Our Divine Longing for Justice

 

December 26, 2023

Hi! Merry Christmas to each and every one! We have just celebrated the birthday of Jesus and we can all rejoice for Christ is with us and He comes with all His blessings of love, peace and happiness.  The fulfillment of joy and peace is in Him. Let us fix our gaze in Him as we talk to Him and listen to and do whatever He tells us today and now and always.

Let us now continue talking about our divine longings (From Broken Gods, Hope, Healing, and the Seven Longings of the Human Heart, Gregory K. Popcak, Ph. D. Ch 2).

Wrath, the third of the capital sins

Wrath is a distortion of the divine longing for justice.  In this life, the divine longing for justice prompts us to respond to offenses effectively and to restore right order.  Our longing for justice is a heavenly gift.  Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Mt 5:6).  The divine longing for justice facilitates our divinization by calling us out of ourselves and reminding us to care for those around us.

Good, Good, Good

“God is compassionate, but beware his wrath”, says Pope Francis (From Antoine Mekary, Aleteia 2/28/2019)

Pope Francis recommends a 5-minute examination of conscience at the end of the day, because it will help us to "not postpone our conversion of heart"

The pope reflected on this advice from the Old Testament during his Mass on February 28 in the Casa Santa Marta. The advice is given, he said, as if from a father to a son, or a grandfather to a grandson.

Don’t follow your instincts, your urges, pleasing the passions of your heart. All of us have passions. But be careful. Dominate the passions. Take them in your hands. Passions aren’t bad. They are, we could say, the “blood” that enables us to do many good things, but if you aren’t capable of dominating your passions, they will dominate you. Stop yourself. Stop yourself.

Don’t be so imprudent, so daring as to believe that everything will work out as you want it … Say not: “Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive,” and thus I keep on doing what I want. Don’t say that. And the last recommendation from this dad, from this “grandpa,” is: “Delay not your conversion to the LORD.” Don’t wait to convert, to change your life, to perfect your life, to uproot those weeds — we all have them — to uproot them. “Put it not off from day to day. For suddenly his wrath flames forth.”

Let us do every day a small examination of conscience in order to convert ourselves to the Lord: “Tomorrow, I will try to make sure that this [defect or sin] doesn’t happen again.” And it might happen again, but a little bit less, and you have managed to govern yourself instead of being governed by your passions or by the many things that happen. Because none of us can be certain about how and when our lives will end. These five minutes at the end of the day will help us. They will help us a lot to think, and to not postpone a change of heart and our conversion to the Lord. May the Lord teach us with his wisdom to follow this path.

Wrath distorts our divine longing for justice by compelling us to seek selfish “solutions” to our problems that hurt others as much as or as deeply as they have hurt us.  Wrath perpetuates and magnifies injustice by convincing us that revenge—even petty revenge—is the best way to right wrongs.

Reader’s Digest

The divine longing for justice can be satisfied only when we practice the heavenly virtue of patience.  Contrary to popular opinion, being patient does not mean that we tolerate offenses without even saying anything.  Rather, when we cultivate patience, we demonstrate a willingness to let our good efforts to resolve injustices mature instead of trying to force hasty, half-baked “solutions” that hurt others and serve only to make things worse.

(St. Josemaria, On Human Virtues, Friends of God, 78) The man who knows how to be strong will not be in a hurry to receive the reward of his virtue. He is patient. Indeed it is fortitude that teaches us to appreciate the human and divine virtue of patience. '"By your patience you will gain possession of your souls." (Luke 21:19) The possession of the soul is attributed to patience, which in effect is the root and guardian of all the virtues. We secure possession of our souls through patience, for, by learning to have dominion over ourselves, we begin to possess that which we are.' And it is this very patience that moves us to be understanding with others, for we are convinced that souls, like good wine, improve with time.

Together let us go to the manger and ask the child Jesus to help each one of us in our struggle to be patient, to understand and accept ourselves as He understands and accepts each one of us, to love and recognize Him in each one of the persons around us, and to continue making life easy for each one spreading love, peace and joy wherever you and I find ourselves.

See you in the next post, “May tomorrow be a perfect day; may you find love and laughter along the way; may God keep you in his tender care; ‘til He brings us together again.”

Affectionately,                    

Guadalupinky