The victory of God’s justice is a reflection of His love
Sometimes we place justice up against mercy and miss the connotation of the justice God calls us to. If we decide that the justice God wants in the world is getting what someone deserves, each of us would be annihilated because we have each chosen to sin in small and great ways. If we simply got what we deserved, it would not be pretty. So what does it mean for us to help bring about the victory of justice God has in mind?
There are two images I would like to use to describe what God’s justice looks like: the smoldering wick and the bruised reed. When I was a child, we used to play in a small strip of woods next to a creek. Along that creek were many reeds. If they were intact, they made great spears to throw at other people. If they had somehow been bent or bruised, they were too limp to use at all. They were fragile. During the holidays, perhaps we burned some scented candles that we had to blow out after the party was over. Perhaps we noticed the tiny amount of smoke rising from the small ember left. That is what the smoldering wick looks like. It, too, is fragile, and one small breath would extinguish it.
How are these images of the justice of God? Each of those objects has to be approached with gentle care or they will be destroyed or ruined even more. We can imagine ourselves as fragile creatures, standing in the power of God’s love. We could imagine that God would breathe fire upon us and devour us in response to the sins we’ve committed. But we would be mistaken. The victory of justice for God is to treat those fragile creatures with such incredibly powerful love that their life is sustained, not extinguished. That is the justice exerted by God toward us that we, in turn, are asked to offer others.
We can’t really give to others what we haven’t given to ourselves. We don’t know how to treat the fragile others in our life if we have not allowed our fragile self to be loved by God. Where do we experience being as the smoldering wick or the bruised reed? Where do we find ourselves at the end of our rope or imagining that we have nothing else to give? How many times have we forgiven 70×7 and don’t know if we can do it again? Are we running low on generosity, understanding or compassion? Are we at a point where we don’t know if we have the faith to do what God is asking us to do? In that helpless and fragile circumstance, let’s allow God to truly see us. Instead of putting on a happy face and presenting only our best and strongest selves to God, let’s allow God to touch and heal us and let us finally experience peace.
Allowing ourselves to be loved by God ends up being contagious and infectious. It is such a gift that we want to share it with others, not just out of duty. It is our gift to give as it has been given to us. Jesus wanted to be baptized so that others would know to do it for themselves through John The Baptist. Let the victory of justice be yours as a gift from God, and give it to others as a reflection of God’s love for them.
