What is Justice? Homily for Sunday, July 27, 2025

What is justice? And what is the difference between justice and fairness? Abraham in today’s first readings helps us to understand the justice of God. Readings for Today.

What is Justice?

Those of you who are parents might have heard it. Those who may have or are teachers may have heard it. In fact, each one of us, at one time or another have probably heard it. What is it? The expression, “That’s not fair!”

And when we hear this word, it is usually because we think we are getting the short end of the stick. And, we have a certain desire that things be fair. We tend to react, at least when it involves us, negatively when we think something is unfair.

But God is not fair. Let me say that again. God is not fair. God is just. What is the difference? Well, fair implies a certain sense of equality. There is a certain sense that to be fair means that everyone gets the same thing. We want a fair opportunity. 

But justice is something else altogether. When I say that God is not fair, what I mean is that there is some difference between fairness and justice. Justice is when people get what they deserve. And this can be negative, like someone getting the justice that sends them to prison. And it can be positive, like when people get food to eat.

But to understand what justice means in the context of God, consider the parable of the workers who are sent out into the field for different lengths of time. Some have worked all day, others only an hour. And yet, they all get the same salary.

We could conclude that this situation that Jesus describes in his parable is not fair. Why should those who only worked an hour get the same wage as those who worked all day?

But when we consider God, we must conclude that to each of us God is more than fair. He loves us even when it appears we do not deserve it. The workers all get the exact same pay not because it is fair, but because God is generous. 

What does this have to do with today’s readings? Well, Abraham is trying to understand what justice is about so he discusses it with God. And his question is this: Is it just that everyone suffers the same fate if they did not commit the same crimes or sins?

On a personal level, Abraham is concerned about his relatives, Lot’s family, and the destruction that awaits Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his family are righteous, and so Abraham is trying to figure out if God will save the city if only a few are innocent.

Abraham is trying to understand what justice means for God. And this matters because when we consider God and his justice, it goes a long way to helping us to see just how it is that God wants us to live our lives.

Because too often we might find ourselves seeking the minimum. Just how many times do I have to forgive someone? Is seven enough? Is it ok if I love only those who love me, or do I have to love even my enemies? Can I pray only for those who are good to me, or do I have to pray for my persecutors?

Time and again we learn that when it comes to God, just being good is not enough. We must do more. We must love more, forgive more, serve more. We have to see that in everything we see and do, we have to see with the eyes of being a disciple of Jesus. We have to act like a disciple of Jesus.

This is what it means to be baptized. For Jesus does not give up on us even if we have many transgressions. Jesus extends to us his hand of mercy. And because of this, we must do the same with others.

Does this seem impossible? To love enemies, to pray for persecutors, to forgive seventy times seven times? Left to our own abilities, the answer is yes. It is impossible. But we are not left to our own abilities. 

Saint Paul reminds us in the second reading that we are all children of grace. It is God who makes all this possible for us. God freely pours out his grace upon us. And when we accept it, we discover that we are capable of so much more than we ever thought possible.

We need not rely only upon ourselves. Jesus tells us to ask, to seek, to knock. We are not alone. In teaching us to pray, Jesus teaches us to know that God will provide us all we need, even if it is not all we want.

For even in our own sinfulness, we still know how to do good things. We seek to give our children what they need, for example. There is in us, even in the midst of how we can be selfish, there is in us generosity. 

So what we all need to do is to consider the attitude of that publican in the back of the temple who could not even look up to God. All he could do was to throw himself upon God’s mercy. And because he did this, he was saved.

When the Samaritan was able to allow himself to be moved with pity for the man who fell in with robbers, he provided an example of what it means to be neighbor, and who it is we must love if we are to love our neighbor.

When you consider that you have been baptized, delivered from sin, redeemed into eternal life, does that change who you are? Do I allow it to change who I am?

When you are asking, seeking, or knocking, does God’s openness to us lead us to be more open to others when they ask of us, when they seek our attention and love, when the knock to let us know they need something from us?

Being a disciple of Jesus is not easy. But neither is it impossible. Jesus loves us. And we know this is true, because we know we exist. If Jesus did not love us, we would not exist.The righteous help us to recognize that we can be saved in the midst of evil. We can be redeemed and save through God’s love for each one of us. That when we pray the familiar words of the Our Father, we can receive what we deserve. And even when we do not always hold up our end of the bargain, we know that God holds up more than his end of the bargain. And with God, indeed, all things are possible.

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