct of others. If you would judge truly, judge leniently. If you judge others according to the strict letter of the spiritual law, you will generally be wrong and always uncharitable. There are excuses of in- voluntary ignorance, of mistaken good intentions, of tangled influences, which you cannot trace, but for which the merciful judgment of God makes most generous allowance. Beware especially of that most dangerous injustice of passing severe sentence on others and a lenient one on your own greater offences.
All for Jesus, all for Mary.
Such shall be our password gentle reader.
Til next time.
