7 Days of Virtue; Day 2 – Justice
Think of virtues like your muscles. You work your muscles out so that they can perform for you when needed. Virtue is the same way. You practice, work on the virtue and then, when the time comes, the virtue is there and ready.
Day 2 of the 7 Day Journey through the Virtues: DAY 2 – JUSTICE.
Justice is the good due to others. This removes the emphasis from self and places the emphasis on others. Overemphasis on rights misses the concept of justice. There are seven sub-virtues of Justice:
- Honor – recognizing the worth (value) of something. In ancient times, if something was weighty, it was valued (ie: gold). In ancient Greece, dishonor was symbolized by mist or steam.
- Religion – a head virtue. Habitually honoring and praising God in all we do.
- Piety – Honor and Service. Honor through obedience and respect.
- Observance – honoring our leaders/those in positions of authority over us. Observing the office they hold.
- Gratitude – honoring our benefactors. St. Thomas Aquinas suggested that we 1. Recognize the favor 2. Express thanks 3. Repay the favor.
- Kindness – intending comfort/pleasure for those around you. Anticipating others’ needs, habitually.
- Truth – our words and deeds correspond to reality. We owe reality to one another.
Practically, I am a justice-seeker, meaning that if I see someone who is not receiving “the good due to them”, I tend to step in and make it right. I’ve done this since I was a kid – if I saw someone bullying someone, I stepped in and forced the bully to respond to me. (Most often, the bullying stopped.) Knowing this, regularly for me, seeking justice can easily overlap with anger, which is dangerous. We want to afford people with the ability to receive the good that is due to them, yet we must be careful of how we go about that. Use the virtue of prudence to know when to purposefully seek justice and when to not step in.
Man up!
