LAW OF JUSTICE, OF LOVE, AND OF CHARITY.

Justice and natural rights.

— 2. Right of property. Theft. — 3. Charity and love of neighbor. — 4. Maternal and filial love.

Justice and natural rights.

Is the sentiment of justice in nature, or is it the result of acquired ideas?

“It is so much in nature that you revolt at the mere idea of an injustice.

It is beyond doubt that moral progress develops this sentiment, but it does not give it. God placed it in the heart of man. Hence it comes that, frequently, in simple and uneducated men you encounter more exact notions of justice than in those who possess a great store of learning.”

Justice being a law of Nature, how is it explained that men understand it in such different ways, some considering just what to others seems unjust?

“It is because with this sentiment there mingle passions that alter it, as happens with most of the other natural sentiments, causing men to see things through a false prism.”

How can justice be defined?

“Justice consists in each one respecting the rights of others.”

a — What is it that determines those rights?

“Two things: human law and natural law. Men having framed laws suited to their customs and characters, those laws established rights changeable with the progress of enlightenment. See whether your laws today, imperfect as they are, sanction the same rights as those of the Middle Ages. Yet those antiquated rights, which now appear monstrous to you, seemed just and natural in that epoch.

The right that men prescribe is therefore not always in accord with justice.

Moreover, this right regulates only certain social relations, whereas it is certain that, in private life, there is an immensity of acts solely within the jurisdiction of the tribunal of conscience.”

Setting aside the right that human law sanctions, what is the basis of justice according to natural law?

“The Christ said: Let each one wish for others what he would wish for himself. In the heart of man God imprinted the rule of true justice, by making each one desire to see his own rights respected.

In the uncertainty of how he should proceed with his fellow man in a given circumstance, let man seek to know how he would wish to be dealt with himself, in an identical circumstance. A surer guide than his own conscience God could not have given him.”

Indeed, the criterion of true justice lies in each one wishing for others what he would wish for himself, and not in wishing for himself what he would wish for others, which is absolutely not the same thing.

It being unnatural that anyone should desire evil for himself, since each one takes his personal desire as his model, it is evident that no one will ever desire for his fellow man anything but good.

In all times and under the sway of all beliefs, man has always striven to make his personal right prevail. The sublimity of the Christian religion lies in its having taken personal right as the basis of the right of one's neighbor.

From the necessity man has of living in society, do special obligations arise for him?

“Certainly, and the first of all is to respect the rights of his fellow men. He who respects those rights will always act with justice.

In your world, because the majority of men do not practice the law of justice, each one resorts to reprisals. That is the cause of the disturbance and confusion in which human societies live.

Social life grants rights and imposes reciprocal duties.”

Man being able to deceive himself as to the extent of his right, what is it that will make him know the limit of that right?

“The limit of the right which, with regard to himself, he recognizes in his fellow man, in identical circumstances and reciprocally.”

a — But if each one attributes to himself rights equal to those of his fellow man, what will become of subordination to superiors? Will this not be the anarchy of all powers?

“Natural rights are the same for all men, from those of the most humble condition to those of the most elevated position. God did not make some from purer clay than that which He used to make the others, and all, in His eyes, are equal.

These rights are eternal. Those that man established perish with his institutions.

Moreover, each one feels his own strength or his own weakness well, and will always know how to have a certain deference toward those who deserve it by their virtues and wisdom. It is important to stress this, so that those who think themselves superior may know their duties, in order to deserve those deferences.

Subordination will not be compromised when authority is deferred to wisdom.”

What would be the character of the man who practiced justice in all its purity?

“That of the truly just man, after the example of Jesus, for he would also practice love of neighbor and charity, without which there is no true justice.”

Right of property. Theft.

What is the first of all man's natural rights?

“That of living. For this reason no one has the right to make an attempt on the life of his fellow man, nor to do whatever may compromise his bodily existence.”

Does the right to live give man the right to accumulate goods that allow him to rest when he can no longer work?

“It does, but he must do so within the family, like the bee, by means of honest labor, and not as an egoist. There are even animals that give him the example of foresight.”

Does man have the right to defend the goods he has managed to gather through his labor?

“Did not God say: “You shall not steal”? And did not Jesus say: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's”?

What man gathers through honest labor constitutes his legitimate property, which he has the right to defend, because property that results from labor is a natural right, as sacred as that of working and of living.

Is the desire to possess natural?

“Yes, but when man desires to possess for himself alone and for his personal satisfaction, what there is is egoism.”

a — Yet will the desire to possess not be legitimate, since he who has the means of living is a burden to no one?

“There are insatiable men who accumulate goods of no use to anyone, or only to satisfy their passions. Do you think God looks upon this with favorable eyes?

He who, on the contrary, gathers through labor with a view to helping his fellow men, practices the law of love and charity, and God blesses his labor.”

What is the character of legitimate property?

“Legitimate property is only that which has been acquired without prejudice to another.”

By forbidding us to do to others what we would not wish to be done to us, the law of love and of justice forbids us, ipso facto, the acquisition of goods by any means contrary to it.

Is the right of property unlimited?

“It is beyond doubt that all that is legitimately acquired constitutes a property.

But, as we have said, the legislation of men, being imperfect, sanctions many conventional rights that the law of justice reproves.

That is the reason why they reform their laws, as progress is effected and as they better understand justice.

What in one century seems perfect appears barbarous in the following century.”

Charity and love of neighbor.

What is the true sense of the word charity, as Jesus understood it?

“Benevolence toward all, indulgence for the imperfections of others, forgiveness of offenses.”

Love and charity are the complement of the law of justice, for to love one's neighbor is to do him all the good that is possible for us and that we would wish to be done to us. Such is the sense of these words of Jesus: Love one another as brothers.

Charity, according to Jesus, is not restricted to alms; it embraces all the relations in which we find ourselves with our fellow men, whether they be our inferiors, our equals, or our superiors.

It prescribes indulgence to us, because we ourselves have need of indulgence, and it forbids us to humiliate the unfortunate, contrary to what is customarily done.

Let a rich person present himself, and all attentions and deferences are bestowed upon him. If he be poor, everyone seems to understand that there is no need to concern oneself with him.

Nevertheless, the more pitiable his position is, the greater care we ought to take not to increase his misfortune by humiliation.

The truly good man seeks to elevate, in his own eyes, the one who is inferior to him, by diminishing the distance that separates them.

Jesus also said: Love even your enemies. Now, will love of enemies not be contrary to our natural tendencies, and will enmity not arise from a lack of sympathy between Spirits?

“Certainly no one can vow to his enemies a tender and impassioned love. That is not what Jesus meant to say.

To love one's enemies is to forgive them and to repay them evil with good.

He who acts thus becomes superior to his enemies, whereas he places himself below them if he seeks to take vengeance.”

What is to be thought of alms?

“By condemning himself to beg for alms, man degrades himself physically and morally: he becomes brutish.

A society based on the law of God and on justice ought to provide for the life of the weak, without there being humiliation for him. It ought to assure the existence of those who cannot work, without leaving their life at the mercy of chance and of the goodwill of a few.” a — Will you reprove alms?

“No; what deserves reproof is not alms, but the manner in which it is habitually given.

The man of goodness, who understands charity in accordance with Jesus, goes to meet the needy, without waiting for the latter to extend his hand to him.

“True charity is always kindly and benevolent; it lies as much in the act as in the manner in which it is practiced.

A service rendered with delicacy has double value. If it be rendered with haughtiness, it may be that need compels the one who receives it to accept it, but his heart will be little moved.

“Remember also that, in the eyes of God, ostentation takes away the merit from the benefit.

Jesus said: “Let your left hand be ignorant of what your right hand gives.” In this way, he taught you not to tarnish charity with pride.

“Alms, properly speaking, must be distinguished from beneficence.

The most needy is not always the one who asks. The fear of a humiliation holds back the truly poor man, who many times suffers without complaining. It is this one that the truly humane man knows how to go and seek out, without ostentation.

“Love one another, this is the whole law, a divine law by which God governs the worlds.

Love is the law of attraction for living and organized beings.

Attraction is the law of love for inorganic matter.

“Never forget that the Spirit, whatever the degree of his advancement, his situation as reincarnated, or in erraticity, is always placed between a superior, who guides and perfects him, and an inferior, toward whom he has to fulfill these same duties.

Be, then, charitable, practicing not only the charity that makes you coldly give the mite you take from your pocket to the one who dares to ask it of you, but the charity that leads you to meet hidden miseries.

Be indulgent toward the defects of your fellow men.

Instead of vowing contempt for ignorance and vice, instruct the ignorant and moralize the vicious.

Be gentle and benevolent toward all that is inferior to you. Be so toward the most insignificant beings of creation, and you will have obeyed the law of God.” Saint Vincent de Paul.

Are there not men who find themselves condemned to beg through their own fault?

“Without doubt; but if a good moral education had taught them to practice the law of God, they would not have fallen into the excesses that caused their ruin.

It is on this, above all, that the improvement of your planet depends.”

Maternal and filial love.

Is maternal love a virtue, or an instinctive sentiment, common to men and to animals?

“Both one and the other. Nature gave the mother love for her children in the interest of their preservation.

In the animal, however, this love is limited to material needs; it ceases when the cares become unnecessary.

In man, it persists throughout life and involves a devotion and an abnegation that are virtues.

It survives even death and accompanies the child even beyond the tomb. You see clearly that there is in it something different from what there is in the love of the animal.”

Maternal love being in Nature, how is it that there are mothers who hate their children and, not infrequently, from the latter's infancy?

“Sometimes it is a trial that the Spirit of the child chose, or an expiation, if it happened that he was a bad father, or a perverse mother, or a bad son, in another existence.

In all cases, the bad mother cannot but be animated by an evil Spirit who seeks to create difficulties for the child, in order that he may succumb in the trial he sought.

But this violation of the laws of Nature will not go unpunished, and the Spirit of the child will be rewarded for the obstacles over which he has triumphed.”

When children cause displeasure to their parents, have the latter not an excuse for not bestowing on them the tenderness of which they would otherwise make them the object?

“No, because this represents a charge confided to them, and their mission consists in striving to direct the children toward good.

Moreover, these displeasures are often the consequence of the bad disposition that the parents allowed their children to take on from the cradle. They reap what they sowed.”