Posted January 24, 2005
Romano Guardini on Justice
We cannot bring forth justice if we want justice alone. We can be just only when we act from a point which lies beyond justice. We cannot oppose injustice when we seek to preserve only the norm of justice. We must act out of the power of love, which lacks nothing and is gracious and creative. Then true justice become possible.
Justice is good; it is the basis of human experience. There is however something beyond justice: the free opening of one’s heart to kindness. Justice is clear; but when it goes a step further it becomes cold. But kindness --- genuine, heartfelt kindness, arising from one’s character --- warms and frees. Justice orders things, but kindness brings them forth. Justice does what suffices, what is. By contract, kindness creates something new. In justice the human spirit attains the satisfaction of good order. But out of kindness springs the joy of a creative life.
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