The Desire for Justice, a Signpost of the Divine

The strong and seemingly innate longing for justice that people have doesn't seem to mesh well with the idea that human persons are just byproducts of a Godless and random universe. Our longing for justice seems to be a reminder, a signpost, of our divine origin. Our desire that things be made right bespeaks something mystical at work in the universe, something more sublime than the meaningless movement of atoms. My sense is that, to paraphrase C.S. Lewis' Aslan, there is deeper magic at work here, magic which goes back to before the dawn of time.

Tragedy, God's Providence and Redemption

 

Those who have suffered much from human malevolence but keep moving forward and don't allow their trauma to cause them to hurt others are some of the most beautiful and advanced souls on Earth. What I've observed in my three decades on this planet is that often people who hurt others have been hurt themselves. They lash out at the world, including their loved ones, as a way of relieving their internal angst. Wondrous and blessed are those souls who overcome the urge to perpetuate evil because evil was done unto them.

It may be the case that God's providence is working through their sufferings, trauma and tears to transform them into Christ-like heros. What humans in their malevolence mean for evil, God can use to bring about a greater good. No greater example of this is found in all of human literature than in the story of the Gospels. According to that most magnificent and awe-inspiring of stories, the crucifixion represented the greatest of all evils - deicide. The ineffable and timeless God, somehow, paradoxically, became man, giving humans a tangible looking glass into the primal source of all reality. But we walked in darkness, and darkness did not and does not like the light. So we tortured and killed our creator. What greater evil could there be, to humiliate, torture and kill the one who loved us before the dawn of time? But, the story goes, from this greatest of all evils sprang forth the greatest of all goods - the redemption of humanity (and arguably of all created intellects). The cross was defeated. Evil had its hour, but it was ultimately no match for eternal love. The tomb on the third day lay empty..the corpse was no longer a corpse. The Christ had risen, initiating the process of redemption and calling all to follow his way, the way of unconditional love. From absolute horror arose absolute hope, from absolute tragedy arose absolute triumph.

Such is the theologian's beautiful and plausible vision for how suffering can be redemptive. For my part, I hope this vision is correct. There seems to be much truth in it. But, on the other hand, sometimes ghastly suffering leads to bitterness and despair; sometimes it gives birth to devils, not angels. And not just any devils, but devils one cannot help but pity for their fortuitous past. One of my favorite movies is "The Joker", the 2019 movie with Joaquin Phoenix playing one of the central villains of the DC comic universe. It is a fabulous commentary of how a genuinely good person touched by human malevolence can become a devlish persona, as well as a narrative argument for how evil represents a corruption of original goodness, and how goodness is prior to evil. I also see in the film, or at least hope I see in it, the idea that no matter how devilish one becomes one's primordial divine light can never be fully dimmed, and that one day even the devil himself will be redeemed by the unstoppable love of God.