When we suffer injustice

WE have to expect to suffer some form of injustice here in

our earthly life. That is part of our human condition. It is
unavoidable. Sooner or later, it will surely come. It can be big or
small, but clear injustice just the same. It can even come not from
those whom we consider our enemies, but from those who are supposed to
be our friends.

            We just have to be properly prepared for it. And the
secret is, as usual, to follow the example of Christ who suffered the
worst injustice ever. If we are driven by the same love Christ has for
all of us, no form of injustice can actually get the better of us.

            Yes, the injustice will remain injustice. It may not be
properly resolved humanly speaking. With the way we are, we should not
expect that we can resolve all cases of injustice. Just look at what
and how human justice was handed on Christ. But still, if we have the
charity of Christ, that injustice will work out for our own good and
the good of everybody else.

            The important thing to keep in mind is to always be on the
side of charity that covers all the human needs for justice. And this
means that we always identify ourselves with Christ, with his will and
his ways. It’s only in him that the perfect justice can be achieved, a
justice that goes beyond our best ideas of how justice ought to be.

            The charity-inspired justice Christ showed in his own
trial may look inhuman and may even be regarded as a perversion
according to our human standards, but that is the justice that is
perfect. It is one that does not get stuck in the immediate and
short-run requirements of justice, but goes all the way to the
ultimate meaning of justice.

            It is for this reason that we need to develop the proper
attitudes and virtues that would facilitate in our living out the
justice Christ himself lived. It’s is a justice that is willing to
suffer, to bear the burden of the others, to obey the will of God for
the salvation of man.

            It is a justice that requires us to be tough and
magnanimous. While it is true that we have to be sensitive and
delicate, especially in our conscience, we should neither forget that
it is also true that we have to learn how to be thick-skinned, how to
be indifferent and to ignore certain things, and just move on, in
spite of the cuts and bruises we may suffer along the way. All of
these we should be willing to do if only to follow the example of
Christ!

            Remember Christ telling us how better it would be just to
be one-eyed or with one hand than to have both eyes and hands if one
part of the pair becomes an occasion of sin for us. We have to learn
to suffer, always trusting in the end in the ever-powerful, merciful
and wise will of God.

            Somehow when we suffer injustice, we are given the
opportunity to become like Christ as we should be. Let’s do our best
not to miss that opportunity. We have to be careful with our emotions
and instincts that will lead us to have a knee-jerk reaction only,
unable to see the whole picture.

            That is why, we have to make it a habit to identify
ourselves more and more with Christ through regular reading and
meditating on the gospel, developing the virtues, having recourse to
the sacraments that make us Christ-like more through their own power
rather than on our own dispositions, although the latter also are
important.

            In other words, we have to conquer ourselves and our own
will and ways so that Christ can come into us, so that we can be more
and more like Christ.