What do we mean by, “justice?”
I’ve been thinking a lot about “justice” over the past few days. Partly because the upcoming "Pilgrim" session in the Imago Day Virtual Home Group (the seventh and final chapter in book #1) deals with the last few questions of the Baptismal Covenant (1979 Book of Common Prayer). The question, “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?” is of particular interest. The answer to this question, and frankly all questions that ask whether we humans will do the right thing, the good thing, the life-giving thing, is, “I will, with God’s help.” I’ve been thinking about justice, too, because it is supposed to be a hallmark of the American experiment in liberal, republican democracy, even as we seem to fail at it so often.
I wonder, as a country and culture, as we get further away from, “I will, with God’s help,” whether our notion of “justice” morphs into something very different or wains altogether. I mentioned at the end of last week’s Home Group, the idea of two-kingdoms - the civil, the United States of America and the spiritual, the Kingdom of God. What do we do when the understanding of, definition of, experience of “justice” becomes very different within the two different kingdoms? What have we to learn from history? How then shall we live in our own day?