The virtue of Justice

 

The basic principle of Justice is to give to each 

person what is owed to them.

Justice is the big chunk of Catholic morality.

Morality : Justice.

The virtue of Prudence helps to find the 

middle ground in adjusting our actions, 

the virtues of temperance and fortitude 

helps to control our passions, 

and the supernatural virtue of Justice can 

be summed up by saying that it 

is about giving each person what is due 

to them. 

The virtue of justice comes from our willpower, 

we are just because we want to be.

And if we really give to each person what we owe 

them; we are definitely heading in the right direction.

What we owe to God, our parents, our teachers, our 

children, our boss, our sisters and brothers, friends, 

etc.

In Holy Scripture the word Just is practically 

synonymous with Holy.

The object of Justice is the right.

A worker who has carried out work for someone, 

has the right to be paid. He is owed it.

Justice is an expression of order, a just order.

In a functioning society there is order;

employees are subordinate to the boss, a child is 

subordinate to his parents/guardiens, etc.

Each one has belongings that belongs to him

personally. This order is objective, whether it 

is being respected or not.

Human rights are true rights, but they are in relation 

to other humans, in the order of things.

A father has the right to be respected by his child, 

for example, because it falls within the natural order

of the relationship father/son.

 

But we know that rights that we had, can be lost.

A person who has tortured or murdered someone 

for example, looses his rights, including maybe 

his right to live.

So we see that a man's rights are not something 

that exists by itself from the mere fact that he is a 

human, it is related to the other members of society.

So in giving to each one what we owe them, we 

practice justice.

However, the one who does it, but against his

will, e.g. because he has no other choice, is still not

a just man, because he does not want to do it, it 

doesn't stem from his willpower.

Likewise a man who wants to give to each one what 

is due to them, but is physically prevented from 

doing so, remains a just man.

Justice means that there is equality between what is 

due and what is rendered.

 We owe a person 100 euros, we give him back the 100 euros.

So it is obvious that the justice we owe God, who has 

given us everything, 

poses a problem, because we realise straight away that 

we are totally unable to pay this debt.

That is why we do not use the term justice when we

talk about God, even if it is a sort of justice, but we 

prefer to use use the term religion. 

The word religion comes from the French relier, 

d'être relié à Dieu  means being connected to God.

That is all we can do in relation to God, we can never 

pay back what we owe Him.

Not only did He give us life, and everything we have 

in the natural order of things, He gave us His Son, 

He gave us His Church, He gave us the Sacraments for 

our sanctification, He has given us supernatural eternal Life. 

We can never pay this back.

Neither can we pay back our biological parents, who

gave us life, cared for our every need, fed us, clothed us,

educated us, kept us safe. 

So we practise religion.

In so doing we offer to God the worship that is due 

to Him. We honour Him.

We must make the distinction between the Theological virtues of 

Faith, Hope and Charity which has God as the immediate object.

But the direct object of practising religion is not God, it is about 

justice towards God, we owe Him. 

We carry out our obligations towards God, Sunday Mass and all other 

days of obligations, The Sacrament of Confession, doing good works, 

even though we know that we will never be able to pay back what 

we owe Him, in the way we give back what we owe to people.

It will always be an uneven relationship, we will always be indebted 

to God, unable to pay Him His dues, it is a way of being as least  

unjust as possible towards God.

Acknowledging Him; recognising that God is God.

Adoring Him, recognising His Infinite Power, that 

He is the Creator and Master of everything and everybody.

Giving thanks, the sheer gratitude that raise up from our heart 

when we realise how He has always provided for us, given us 

everything we ever needed, down to the most minute details.

 

Supplication; I am a beggar, I ask God to help me with the things 

that I am incapable to do.

Asking forgiveness for my sins.

The practise of religion is for God, and for God only.

That is why it is totally irrelevant whether I "enjoy" it

or not, or as some say; "whether I feel that I get something out of it".

It is not about me, it is about God.

We honour Our Lady, we honour the Saints, we honour everything

that is consecrated to God. We honour priests and bishops for the 

same reason; because they are consecrated to God.

So what are the practices contrary to religion?

They are divided into 4 main groups.

 

Idolatry: 

Ignorante paganism: adoring something other than God, planets, etc

Formal idolatry; judaisme, the golden calf, consciously turning one's 

back to God. 

Simulated idolatry; pretending to believe in idols as a way of self 

perserverance.

Superstition:

Believing that some evil will befall one if walking under ladders, 

Friday the 13th, being 13 persons at table, black cats across the street, 

knocking over the salt shaker, amulettes, rabbit's foot, etc 

By believing in the power of these things, we do not honour God as 

master of all things, they are deviations. 

Making money from peoples gullibility and naivety makes things

worse. 

Divination:

To discover things that are secret, hidden things.

Or the future.

At the very least it is a matter of wasting time and 

a deviation from God, but if it happens that somethin 

is discovered this way, then it could be extremely dangerous; 

it could be a contact with demonic forces. 

And they do not just let you go afterwards. 

The devil is real.

In the "lucky" cases it is straight forward charlatans who blatantly 

use psychology and who can spot an easily manipulated person

from a distance; the methods are varied:

palm reading, summoning the dead, tarot cards, ouija boards, 

but this is not something that we play with, it is too risky.

In what we call Magic, we need to differentiate between 

white magic and black magic; pulling birds out of a hat is not 

harmful, while black magic is very dangerous.

The devil is real and he is known to grant perverted prayers. 

 

The lack of respect for God manifested by not practising religion 

extends into a lack of respect for man. 

Godlessness is resorting to the devil.