Sunday, August 23, 2009
Peace and Justice
Keeping the peace has been my way of life mostly out of fear of the consequence of speaking the "truth." During a recent conversation with my wise friend Traci, I discovered what I now understand justice to be. She indicated in my keeping peace, I may not be contributing to what is right and in the end what is right will provide the basis to bring peace to the situation. Without sharing the work story details of the situations we both face, what I found from our conversation was that I must learn to have courage to do the right thing, the fair thing, the just thing so that the real peace follows.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Yes, there is no true peace without justice. And I think truth and justice must be sought peacefully--something I seem to have trouble doing.
When something seems wrong, we need to respect our own experience and knowing--and also respect the perspective, experience, etc of others. Not so easy to do.
Thanks for another great reflection.
Oh Gretchen, how strange that you wrote about justice and keeping peace. John and I were just talking about justice and situations. Wow!
I took this message to heart because I have always been a peace keeper too. I tried to say what was in my heart. I haven't heard back from the person. I guess others can't always respond the way we'd like them to.
Gretchen,
Being just is probably the most difficult thing we have to do in life. First, we have to figure out what is just. Sometimes we have only moments to be justly decisive and sometimes our instincts are with us, and sometimes not. Sometimes deliberation is required. Sometimes we consult others and weigh their discernments. Sometimes we consult the thinking that we wish to ground our lives, i.e. religious thought.
Thinking justly is difficult.
Then we must act justly. I'd agree with Anastasia that peaceful justice is best, but would disagree in denying forceful or coercive justice when peace would leave justice on the table. Tyrants (family, office, governmental, etc.) are an incredibly common source of injustice and stopping them often requires a strong--still thoughtful--justice response. The potential to lose in tangling with tyrants is seldom small.
Living justice is difficult. Think of Jesus' confrontations with the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He stood alone in condemning these powerful apparatchik of the Romans--to their faces--as frauds, thieves, and vipers. Did he find justice? Under his sign the Pharisees and the Sadducees eventually fell and Rome became Christian. But he paid.
Being capable of justice is wisdom, isn't it?
And Joan T., enforcing justice almost always takes freedom from someone else, abused freedom, but freedom none the less. So, that they would dislike your assertion for more justice in the relationship shouldn't be surprising.
John
(Joanie's lover)
Post a Comment