Book Review: “Justice: Judge Rightly, Give Freely”

We speak a great deal about justice these days, as well we should, but how many of us have actually examined our own interior attitude regarding what is morally righteous?  Is what we believe to be fair and equitable actually rooted in the teaching of the Catholic Church? And how can this teaching be reflected in our actions to make the world a more just place?

In his second book about the Cardinal Virtues (the first dealt with the virtue of prudence), Father Gregory Pine, OP, discusses justice in great detail.  His ultimate point is that before we can enact justice outside of ourselves, we must develop it as a virtue within ourselves. “It will not satisfy the human heart simply to ‘see justice done’ in some abstract way,” he emphasizes.  “If we intend to be the protagonists in this moral transformation, we have to become doers of justice.  We have to become just and acquire the knack for acting justly.”

He then proceeds to tackle his subject step by step; to help clarify what is discussed in each chapter, he ends with a couple of reflection questions.  In the chapter he entitles “Packing for the Journey of Life”, for instance, he begins by discussing justice in its most basic definition, which is “the habit according to which one grants to another his due by constant and perpetual will.”  The reader is then asked the following: “Am I prompt in recognizing other people’s needs (and rights)?  How can I become more sensitive to the legitimate claims that other have on my love and service?”

Justice properly lived often involves an adjustment in perspective, he notes.  We need to move from thinking solely of ourselves to a place where we realize that everything and everyone proceeds from the goodness of God.  Therefore, in justice, we cannot merely lay claim to what is “ours”.  We are all beneficiaries of the generosity of God.  In light of this reality, Father Pine then looks at the various kinds of justice “to adapt our hearts to the complexities of different relationships and interactions.”  These distinctions involve the relationships between individuals as well as the relationships between individuals and the larger community.  “Ultimately,” he says, “we are meant to commune with our neighbors in justice and charity, and our judgements are in service of that communion.”

In justice, we serve and contribute to the common good and it grows naturally from justice between individuals.  General justice, as Father Pine terms it, “empowers us to serve the members of the community not just because we might like or prefer one or the other but because we are in this together.”

But even though we are all due justice simply because we exist as human beings created by the same God and are, in that sense, equal, we must also acknowledge that within the human community, there are hierarchies of justice within which we owe different levels of justice.  We each occupy a place within the whole, Father Pine explains, and we thrive when we fully embrace our place and thereby contribute to the well-being of all.  As he puts it, there are times and places in which deference is part of the virtue of justice.  “In the end,” he says, “we are not all top dogs.”

This leads naturally to his discussion at the end of the book, in a chapter entitled “Going Beyond Mere Justice.”  “There’s more to the moral life than you might be inclined to think,” he says.  Virtues of friendliness, truthfulness, generosity, and gratitude must also enter into the conversation, with charity uppermost.  “From this vantage point, we see that charity takes us beyond the limits of mere justice,” he concludes.  “If we’re honest, we don’t really want…mere justice. Rather, we want love.  In fact, we want God.”

Author bio:

Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., is a Dominican friar of the Province of Saint Joseph. He holds a doctorate in dogmatic theology from the University of Fribourg and served as parochial vicar at St. Louis Bertrand Parish in Louisville, Kentucky.

He is the author of multiple books connecting Thomistic theology with practical Christian life, including Prudence: Choose Confidently, Live Boldly, and Your Eucharistic Identity.

He is a regular contributor to the podcasts Godsplaining and Catholic Classics.