When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but dismay to evildoers.

— Proverbs 21:15

Either before you arrive or as you wait for class to begin, find this short passage from Sacred Scripture in your Bible or through an online search. Reading it will prepare you for this week’s material.

— Psalms 37:27–34, 37–40

O God you are just and all your ways are true. Look upon us and help us to give to our neighbor what is his due. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

As you watch the video lesson, refer to these key highlights. Feel free to use the space provided to take notes.

• None of us are an island unto ourselves. Everything we do affects others. This makes justice an extremely important topic.

• Christian tradition defines justice as “to render to each what is his due.” Justice is thus with respect to another.

• Commutative justice is the agreed upon equality between what is being given and received between individuals.

• General justice and distributive justice are two other kinds of justice that involve the relationship between the individual and the community (or civil authority).

• Christian citizens and Christian leaders are obliged both by nature and by Christ’s teaching and example to render the other his due, and also to surpass the rule of justice when charity demands it.

• The just Christian renders what he owes to God through acts of religion; he renders what he owes to country through acts of patriotism; he renders what he owes to family through acts of honor and respect; and through acts of gratitude, he renders what he owes to those who do good to him.

Wisdom of the Saints

The rule of justice is plain: namely, that a good man ought not to swerve from the truth, nor inflict any unjust loss on anyone, nor act in any way deceitfully or fraudulently.

— St. Ambrose of Milan

Take a moment to go through these questions with the group. For larger classes, divide them up into partners. Answers are provided to assist you in leading discussion.

1. Why is justice so concerned with our relations with other people?
   Everything we do has some kind of an effect on others. St. Thomas Aquinas argues that each of us comes into the world in a network of relationships with others. He says there is no act that a person can commit that is not in some way an act of justice, because our actions always affect others in some way. Every individual’s pursuit of his own good is wrapped up necessarily with others’ pursuits of their goods. The Christian tradition defines justice as when we “render to each what is his due.”

2. What is the most common form of justice? Describe it.
   In its most common form, justice regulates exchanges between individuals. This kind of justice is called commutative justice, and its measure is the agreed upon equality between what is being given and received. This equality can be strictly arithmetic, as in the exchange of one car wash for one car wash, or this equality can be based on need expressed in value, as in the exchange of ten dollars for a car wash.

3. Explain the meaning of and the relationship between general and distributive justice.
   Justice does not just involve interactions between individuals; it can also involve relationships between individuals and a larger “body” (the family, community, government, etc.).

   General justice, or legal justice, concerns the due that the individual owes to the community and is established by the rightful authority, which establishes what is due in law. It is a matter of rendering justice to the community, therefore, that one follows the speed limit, pays his …taxes, and responds positively to legitimate calls for the community’s defense.

Distributive justice is simply the inverse of this. This is the justice that the community, through the governing authority, renders to the individual citizen. Distributive justice demands that this authority ensures individual citizens receive not only their equitable portion of commonly held goods (like water, electricity, and transportation) but also equitable access to common benefits (like security, education, and prosperity).

1. How is the Christian concept of justice understood?

The Christian concept of justice recognizes the basic natural principles of justice but then intensifies the demands of it. Christian citizens and leaders are obliged both by nature and by Christ’s teaching and example to render the other his due, and also to surpass the rule of justice when charity and mercy demands it (as Christ taught us to “turn the other cheek”). At the very least, the just Christian lives a public life in which he avoids injuring his neighbor in word or deed.

More positively, the just Christian renders what he owes to God through acts of religion; he renders what he owes to country through acts of patriotism; he renders what he owes to family through acts of devotion; and through acts of gratitude, he renders what he owes to those who do good to him.

The just Christian also speaks the truth to others—he refuses to lie to them—and he engages others, especially the poor and disadvantaged, with a friendly and generous spirit.

Catechism Connection

Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the “virtue of religion.” Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor.

— CCC 1807

Discuss these questions with the group, pair them with a partner, or ask them to meditate on their own.

1. Do you think our contemporary culture misunderstands justice? How so?

2. In what aspects of your life do you most often fail to render someone else his due? In your family? With your friends? In the workplace? To those you do not know?

3. Does the idea of God’s justice frighten or comfort you? How so?

After concluding your group discussion, return to watch the second video where converts to the Catholic faith discuss their conversion and how they live today as Catholics.

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Rome to Home

There is no intermediary more powerful than religion (whereof the Church is the interpreter and guardian) in drawing the rich and the working class together, by reminding each of its duties to the other, and especially of the obligations of justice.

— Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum, no. 19

Justice: Defined by the Christian tradition as rendering to each what is due. We judge whether an action is just by whether we have rendered to another what is due to him.

Commutative Justice: Concerns the interactions (what is being given and what is received) between individuals according to a kind of equality. In buying and selling, for example, what is typically due depends on the value of the things being exchanged and the terms of the exchange agreed upon by the two parties.

General (or legal) Justice: Concerns the relationships between individuals and a larger “body” (the family, community, government, etc.), specifically what the individual owes to the community based on what is established by the rightful authority (for example, we must pay our taxes, obey traffic rules, serve on juries when called, etc.).

Distributive Justice: Concerns the treatment of individual citizens by the larger “body,” ensuring they receive not only their equitable portion of commonly held goods (like water, electricity, and transportation) but also equitable access to common benefits (like security, education, and prosperity).

God’s Word

But let justice roll down like waters, / and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

— Amos 5:24

The Divine Praises:
Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His Most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His Most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most Holy.
Blessed be her Holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her Glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His Angels and in His Saints.
Amen.

This serves as a review of the material that your students can read after each class, but it may be helpful for you to read as well. Consider reading it before each class to better prepare you for group discussion.

Rendering What Is Due

John Donne, an English poet, famously wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” (Meditation Devotions upon Emergent Occasions). St. Thomas Aquinas similarly argues that each of us comes into the world in a network of relationships with others. Even though we are each unique individuals, human beings are social by nature. We have families, neighbors, friends, coworkers, and fellow citizens.

This makes justice an extremely important topic—and an important moral virtue—for precisely this reason. In fact, Aquinas would say that there is no act that a person can commit that is not in some way an act of justice, because our actions always affect others in some way. That is, “no man is an island.”

Insofar as one’s higher goods are shared in common with others—including the good of the family, the good of the city, and the good of the Church—every individual’s pursuit of his own good is wrapped up necessarily with others’ pursuits of their goods. A mother’s pursuit of her good is wrapped in her son’s pursuit of his good, and vice versa. Consequently, even when an individual is most alone physically, he is never alone morally. Even his secret acts affect how well he can render others their due, whatever the due may be.

This is, in fact, how the Christian tradition defines justice. It is to “render to each what is his due.” We judge whether an action is just by whether we have rendered to another his due.

Justice is thus with respect to another. We’re not, properly speaking, just toward ourselves, nor are our hands just to our feet. What is more, justice is only between persons, because only persons can truly be due something under the title of justice. This is because justice has to do with a certain sort of equality. Our common human nature—or, more specifically for Aquinas, the fact that we are all rational animals, individuals of a rational nature—is what most fundamentally grounds the equality of justice, and thus the “due” that makes a claim on us. And we could add a theological perspective: we are all equally created in the image of God.

Dating back to the time of the ancient Greeks, the pagan and Christian intellectual traditions have recognized that complex relations of justice bind individuals to each other. This complexity leads to there being several kinds of justice. In its most common form, justice regulates exchanges …between individuals. This kind of justice is called commutative justice, and its measure is the agreed upon equality between what is being given and received. This equality can be strictly arithmetic, as in the exchange of one car wash for one car wash, or this equality can be based on need expressed in value, as in the exchange of ten dollars for a car wash. In the case of commutative exchanges, the rendering to another his due is established by the terms of the exchange agreed upon by the two parties. To break these terms is to fail in justice.

But justice informs other kinds of relations too, including those where we owe something not to another individual but to the whole community. This kind of justice recognizes that each individual owes a certain due to the family, and especially to the community to which he belongs. This form of justice is called general justice, or legal justice, for the due that the individual owes to the community is established by the rightful authority, which establishes what is due in law. It is a matter of rendering justice to the community, therefore, that one follows the speed limit, pays his taxes on time, and responds positively to legitimate calls for the community’s defense. One does not have to agree that the due established by the governing authority is prudent, but if the laws promulgated by the authority are just, one should be ready, in justice, to follow them. All things being equal, to disobey a just law is to fail in justice.

A third kind of justice is called distributive justice, which is a kind of inverse of what we just described. This is the justice that the community, through the governing authority, renders to the individual citizen. Distributive justice demands that this authority ensures individual citizens receive not only their equitable portion of commonly held goods (like water, electricity, and transportation) but also equitable access to common benefits (like security, education, and prosperity). On the part of the governing authority, to fail to ensure this equitable distribution—or worse, to treat the common good as its own particular good—is to fail in justice. For example, if a mayor neglects her duty to ensure that the roads are maintained, she violates the due order of distributive justice, and she sins even more gravely against distributive justice if she uses the money for roads as her personal slush fund to pay for fancy meals and a lavish lifestyle.
Justice is a part of the natural order, of course, and you don’t need to be a Christian to recognize what is just. The Gospel does not abolish but intensifies the demands of justice at all levels. Christian citizens and Christian leaders are obliged both by nature and by Christ’s teaching and example to render the other his due, and also to surpass the rule of justice when charity demands it. As Jesus says: “To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your cloak do not withhold your coat as well” (Lk 6:29). At the very least, the just Christian lives a public life in which he avoids injuring his neighbor in word or deed.

In word, the Christian refuses to bear false witness against his neighbor or to revile others or gossip about them. He also refuses to deride others or curse them. Indeed, the Christian refuses to take the life of the innocent, nor does he consent to physically injuring or imprisoning them. He also refuses to take another’s property through theft or robbery, or through cheating or usury (excessive interest on a loan).

More positively, the just Christian renders what he owes to God through acts of religion; he renders what he owes to country through acts of patriotism; he renders what he owes to family through acts of devotion; and through acts of gratitude, he renders what he owes to those who do good to him. The just Christian also speaks the truth to others—he refuses to lie to them—and he engages others, especially the poor and disadvantaged, with a friendly and generous spirit.

The Christian takes every aspect of justice seriously, for Jesus has tied closely the justice of earth to the justice of heaven: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

Pieper, Josef. The Four Cardinal Virtues. University of Notre Dame Press, 1996.