If we could wish for just one thing that would fix our world, and if we could make that wish with the full confidence that the wish would be granted, we would all wish for justice.
Yes, we might first think to wish for peace, but we would stop ourselves right away, because we know better.
We know that there can be no heaven on earth in a free will world, so we don’t waste our faith wishing on utopian things like peace.
Justice on the other hand seems achievable to us, even if the idea of universal justice is just as utopian as world peace.
Justice is the one burning ideal we have as a civilization. We know what justice looks like. It never seems to be widespread or lasting, but we have seen justice accomplished on small scales.

We know there is a greater justice in us.
It is important to get that clear.
We are not talking about the small scales of justice here.
We are not talking about the need for law and order. We are not talking about the history of crime and punishment. We are not talking about suffrage or freedom marches or the righteous fight for equal rights.

We are talking about justice that is deeper than civics.
We are talking about the moral core of justice that resides in the dark of every human heart.
We are talking about the justice of perfect judgment that rights all wrong.
And by us wishing for that kind of perfect justice above all else, we say more about what is wrong with us as Americans than by anything else.
By wishing for perfect justice we mistake what we really need as people and we mistake what we really need as a world.

Worse, we are mistaken in the most ironic way. Not only we are oblivious to the error of our own desire, but the justice that we request for our repair actually adds to our despair.
The truth is we don’t really want perfect justice.
What we want is mercy.
But we don’t wish for world mercy, because we don’t want mercy for the world.
We only want mercy for ourselves; for everyone else we want justice.

And so our wish for perfect justice is unjust.

 

II. The Chill of Free Will
It is good to wish for a just world. But it is better to wish for a just soul.
The first wish is not attainable because the second wish is not desirable, so we take refuge in fantasy.
But we are quickly brought back to earth by our own brokenness.

No wish can be granted where free will reigns.
Take for example our wish to live happily ever after: we know that this wish is a fantasy that could only come true on earth if our free will breaks.
The testimony of our life is proof that when we exercise our free will, we do not make choices that lead to happiness ever after.

We make choices based on greed and desperation and insecurity. We make choices to deliver gratification instantly. We make choices for ourselves instead of for the common good.
We do this over and over and over, and we say we are only human. But our conscience doesn’t accept our own excuse, because our conscience knows that we are capable of overcoming our nature.
And every time we don’t overcome our nature, we understand the consequence.
The consequence is we will never have our wish to live happily ever after.
In the same way, as long as we have our free will, we will never have our wish for world peace.
Deep down we do not wish for peace. The testimony of our interior life is proof of this.

[image error]

We want death for our enemies. We want defeat for our adversaries. We want less than the best for those we detest.
We want abundance for ourselves. Everyone else can suffer want.
What good is it to enjoy the good life if everyone else is enjoying the good life too?
We don’t like this part of ourselves. We repress it to our subconscious. And we try to will ourselves away from it.
But there it is all the same.

The problem with injustice in the world is not that the world is unjust. The problem with injustice in the world is that we are not just.
This is something we can change.

 

III.  The Justice of Suffering
The main thing we Americans must change if we are to have a just soul is our hardness to suffering.

We must overcome the idea that suffering is a disgrace that cannot be embraced.
Intellectually, we know that resistance to suffering causes more torment for us than the actual onset of affliction. And yet we resist suffering anyway because suffering is so offensive.
The offense of suffering is not so much the pain of it but the injustice of it.
Whether it is sudden loss or sudden crisis or sudden affliction, suffering seems invariably aggressive, invariably intrusive, and invariably punitive.

We think that only suckers suffer.
But of course our greatest heroes have all suffered. In fact, what makes them greater than us is that they suffered better than us.
We can’t think of a great person who didn’t suffer seriously and who didn’t suffer admirably.
Great people overcome the objection to suffering that they don’t deserve it.
But we think we don’t deserve to suffer even when we have done wrong.
And we can’t get over the fact that the innocent suffer – especially children who are abused or abandoned.

And we shout, “Where is the justice in that!”
But the burden of suffering is not eradicating the injustice of it.
The burden of suffering is identifying the humanity in it.
The message to the soul struggling with suffering is not that life is worth living, but that suffering is worth enduring.
The meaning of suffering is mercy.
Instead of seeing suffering as a sign of division and a call to war, for which we go on to justify all sorts of brutality, we must see suffering as a sign of humanity and a call to solidarity, for which we go on to justify all sorts of sacrifice.

This is not to glorify suffering.
This is to reveal suffering.
To endure suffering with acceptance shows two things: it shows that we have faith, and it shows that we have grace.
Faith is the way we love God. Grace is the way God loves us.
And we already know that love conquers all things, because loves endures all things, even injustice.