By Elder Joseph of Vatopaidi
One of the highest and unrivaled of the divine attributes, or powers, or
energies, is justice. God provides His creatures with justice according
to their needs for their orderly performance and formation.
God sustains and holds the universe in
two ways. The first is His creative force: “He said and they came to be,
He commanded and they were built”. The second way is His maintaining
power and His providence which hold the universe together and “promote”
it in accordance with the purpose of each being. Therefore, the divine
justice administers the necessary providence to each being so that it
succeeds in the purpose for which it was created. In this way nature is
held in equilibrium. Every time this equilibrium becomes unsettled for
whatever reason, the divine justice reinstates the balance and thus the
fine tuning of the creation is being continued or rather is being
expanded in accordance with the divine will.
After the fall of the two rational
beings- angels and humans- which has hauled the rest of the creation
towards decay, the divine powers and energies became apparent and
particularly the divine justice, which reinstates either severally or
jointly those elements which do not obey the order, as it was originally
intended by the Creator.
The divine justice holds all beings to
order and no factor can impose upon them and change its designs. As far
as immaterial things are concerned, this is how things are. For rational
beings though and particularly man, the divine justice is totally
applied but for some reason of divine ‘providence’, it is accomplished
in various ways in accordance with each man’s interest. The
implementation of the divine justice is so varied that only few people
and especially those ‘illuminated’ may comprehend its criteria. Paul’s
caution convinces us on this: “If we judged ourselves truly, we would
not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so
that we may not be condemned along with the world” (1 Corinthians 10,
31-32). Since God governs the universe infallibly and in a divine way,
the divine justice intervenes unsparingly in order to reinstate things
and bring them back to order, since no mistake was made at the time of
their creation.
If the divine justice does not reinstate
the equilibrium, the impression will be given that the creation of the
universe has caused the mistake and not man’s transgression and
misusage. The divine justice as perfect and divine-like, as with all of
the divine attributes, is recognized as having two energies: One is the
energy of harmony and balance and the other is the practical
continuation of the divine consummate love. Even though we violate our
status and our duty, God does not withdraw His cohesive and providential
love and stewardship, since according to Paul, His divine attributes
are unchangeable.
The application of the divine justice is
seen in many ways. The holy hymn-writer and the Fathers- having
experienced in the practical form of the spiritual war- tell us a lot on
this issue. If man is careful he may avert the enforcement of the
divine justice in his life. He must correct the trespass through
repentance and love for hard work relevant to the pleasure which
resulted from it. “Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive
all my sins” (Psalms 25, 16), “my knees are weak through fasting; my
body has become gaunt, with no fat” ( Psalm 109, 24), “for I eat ashes
like bread and mingle tears with my drink” ( psalm 103,9), “I walked
around as if I were mourning for my friend or my brother” ( psalm 35,
14), “listen to my cry for help ( Psalm39, 12), “Behold, I was brought
forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (psalm 51, 5).
If man violates either a moral or a
natural law in his personal life or against his environment, he causes a
double guilt, according to the laws of comprehensive providence through
which God sustains and holds together the universe. One violation is to
cause an unreasonable natural damage to things because of negligence or
indifference. Another way is for the passionate part of us to receive
unnatural pleasurable satisfaction, which is called perversion. The
divine justice intervenes in both cases to restore the equilibrium.
It is precisely this kind of divine
justice which our Lord meant when He said: “For truly, I say to you,
until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from
the Law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5, 18). If “every
transgression or disobedience received a just retribution” (Hebrews 2,
2) what else do we need in order to believe that divine justice is
unbribable. A very specific apothegm of our Fathers on this issue is the
following: “If you do not want to suffer, learn not to mistreat”. The
all-seeing eye of the comprehensive providence of God for His creation
operates with His God-like and infallible justice, even if this seems
incomprehensible.
Translated from the Greek:
Γέροντος Ιωσήφ Βατοπαιδινού, Συζητήσεις στον Άθωνα, Ψυχοφελή
Βατοπαιδινά 13, Ιερά Μεγίστη Μονή Βατοπαιδίου, Έκδοσις Α’, Άγιον Όρος
2003, by Olga Konari Kokkinou
Source-Pemptousia.com
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