The Justice of Advent

Today in the House of the Immaculata we had the blessing of hearing a reflection on this incredible season as we prepare spiritually for Christmas. We were invited to reflect on the "justice of advent" and I now turn to invite you to do the same.

Justice, strictly, is giving someone what is due to them.  Most of us would agree with this statement, but many of us get rather confused about what exactly is "due" to "them". As in all things, we must strive to understand this in the light of Christ. It can be a struggle, in fact, we have in the Sacred Scriptures two figures who's sense of justice is tweaked by the coming of the Messiah: John the Baptist and Joseph the Just. In the first case we know that St. John - after finding himself in prison - asks, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we wait for another?" Poor John proclaimed the Lamb of God, and yet ended up in prison for it. His question than belies a deeper dilemma: Where is the Christ's sense of justice? The Lord Himself gives response: "The blind see, the lame walk" etc. John was looking for the restoration of society and his own freedom. Christ was talking about a restoration of the whole man.

This is Divine Justice. Mercy creates goodness in everything that it touches, and thus justice demands that all things be loved for the sake of God. Any deprivation suffered in this world, then, is not due to the failure of God to love and make loveable, but rather a failure on the part of man to give God His due... God who is present in the poor, lonely, and the outcast.

This is the Justice of Advent. Seeing God in every person, and returning love for Love.

Next up: St. Joseph