Note: I originally wrote this piece for my site, The Nicene Guys. I've reproduced the whole thing here.

One of the most common mistakes I've heard made by my fellow Christians is the idea that the highest aspiration of a "Christian society" is that it be a just society, that is, one which proclaims "justice for all." We therefore have such things as the "social justice" movement which mistakenly believes that it is there to promote justice, and nothing more, or pro-life groups which would be more properly classified as anti-abortion groups, or Christian groups whose interest is in protecting this or that set of rights. In point of fact, even the pre-Christian pagans recognized justice as a virtue: along with prudence, temperance, and fortitude it became one of the cardinal virtues. Therefore, the "just" society is a society which even pagans ought to--and sometimes did--strive to achieve. Thus, by all means we as Christians are called to work for a more just society--one in which to each is given his due, and all rights are recognized--and this may be the best society on the level of government and social institutions.

However, as Christians, we are called to go beyond justice. In his The New World of Faith, the late Avery Cardinal Dulles wrote that

Avery Cardinal Dulles wrote: Solidarity calls for justice for all, but is not satisfied with the demands of justice. Human society cannot be successfully organized on the basis of rights alone. In the good society, justice needs to [be] motivated and supplemented by love. In the absence of love, human relations will be plagued by hostility, recrimination, and endless litigation. In some cases people may at length obtain what they can prove they have a right to receive, but it will be given grudgingly, rather than freely. In love, we freely do good to others, regardless of their just deserts.

Herein lies the dilemma for the Christian. We know that in his fallen state, man will rarely if ever achieve even a truly just society, and certainly not on the level of a civilization. Justice is difficult to achieve within so small a unit as the family, which should be a fairly close-knit group, especially in the case of Christian families. How, then, can it be expected to be successfully implemented on larger and larger scales: justice in the community, in the city or town, the sate or province, indeed in the whole nation, country, or empire? I answer that it cannot, at least not fully and thoroughly.

This is true even when all parties agree as to what constitutes justice in all situations--a condition which has by no means been met beyond perhaps the family. There will always be disagreements concerning what is "right" or "just" or "fair." To take one example, consider what is possibly the most hotly disputed subject in our time: abortion. Those who are pro-life believe, and quite rightly so, that every person has the right to life, and believe that the unborn child is an innocent human person. Justice demands, therefore, that the unborn baby be allowed to live, for it is his right. Those who are pro-choice dispute that the unborn child has the right to live, by disputing either his humanity (or personhood), his innocence, or that all innocent human persons deserve to live. They therefore conclude that he does not have the right to live, and that moreover the woman has rights of her own which can be restored to her only by the death of the child. They therefor insist that justice requires that she able able to kill her unborn child. Indeed, there are those who accept the pro-life definitions and premises--the life, humanity, personhood, etc of the child are all present--but reject their conclusions, stating that living people in this state, even if innocent, do not necessarily have a right to life, even absent any danger to the life or physical health of the mother. Thus, there is not accord on even this fundamental issue of justice, that is, whether or not all of us actually possess the right to life.

Moreover, there will always be people who want to get "around" the laws for their own gain, both within and outside of the positions of power in society. There will always be people who will rob, rape, murder, and so on, either for their own personal benefit, or out of desperation, or for sheer pleasure (or revenge), even in a society whose laws are just. Then there are embezzlement, graft, bribery, and petty lawsuits, litigation which is meant to cheat a person of what is rightly his and not to serve justice. Even otherwise good men in places of power may be tempted against justice, as when (for example) King David had Uriah the Hittite sent to the front lines so that he could be killed so that David could take Uriah's wife as his own (see 2 Samuel Chapter 11).

These are all problems facing the merely just society, the wounds of sin manifested against humanity and human institutions. In his The Line Through the Heart, Professor J Budziszewski uses the image of a two-story house as an analogy to describe St Augustine's "City of God" and "City of Man." The upper story is the "City of God," heavenly paradise, which we can never achieve ourselves, and not in this life. The lower story is the "City of Man" as it ought to be on the level of a society or a civilization, that is, the just society. But there are two more levels to this house: a basement and a mezzanine. The basement is where sin leads mankind, and to some extent all of us are either in the basement or in the stairs leading down to it. Our society, too, is located somewhere in the basement. The basement is not where we ought to be, and as a society we should aim at least for returning to the ground floor.

However, we are called--both Christian individuals and in our Christian institutions--to move closer to the mezzanine. Our society may strain to be on the first level--the just society--but we are called to more than this. We are called to live in such a way as to bring ourselves and our neighbors closer to heaven, that is to the mezzanine between the ground and top floors. We are to be the "salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13) and the "light of the world" (Matthew 5:14):

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew wrote: "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men. You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For amen I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the law, till all be fulfilled. He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments, and shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say, Thou Fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath any thing against thee; Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift" (Matthew 5:13-24).

What, then, is this "mezzanine" to look like? It is described nicely by Cardinal Dulles when he says that "justice must [be] motivated by and supplemented with love." It means beginning with justice, and recognizing the claims of the other without grudge or quarrel. It does not stop with that, but continues by tempering justice with mercy, that is, recognizing the plight of the other, and rendering aide and more as possible. Christ gives us an image of this in His parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), for neither he priest nor the Levite acted unjustly toward the man who had been robbed. When Christ asks the lawyer which man acted as the neighbor in this parable (Luke 10:36), he did not reply "the one who acted justly." Rather, he replied "the one who shewed mercy to him" (Luke 10:37).

Mercy, then, is the next step up to the mezzanine. But mercy begins with a sense of solidarity, of empathy. Our own Catechism goes on to say that

Catechism of the Catholic Church wrote: "The principle of solidarity, also articulated in terms of 'friendship' or 'social charity,' is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood....Solidarity is manifested in the first place by the distribution of goods and remuneration for work. It also presupposes the effort for a more just social order where tensions are better able to be reduced and conflicts more readily settled by negotiation" (Paragraphs [1939 and 1940).

Solidarity, in turn, begins by seeing Christ in the other person, just as Christ is present in the man who was stripped, beaten, and left for dead in the good Samaritan parable. This is captured again in Saint Matthew's gospel:

The Gospel According to Saint Matthew wrote: "And when the Son of man shall come in his majesty, and all the angels with him, then shall he sit upon the seat of his majesty. And all nations shall be gathered together before him, and he shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say to them that shall be on his right hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: Naked, and you covered me: sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee hungry, and fed thee; thirsty, and gave thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and covered thee? Or when did we see thee sick or in prison, and came to thee? And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:31-40).

How, in the state of sin to which mankind has fallen, can we hope to have any success in striving to create this more Christian society? On our own, we cannot, and indeed cannot really even reach the level of the just society. We can, however, reach toward the mezzanine with the help of God's own grace. We have only to look at the witness of the saints who succeeded in showing mercy, solidarity, love to their neighbors. If they seemed to be occupying a place or a state between heaven and earth, perhaps it is because by their trust in God's grace they were moving into the mezzanine.

Tags: City-of-GodCit Y-of-Man Theology Philsophy Culture Government

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