Dignity-restoring
Divine Justice
(A Biblical Meditation on Lk 15:1-32)
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Saint Luke’s Gospel message for this Sunday
celebration is doubtless a proclamation of both Divine Mercy and Justice.
The first reading taken from the Book of
Exodus, typical expression of Old Testament teaching on God’s justice tells us
about a God Who got angry because of people’s wrongdoing, and ready to punish them
for their sins.
But please notice the big difference between
human anger and divine indignation. I
get mad at you because you hurt me, and I want to take revenge on you. My reaction can by no means be named
something else but a mere retaliation. I
just practice the very commonly accepted principle “tooth for tooth—eye for
eye.” This seems at first a satisfactory
solution by human justice characterized by a strong desire for getting even
with one another. We all know that
violence only encourages violence. Do
not forget our Christian way of life which emphasizes the principle of
forgiveness, and unconditional pardon.
Saint Paul teaches us not to let ourselves be overcome by evil but to
overcome evil with good.
It is totally different when Sacred Scripture
speaks about the anger of God. God is
our loving and caring Father, Who made us in His image. He gave us everything in this world, the work
of His hands, for our achievement and happiness in our life, not only a short
life here on earth, but also and above all a life that never ends with Him in
His Kingdom. In return for this great
love and care, man only showed ingratitude, disobedience and serious abuse of
His love.
You are good parents and you try your best to
take good care of your children in providing them not only with delicious food,
beautiful cloths, but also good education.
You never mind how much money which you spend for them. You never complain about the hardship which
you endure, about the suffering which you experience because of hard work, the
sweat and tears which you shed because of greedy, corrupt, unjust and blood-sucking
employers. Your great sacrifice for a
bright future of your children only means that you love them so much, you love
them even more than yourselves.
Unfortunately, your children do not know how to appreciate your love and
care. Instead, they abuse your love and
trust by spending money for bad companions, for gambling, for drug. What would you do to them for their
wrongdoing? Of course you get upset, you
get angry, you reproach them, and you may punish them. But you will never kill them, right? Simply because you are good parents and they
are your children whom you bore in love and in your image. All that you would do is meant to help your
children to right their wrong and become good, successful and happy persons.
So this is a clear illustration of what
Scripture speaks of as “the anger of God”.
God is holy and just. He never
allows any wrong, any evil, any sin to happen and then to go without being
judged and punished. This is called by
the Bible “Divine Justice.” But God’s
reaction to man’s sin is by no means intended for revenge. Instead God wants us to repent and go back to
Him. God is low to anger and rich in
mercy. He only forgives us and grants us
life.
God forgives sinners to restore their dignity
as human persons, together with their rights and responsibilities, seriously
damaged by their wrongdoing. God is
patient with sinners to rebuild fatherly relationship broken by their
disobedience and ingratitude.
For this reason we may label God’s justice as
educative, reformative, and constructive.
Divine Justice after all turns to be Dignity-restoring Divine Justice.
Fr.
Francis Nguyen, O.P.
