Sacred Heart Parish

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3RD SUNDAY OF LENT (C)

  1. The other night I spent a good bit of time reading the Pope’s Lenten message. Can you guess what I did when I finished? I read it a second time. It’s an excellent message, but I wouldn’t call it a reader-friendly text.

  2. The Holy Father says to us – Each year on the occasion of Lent, the Church invites us to a sincere review of our lives in the light of the teachings of the Gospel. This year, I would like to offer you some reflections on the great theme of justice, beginning with St. Paul’s affirmation – “The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ.” It might be helpful at the start to talk about the word “justice”. First of all, it refers to a human virtue, one of the moral or human virtues. After all, as the old saving goes – “Morals maketh man”, that is, morals make us human. (Remember, of course, it is the theological virtues of faith, hope and love that are most important, for they are what makes us Christian.) The Scriptures speak of the justice of God, the righteousness of God, the merciful forgiveness of God who makes all things right; He is the one who alone has the power to make us just and righteous in his image. St. Paul calls Christ “the justice of God”. We become sharers in God’s justice through faith and Baptism.

  3. Justice is one of those moral or human virtues which Greeks like Aristotle and Romans like Cicero used to discuss even before the coming of the Lord. It is also a most prominent theme in the poets and prophets of the Old Testament. The classical definition of the virtue of justice goes as follows: Justice is the virtue, that is, that inner habitual power, to render to every person his or her due. Pope Benedict notes, however, that this classical definition does not specify what “due” is to be rendered to each person. And what we will see is that, what a person needs most of all – truth, love, acceptance, forgiveness – cannot be guaranteed by human law. Material goods are certainly useful and required. We see Jesus so often in action healing the sick, feeding the crowds that follow him and surely we must think of the millions of persons all over the world who lack food and water and medicine. Yet the virtue of justice does not render, because it cannot render, the totality of what is due to every human being. It is true that all human beings need bread, but it is also true that human beings need God. The Pope then quotes St. Augustine who writes – “If justice is that virtue which gives everyone his due... where then is the justice of man when he deserts the true God?”

  4. There is so much injustice all over the world. Where does it come from? Many in our day are tempted to think that the origin of injustice is to be found in exterior causes. Therefore, in order for justice to reign, it is sufficient to remove the exterior causes which stand in the way. Such an answer Pope Benedict would call ingenuous and shortsighted. Injustice is the fruit of evil and the origin of evil lies ultimately in the human heart. The truth is that the imbalances, the injustices under which the world labors, are linked with that more basic imbalance which is rooted in the human heart. Thus each person is split within himself or herself, and as a result, all human life shows itself to be a dramatic struggle between good and evil, light and darkness. But our God, who is kind and merciful has come to our aid, first through the poets and prophets of Israel, but then, in the fullness of time, definitively, uniquely, through Jesus his Son who is the very justice of God. The Old Testament word for justice signifies on the one hand the full acceptance of the will of God. On the other hand, it signifies equity to one’s neighbor, especially the poor, the stranger, the orphan and widow. Giving to the poor for the ancient Israelite is nothing other than restoring what is owed to God. This is why God is attentive to the cry of the poor and asks for justice for the poor, and the stranger. So much, then, for the great work of God in ancient Israel. When we come to the New Testament, when we come to the Lord Jesus, we must take a quantum leap. The great mystery revealed in the New Testament is that we are not saved by the law; we are saved by the initiating love and grace of God, who so loved the world, that he sent us his only Son, who is God’s justice and who has the power to make us just in God’s image.

  5. We touch here on the great mystery of our salvation. We who are lost, like the Prodigal Son in today’s Gospel, we who came into the world without God’s saving grace are now forgiven, are now made just, are now justified by what the Lord Jesus has done for us. We are saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus, but we must under grace cooperate with God’s grace to reach the goal he intends for us. As St. Augustine reminds us – “God, who made us without our cooperation, will not save us without our cooperation.” But, of course, our cooperation is under grace, yet it is free.

  6. There is no such thing in God’s sight as self-justification. It’s the grace of the Holy Spirit who cleanses us from our sins, thanks to the Lord’s paschal mystery, and thus communicates to us God’s justice, God’s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ and through Baptism. First comes conversion, detaching us from sin and effecting the work of justification. Along with the gift of God’s righteousness, faith, hope and love are poured into our hearts. By this great gift from God, we already share in the eternal life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We call that gift eternal glory. As a good theologian would say – divine grace this side of the grave is glory in exile; glory is grace gone home. Strengthened by God’s great gift, the Christian is then empowered to work tirelessly in the work of creating just societies where all, then, can receive what is necessary for human dignity and where justice is enlivened by love.