Justice and love go hand-in-hand. Justice is not revenge, nor is it punishment. It's fairness. Love is the heart of Christian living; justice is its hands and feet.
Justice is not fairness as in: "Anything is okay as long as no one gets hurt". Even when legislatures and courts declare a law as just and fair, if it's not in accordance with the laws of God, people do get hurt. Not even the smallest sin can be justified, not even when it seems loving. Sinners get hurt by their separation from God, even if they do not recognize the separation. The target of the sin gets hurt, even if the damage is not visible, as do many others, because the effect of the sin ripples farther than any of us can see.
Sometimes we think that justice means retaliation. It's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth", but this is an unredeemed sort of justice. When Jesus came to redeem the world, He gave us the Golden Rule: Do to others what you'd like them to do to you, even though they might not do it to you, because you love your enemies and you're willing to go the extra mile for them.
Jesus raised us above the pre-redemption attitude of "do to others what they did to you, ha-ha, now we're even." In Christ, justice means protecting ourselves from further harm without a spirit of vengeance. We care about our enemies while taking good care of ourselves.
Sometimes we think that if no one demands their God-given right to be treated fairly, it's okay to overlook injustices, or if we don't see a way to resolve the unfairness, it's okay to do nothing about it. This is why bullies in the workplace are allowed to continue doing harm, prejudices continue to keep the downtrodden down, and insulting remarks about others are accepted as merely a brief lapse in good manners -- even in the Church!
Woe are we for the injustices of society when we who are the Church are not teaching what true justice looks like!
True justice is described in by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (Romans 2:1-11). "Affliction and distress will come upon everyone who does evil." This is not the punishment of a revenging God. It's a "woe to you because you are reaping what you sow." God's anger is based on a genuine concern for those who are caught in the traps of sin. He's upset about the choices we make that cause our woe-full self-inflicted anguish.
The challenge before us is to learn what we can do about the injustices that God brings to our attention, then discern when and where and how to take action, caring for the victims and also caring about those who are committing the injustices. If we don't say yes to this challenge, woe are we!
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