GOD IS JUST WHEN HE LOVES.

September 20, 2020
Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - A

Readings: IS 55:6-9; PS 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18; PHIL1:20C-24, 27A; MT 20:1-16A.

A Sicilian proverb says, “The justice of God is better than the justice of the world.” And a Congolese proverb adds, “Justice becomes injustice when it makes two wounds on a head which only deserves one.”

Just like the day is opposed to the night, so is the way of God to our ways. Where man speaks of revenge and anger, God speaks of mercy and love. When mankind thinks justice as quantitative, God sees justice as qualitative. In all and for all, our ways are not the way of the Lord. Therefore, when we think him near, the farther we may feel him and when we think he is far, the nearer he manifests himself. God is far as near and near as far from mankind in terms of justice.

Last week, we spoke of God’s mercy and forgiveness as an expression of his love that overlooks our evilness and opens us to new opportunities. Today, 25th Sunday in the Ordinary Time, we are put in front of God’s justice that confuses our understanding of the word justice. This sounds like a call for us to be positively envious of God’s definition of justice.

In the enchiridion of God, justice is defined as “to make all things right”. In that sense, God is the one who can truly make all things right. There is no wrong in his actions, words, and works. His justice is first and foremost relational. It is all about how we are called to live in a right relationship with him, with one another, and with the whole creation that surrounds us. God’s justice is theological, anthropological, and ecological. In other words, Theos, Anthropos, and Bios. And more than being punitive, that justice of God is rather restorative. After his mercy, justice is the attribute that could be seen as the essence of God and the best expression of his love. For, in God, justice is colored by love. The Lord God thirsts for mankind's righteousness. He hungers for us to learn from him how to truly love and do the right things.

Regrettably, our ways are always opposed to that of the Lord. Through the prophet Isaiah, in today’s first reading, the Lord says it clearly: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways…” The main fact is, how do we understand justice?

For mankind, justice, in the broadest sense, is a principle that states that everyone receives that which his actions deserve. Human justice is more distributive or retributive. Justice, thus, is more consequential than sequential. And oftentimes, our notion of justice is dressed into corrective moral concepts based on ethics, rationality, laws, religion, equity, or fairness. Sometimes, justice takes upon some cultural implications. Many philosophical schools could entre-chock in finding a correct definition of justice. The point is, no human definition can one hundred percent seize the meaning of justice. For, our human justice, more than often consecrates injustice or becomes a cult of unrighteousness and corruption. With that understanding, Isaiah can insist that our ways are not that of the Lord, or more precisely, that the thoughts of the Lord are higher above ours. For, the justice of the Lord, like sings the psalmist, leads him to be always near to those who call upon him, those who thirst for him.

In the Gospel, the Lord Jesus teaches his followers of that justice that surpasses that of men. The parable of the eleventh hour’s workers illustrates well how just God is. The Lord, embodied by the landowner, treats each one of his workers (we), without discriminations or segregations. For, his justice is not discriminative. With the Lord, there is nothing such as merits or privileges. All of us are loved in the same way. His generosity is overflowing for all, the first as well as the last. For, to each of us, he has a unique word, “You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just.” The eleventh hour is the hour of God’s justice and love that restores and makes all things right.

The psalmist reminds us of this truth, “The Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his works.” When he has to show compassion, he shows it with justice. When he needs to punish, he also does it with justice. And his justice is the measure of his love.

When one opens himself to experience God’s justice, he can only conclude like St. Paul, that life or death, are all according to the plan of the Lord. therefore, either one lives or dies, all is about God and up to him alone. With God, we do not speak of merits. We deserve nothing. All that we have and all that we do are pure grace from him. So, the Apostle Paul can affirm, “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.” God alone knows best what is good for us, life or death, everything is in his hands and according to his project of love.

These words could be very confusing if one looks at them only with human sights. This confusion, however, comes rightly, to tell us that our ways are not that of the Lord. It reminds us that we are still human and therefore, our need to journey towards God’s justice. This highlights also a challenge to change our perspectives and embrace those of God. We are today, urged to enter into a relational justice built upon love and not on merits or consequence.

We could close our meditation asking, comparing to God’s way to deal with us, is there any justice in our world? Do our systems of justice restore or are they only a punitive justice opening to new greater injustices?