Amid a stunning array of beliefs, religions, philosophies, and cultures, there are two things that all people agree on. First, this world is not what it ought to be. Second, we do not behave as we ought. Both the Hindu and the humanist will lament when an earthquake razes a village or a disease kills a child. Likewise, both the believer and the atheist can agree that the powerful should not abuse the weak and the rich should not cheat the poor.
An inherent sense of ought–ness is universal in our species. As C.S. Lewis observed, “Whenever you find a man who says he does not believe in a real Right and Wrong, you will find the same man going back on this a moment later. He may break his promise to you, but if you try breaking one to him he will be complaining ‘It’s not fair’ before you can say Jack Robinson.”
While the particulars of what constitutes right and wrong vary somewhat across cultures, the existence of the categories “right” and “wrong” does not. We have yet to discover a society that is truly and consistently relativistic in its morality, where right and wrong are defined by each individual and never imposed upon another. This is because such a society cannot endure. To be a society, people must agree upon a sense of order—they must share a framework for how the world ought to be and uphold it when it is violated. Anything less is not a culture; it’s chaos.
Modern American culture speaks a lot about “justice,” but the common biblical word for this universal instinct is “righteousness.” We often focus on the word’s spiritual or moral dimensions, but righteousness simply means “rightly ordered relationships.” A righteous person, for example, fulfills all their relational obligations in a way that allows everyone within their network to flourish. Of course, this also applies to a properly ordered relationship between God and his people. Violating this relationship makes one “unrighteous,” while keeping the covenant with God results in a declaration of one’s “righteousness.”
Whether it is the shout for justice by a protestor or the call to live in union with God by a preacher, Jesus affirms this longing for righteousness. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” He equates the soul’s desire for justice with the unrelenting physical desire for food and water. It is an inescapable aspect of our human condition, and he promises that it will be quenched. We can be assured that in time God will put everything back into its proper order so that all he has made will flourish. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Daily Scripture
Matthew 5:3–12
Luke 18:1–8
Weekly Prayer
From From the Liturgy of St. Basil (329 -379)
Remember, O Lord,
those who are poor and in need,
the widows, the orphans, the strangers,
those in captivity and those in exile,
the sick and the suffering.
Remember, O Lord, those who love us
and those who hate us;
those who have asked us to pray for them,
and those whom we have not remembered through ignorance.
Remember all Your people, O Lord,
and pour out Your rich mercy upon all.
Amen.
