“Justice, Only Justice, You Shall Pursue”

SERMON DURING THE WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY January 18, 2019 (Friday) at REMASE by Fr. Rene Retardo, Rector, REMASE

Sisters and Brothers in the Lord,

Today, we begin this annual celebration of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. And, we, the whole community/family of the St. Francis Xavier Regional Major Seminary, feel privileged and grateful for the opportunity to have this year’s WPCU started in our community. On behalf of the whole REMASE community, I welcome you all to our home.

For this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we are invited to reflect on UNITY based on the theme, “Justice, Only Justice, You shall Pursue”, which is taken from the Book of Deuteronomy 16:20. Accordingly, “this theme was chosen for its powerful message of promoting truth, equality and unity. The initial work on the theme for this year’s Week of Prayer was prepared by a group of representatives from different parts of Indonesia, including the Communion of Churches in Indonesia and the Indonesian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The Christians of Indonesia found that the words of Deuteronomy, ‘Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue…’ (cf. Deuteronomy 16:18-20) spoke powerfully to their situation and needs, and recognized this common need throughout the world.” (taken from the resource-handout).

From that same source, it is declared, “Every year, Christians across the world gather in prayer for growth in unity. We do this in a world where corruption, greed and injustice bring about inequality and division. Ours is a united prayer in a fractured world…” “However, as individual Christians and communities, we are often complicit (in connivance) with injustice.” In a sense, there were moments when we also had done an injustice in varied ways, either by participating directly into it, or tolerating and even encouraging it, and letting it happen. Yet, we are still “called together to form a united witness for justice and to be a means of Christ’s healing grace for the brokenness of the world.”

The Book of Deuteronomy then is an appropriate passage, reminding us to always pursue (follow) justice, so that we may live and occupy the land that the Lord, our God, is giving us (cf. Deut. 16:20). This would only be possible when our love is genuine. No wonder why, in our second reading, St. Paul tells the Romans, “Let your love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love on another with mutual affection…” (Rom. 12:9-10). If we connect Paul’s thought about love with Deuteronomy’s idea of justice, we can say that LOVE and JUSTICE are mutually interconnected. We can seek justice through love.

This similar thought is also developed by George Dowdell, who underlined the possible danger if LOVE and JUSTICE are separated. He wrote, “Love without justice is sentimentality; Justice without love is legalism.” He wants to emphasize that LOVE and JUSTICE are “the two sides of the same coin.” Though interconnected, these two are distinct. For Dowdell, “Love means wanting the best for a person or group of people and acting accordingly. Justice means wanting to eliminate those things which do harm to the person or group of people who[m] we love.” Needless to say, this is reflective of God who is Himself, LOVE and JUSTICE.

For sure, each of us speaks about justice. And many of us are even passionate in crying out for justice on behalf of the voiceless and powerless. If such an advocacy is founded on Christ’s love and justice, then it must be noble and worth emulating.

However, the late Pope John Paul II (now St. John Paul II), wrote his encyclical, “Dives in Misericordia”, in which he made some observations. One observation is that, “many so-called programs to promote justice, actually suffer from distortions. Experience teaches us also that those who fight for justice do not automatically lead just and fair lives. Many movements are motivated by spite (malice, vindictiveness), hatred, cruelty, by the desire to annihilate, to kill the enemy. The question would be: “What kind of justice is that? Is it true justice to simply let loose one’s hatred, cruelty, and spite?” (cf. Tagle, Workshop XII, Conference on the Year of the Father, 1999). Or is it really justice or revenge?

To help us in truly living that true sense of LOVE and JUSTICE, St. Luke, in our gospel reading (Luke 4:14-21) says something inspiring – and that is about FAITH; the key element that transforms our relationships is FAITH.

FAITH in Jesus as the Christ (anointed One) is a power greater than any hindrance to love; with faith, we can love God and do that justice which is reflective of God’s justice.

With faith in the God who loves us first, we cannot prevent ourselves from loving concretely, because we have received LOVE by ourselves. With faith in God’s love and in His power at work in us, we can truly love GOD and our fellow human beings which is manifested by pursuing justice. As Jesus declares, “Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Lk. 4:21), we can also claim, with faith, that we can make God’s love and justice a reality in and through us.

We can ask ourselves then: In what concrete ways do I express my love of God? Surely, such an expression of love does not do away with justice.

And we can say, “the marriage between LOVE and JUSTICE begets UNITY, or sustains the UNITY which is the characteristic of Christians.

“May this spiritual event that unites Christians of all traditions increase our awareness that the true unity for which we strive cannot be solely the result of our own efforts but, rather, will be a gift from on high, to be ceaselessly prayed for” (cf. Pope Benedict’s catechesis on WPCU on Jan. 18, 2012).