On Justice, as a Principle of Divine Government

They have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.

-Jer. viii. 11.

Of St. John Henry Cardinal Newman, I have said in different places that one “could read Newman the rest of his life and never read all of him because he wrote so much; nor want to read anyone else because he wrote so well.” This is certainly true of his Oxford Sermons written nearly two hundred years ago; and the one we contemplate today,  Sermon 6, “On Justice, as a Principle of Divine Government.”

Newman tackles the “especial” (a great Newman word) question of his day, and certainly of our’s – the existence of sin, evil and judgment: how can a loving God permit evil?  Newman challenges the assumption that happiness is the end of man; indeed whether happiness is guaranteed at all. Perhaps the pain, suffering, and judgment of this world are prelude to man’s imitation of his Creator?

First for the assumption.  Newman laments the cry of the prophets in Jeremiah’s day:  “peace, peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Men then, and now, possessed a false sense of security because they made light of evil:

The error of the prophets and priests there spoken of consisted not in promising a cure for the wounded soul, but in healing the hurt of the daughter of God’s people slightly.

The false cure of ease and comfort proves perplexing and superficial:

It is but a theory, it cannot cope with difficulties; it imparts no strength or loftiness of mind; it gains no influence over others. It is at once shattered and crushed in the stern conflict of good and evil; disowned, or rather overlooked, by the combatants on either side and vanishing, no one knows how or where.

Who wants to wallow in shallowness such as this?  God must have intended more for His creatures than the mad grasping for happiness, the especial problem of the day.

Newman forces us to consider the reality of sin before any consideration of a remedy.  Sin has consequences in this life and the next. It can’t be wished away. Even repented of sin, leaves chaos and disorder in its wake. Consider the man who forsakes his marriage vow.  He may repent one day and eventually die. But the ravages of sin left in the wake of that tragic choice long outlast him, lingering for generations in the brokenness of families, the extinguished bond of trust among spouse and children, and the imperiled community.

Sin is real. In another context Newman says:

it [is]better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extreme agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one willful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse.[1]

Here in sermon 6 he anticipates that conclusion:

A solitary act of intemperance, sensuality, or anger, a single rash word, a single dishonest deed is often the cause of incalculable misery in the sequel to the person who has been betrayed into it. Our fortunes are frequently shaped by the thoughtless and seemingly inconsiderable sins of our early life. The quarrel of an hour, the sudden yielding to temptation, will throw a man into a disadvantageous line of life, bring him into trouble, ruin his prospects; or again, into circumstances unfavorable to his religious interests, which unsettle his mind, and ultimately make him abandon his faith.

God is just and holy. He commands that we be perfect as He is perfect.[2] So much for the pursuit of ease and comfort. “To see truly the cost and misery of sinning we must quit the public haunts of business and pleasure and be able, like the Angels, to see the tears shed in secret, – to witness the anguish  of pride and impatience, where there is no sorrow, – the stings of remorse, where yet there is no repentance, – the wearying, never-ceasing struggle between the conscience and sin, – the misery of indecision, -the harassing, haunting fear of death, and a judgement to come…Who can name the overwhelming total of the world’s guilt and suffering, – suffering crying for vengeance on the authors of it, and guilt foreboding it!”

Oh the dreary, dark despairing consequences of sin. This world is not a utopian pursuit of pleasure at all costs.  The error of the prophets, in Jeremiah’s age, in Newman’s age and ours, is seeking the remedy of peace without admitting the disease of sin. Although God is all loving he is also just. Good Friday comes before the Resurrection.

Having laid out the consequential reality of sin and evil in this world, Newman is only just beginning, setting the stage as it were.  For this world is not all darkness and despair. A light has come, a child was born, born to be a witness to truth. Hope fills us with joy and true peace as we trust in Him.   The Gospel of Light dispels the night. The justice of God is assuaged by the sacrifice of the Son:

Thoughts concerning the justice of God, such as those which have engaged our attention, though they do not, of course, explain to us the mystery of the great Christian atonement for sin, show the use of doctrine to us sinners.  Why Christ’s death was requisite for our salvation, and how it has obtained it will ever be a mystery in this life.

But God’s “irreversible deed” of “making the forgiveness of sin, and his reconciliation with our race, no contingency, but an event of past history” becomes His pledge of mercy.

This is the message of Advent. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. Christ Jesus is the propitiation for our sin. Without departing from his perfect justice, God demonstrates his perfect love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise him.[3]

[1] Apologia Pro Vita Sua, p 246.

[2] Matthew 5:48

[3] Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty.