Justice
Between 1838 and 1844 Rosmini had been subjected to severe, unwarranted attacks on philosophical and theological grounds. Gioberti was responsible for the philosophical opposition which resulted from comments made by Rosmini on a book by Gioberti. Rosmini made no reply. The theological assault, occasioned by Rosmini’s Conscience, denigrated his faith and devotion to the Church and the Pope. Rosmini defended himself openly in several works, despite the anonymity of his assailants. At last Pope Gregory XVI forbade further attacks on Rosmini and imposed silence on both parties.
During the whole of this period Rosmini’s soul was immersed in the serene atmosphere of virtue and love of God; his gaze was fixed on justice, whose work and activity he describes, as well as its presence in the divine Exemplar. This is the first link in the chain of gold.
Justice
Open to me the gates of justice, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the just shall enter through it (Ps 117: 19).
The most solid foundation: holy, powerful, blissful
Brothers, in the name of God, of the Catholic Church and of the Institute of Charity, I am about to receive the offering you will make of yourselves to the Creator. Allow me first to say what springs from my heart.
There are so many matters I would speak to you about. I could remind you of the extremely grave responsibilities undertaken by those who intend to make profession in the Institute, which is what you are asking. I could encourage you to make the great offering of yourselves on the altar of the Lord with generosity equal to the magnitude of the sacrifice. I could pour out my heart in joy at the precious grace given to you by your Lord as I accept you into the society of love through that mystical gate described in the Psalm: This is the gate of the Lord: the just shall enter through it (Ps 117: 19).
I think I can do all this by reminding you, to our mutual consolation, of the foundation of our union wherein those called to the great adventure by Almighty God from every corner of the earth become one heart and one soul, provided they remain faithful to their calling.
They are joined in unity which reflects the more sublime unity wherein the heavenly Father and his divine Son are united.
Brothers, the foundation of the society to which we bind ourselves is so holy that it includes all our duties. Simply by speaking of this foundation, I remind you of them. It is so powerful that we have only to know it to feel strengthened and encouraged; so blissful that the upright of heart, whose highest hopes are based on it, can only count themselves happy a million times over, even in the greatest trials.
Indeed, as I think of the end which the Institute of Charity holds out to us, I imagine many holy souls, scattered throughout every part of the Catholic Church and known to God, offering with Christ to the eternal Lord and Father of mankind and angels this beautiful prayer: Open to me the gates of justice; entering them I will praise the Lord.
Almighty God, listening to their passionate longing, answers in their hearts: ‘Unite in my name to profess justice; bind yourselves tightly together for this end alone; sacrifice yourselves entirely for this, sacrifice all you have as my Son did for your example; sacrifice even lawful pleasures and decent, earthly goods, and time and health and life itself, and your will. In a word, sacrifice everything without exception.’
Brothers, your Institute was born in this way. This is its spirit. Justice is its sole foundation. We can truly say of the Institute: This is the Lord’s gate; the just shall enter through it. So I want to speak about this foundation. Listen.
Human beings led astray by imagination and the senses
Imagination prevails over reason in Adam’s children, whose sinful father squandered their inheritance of eternal light. Because the light of reason has been darkened, the light of justice also (the dictate of reason faithfully followed by the will) was eclipsed in mankind. This light lost its value in human eyes, surviving like invisible, buried treasure.
Untrammelled imagination, the enemy of the light, created illusory, deceitful good in place of justice. The human spirit became the slave of imagination which flattered instinct and subjective passions; imagination emerged as the servant of the angel of envy, who used it to cover the face of the world with his own darkness. The God of truth was disavowed by intelligent beings whom he had drawn out of nothing and created for himself. Visible idols that could be touched were substituted for God, as mankind lost almost entirely its mental capacity for seeing beyond matter and its own phantasms.
Mankind’s idolatrous gods also became the object of human affection, and the means of achieving imagined greatness. From that moment human beings were persuaded that their happiness consisted in an abundance of sensual pleasure. Material wealth alone was precious; greatness was to be found when one human being dominated others; wisdom consisted in feverish activity to gain all these things: the height of glory lay in attaining them. Finally, mankind deluded itself that these things and what it knew about them would make it self-sufficient.
And justice? In the midst of the false splendour that alone seemed to absorb mankind’s deluded phantasy, justice necessarily remained overshadowed by the gaudy colours of other things. It no longer attracted the attention of human intelligence, totally absorbed by the blinding glitter of sensation and arrogant imagination.
A glance at the world, brothers, will show it is still bewitched by deceitful power of these objects. The world, unconscious of the hidden force of moral good which alone perfects the human person, places all its wisdom in the pursuit of physical or purely intellectual good. All its desires end here.
Mankind’s restoration achieved by Jesus Christ
Yet God, although offended and forgotten, could not forget his creatures with their false wisdom and empty prudence. In his eternal, merciful counsel, he undertook once more to enlighten mankind’s blindness. For centuries he overlooked the times of ignorance, as St. Paul says (Acts 17: 30), until he called mankind to acknowledge its ignorance and repent: For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, ‘he catches the wise in their craftiness’ and again, The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile (1 Cor 3: 19, 20)
He had already announced from of old his sublime decision to overthrow the false wisdom of mankind. Even through Isaiah he says: And the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hid (Is 29: 14). And because the eternal One foresaw his work as complete, he asks: Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? (1 Cor 1: 20).
Yes, brothers, God has made it foolish. He has taught us that human wisdom, by forgetting and turning its back on the humble, invisible good that is justice, has deprived itself of the only good that can save mankind. Justice alone can ennoble and satisfy human beings; justice alone can make them great, immortal, happy, most glorious. In a word, justice alone can give them all that they are seeking, all that their nature longs for. Specious, sensible good, which mankind esteems and pursues exclusively, brings nothing noble or great in its wake. It does not raise people from the dead, calm their anxieties, heal their sorrows, or free them from fear; it contains no promise of stability. Rather it truly diminishes and disorders us; it breaks our heart, darkens our mind, takes away our freedom.
Death comes inevitably, and sensible pleasure foresees a future that the imagination can picture only as uncertain, dark and mournful, while conscience rightly regards it as terrible in the extreme.
The wisdom of the world is condemned as foolishness because, like a foolish virgin, it wants to light the lantern of joy without the oil of justice. True wisdom belongs to those alone who give all they have to buy the field with its buried treasure or the precious pearl worth more than all the purchaser possesses.
Justice, brothers, is precisely that immense, buried treasure hidden from mankind; it is the precious pearl known only to expert buyers. Those who go and sell all they possess to acquire such a great good inevitably appear stupid to the world at large, despite their very great wisdom.
Justice is humble, and silent; it is spiritual, invisible to the eyes of the flesh; and despised because invisible. But God, who enables it to be seen and appreciated once more by human beings as true good, restores our spirit so that we may see the emptiness and deceit which result when we scorn justice and rely on material things or on ourselves.
Darkness can be overcome only by light. God’s only-begotten Son, subsistent Wisdom and Truth clothed in human nature, was heard to proclaim: To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the sons of men. O simple ones, learn prudence; O foolish men, pay attention. Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right; for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips (Prov 8: 4–7). Our Lord Jesus Christ had no other aim in his mission than to teach justice. He wanted to make it visible again to the blind by restoring, or rather giving them sight. The Father spoke to the future Messiah through the prophet: I am the Lord, I have called you in justice, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness (Is 42: 6–7).
The divine message
So Christ is called the Sun of Justice in the Scripture; no one receiving the rays of this Sun, which illuminate and revive dead souls, can ignore the worth of justice. Note, however, that the great work committed to Christ was not simply external; he had to renew the inner man, to create in the old man, blinded by sin, a new, sight-filled being who would restore wisdom to its rightful place through the attainment of justice. Wisdom would not be found through the earthly vanity characteristic of Adam.
This wholly internal work was carried out by eternal Wisdom as it unveiled its face to shame human ignorance. But it was also proclaimed in human words by the God-man; outwardly, too, human beings needed to recognise the wonders worked within themselves.
Incarnate Wisdom wanted to penetrate by means of the senses to the spirit of this creature composed of soul and body. The good news preached by our Saviour was aimed entirely at convincing the world of the folly of seeking peace and greatness through the corruptible good presented by the flesh, and exaggerated by imagination. Special protection was given to all those who, deprived of human good and weighed down by sorrow, considered themselves totally unhappy; under this protection they could declare themselves blessed. Human judgement was dumbfounded on hearing these ineffable words: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Matt 5: 3–5).
In fact, poverty, sorrow, weakness dissipate the illusion brought by false good and prepare human beings to appreciate justice, which does not come and go with fortune. Jesus goes on to say to those who desire it: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied (Matt 5: 6). This dear promise, brothers, is made to us by the Lord as he draws to himself those who have abandoned the illusion of the senses to seek true good, unknown to the senses. The Lord himself will supply the noble object of their desire.
Our divine Master’s disciples
Still greater confusion was to be inflicted as the real Wisdom of God came into the world to give the lie to false, worldly wisdom and shame it. Not content with declaring worthless the things which the worldly-wise consider the height of happiness, divine power sustains and confirms the sublime effectiveness of its assertion by calling to itself the wretched, the unhappy, the neglected and despised. God dries their tears and offers them true good, that is, justice and the heavenly kingdom.
Christ did indeed found his kingdom, his Church, on such people. It was first made up of the illiterate, and of uneducated fishermen, and then of very ordinary people. St. Paul says: For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor 1: 26–29).
So, the uneducated entered the Church of the Redeemer before the wise, the weak before the strong, and ordinary people before aristocrats. Indeed the well-born were accepted only on condition that they recognised their imaginary wisdom as ignorance, their imaginary power as weakness, and their imaginary nobility as empty boasting. They had to change entirely the way they judged and loved; they had to confess the nothingness of everything outside justice. They had to acknowledge and revere as their sole master a Man despised and accounted stupid. They had to adore in the Crucified, in the most scorned of mortals, the powerful One of Israel, the Offspring of the most High, eternal, uncreated Wisdom.
As St. Paul says: He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our justice and sanctification and redemption; therefore, as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord’ (1 Cor 1: 30–31).
Justice is the end of the universe
Brothers, this justice, unknown to mortal flesh, is the end for which the universe was made. The world was created from nothing for this reason alone: that the justice of God might shine and triumph in it to the glory of him who is justice and eternal holiness.
All divine Scripture, therefore, aims solely at teaching knowledge of justice. The doctrinal books teach us how to practise it; the sacred histories paint for us the different paths of the just and impious; the Psalms and inspired poems celebrate the glory of the just alone, after the defeat of the impious. Finally, all Scripture aims at proclaiming the just One par excellence, anointed by God and born into the world to teach and revive perfect justice in the midst of lost humanity.
Jesus Christ was pre-ordained from eternity ‘servant of justice’. He was to bring about in all its fullness the end of the universe; the divine plan could not remain ineffectual. The great work was completed by means of the Society to which Christ called all those who wished to hear his voice. This sublime Society, whose end and foundation is justice alone, is called ‘Church’ or ‘kingdom of God’.
The Church of Jesus Christ, therefore, has as its end and its foundation, justice, the end and foundation of the universe. In this universal society, the eternal design of the Creator is fully realised. How great, how unshakeable, how precious is this foundation of the Church!
It is eternal because God’s justice is eternal: His justice remains for ever (Ps 110: 3), and again, Your justice is justice forever; and your law is truth (Ps 118: 142). The words of the Master and Servant of justice will last forever: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will not pass away (Matt 24: 35).
In divine Scripture, justice is likened to the solidity and permanence of the highest mountains: our justice is like the mountains of God (Ps 35: 6), and Mount Sion is depicted as the unshakeable foundation of the house of David and the temple of the Lord, both of which symbolise the court of God, the Church of Christ.
Such a great, unshakeable foundation is a constant motive in the whole of Scripture for glorifying the Word. Great is the Lord, says the Psalm, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great King (Ps 48: 1–2). Yet King David was only a figure of the great King, the divine Master, who spoke through the mouth of his Prophet a thousand years beforehand: I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, ‘You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession’ (Ps 2: 7–8).
With these words, the Lord proclaimed in anticipation his Church which we see planted and extended throughout the world, drawing its beauty from its solid foundation of justice of which Sion is the symbol. As another psalm says: Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth, our God comes (that is, God incarnate), he does not keep silence (that is, he will preach justice), before him is a devouring force (that is, the fire of his charity), round him a mighty tempest (the last judgement). He calls to the heavens above (the angels) and to the earth (human beings) that he may judge his people. Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice! The heavens declare his justice, for God himself is judge (Ps 49: 2–6).
Calvary: altar and throne of justice
Yes, brothers, Sion with its solid justice is beautiful. But it has now been displaced by Calvary which, as a symbol of perfect justice, the foundation of the new Church, has a far greater claim to glory. Calvary is the hill of blood, despicable in human eyes, not mentioned by any prophet, almost forgotten in the Old Testament, a place where evil-doers die and leave their bones. Yet it was favoured from all eternity by the One who wished to overthrow all human wisdom, and glorify divine Wisdom alone. It was preferred to Sion herself, despite her splendour. And the eulogy pronounced by God through Jeremiah fits it better than any other mountain: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘The Lord bless you, O habitation of justice, O holy hill! And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.’ Thereupon I awoke and looked and my sleep was pleasant to me (Jer 31: 23–26).
Yes, the sleep of the Lord, his rest on Calvary, was pleasant and the cause of salvation. His immense charity sweetened all its bitterness. His death satisfied the Father’s eternal justice and filled with justice every soul that hungered and thirsted for it. Jesus then rose triumphantly and gloriously from death, as a strong man awakes refreshed, to rule over the whole earth from the right hand of his Father.
Israel had rejected the law of justice preached by this king of Judah on glorious Mount Sion; it had put in chains its peace-maker King, the preacher of justice, dragged him out of the city and crucified him on the infamous hill of Calvary which thus became a ‘sublime altar’ enpurpled by the precious Blood flowing from the veins of Christ and irresistible to the eyes of the true Israel.
All mankind felt the irresistible force of the justice impressed in souls by the Law of God. When the earth was flooded because of him, wisdom again saved it, steering the just man by a paltry piece of wood (Wisd 10: 4). For blessed is the wood by which justice comes (Wisd 14: 7). The fruit of the just man is a tree of life (Prov 11: 30). When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the just is established for ever (Prov 10: 25).
Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbour and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jer 31: 31–34).
The hill of foolishness, weakness and shame
Calvary, therefore, touchingly commemorated by our sanctuary here, was the source of the living blood which made the justice preached on Zion, but brought to earth by Christ, effective for human salvation. It was Christ who rendered justice, the foundation of his Church, subsistent and alive in itself. Yes, the Old Covenant was also founded on justice, but the New, much more solid and perfect, was founded on justice personified, that is, on the just One of whom it is written: The just is established forever (Prov 10: 25).
There are, you see, two degrees of justice. With the first, at the level of precept, we are content with satisfying the obligations of the law; with the second, at the level of the evangelical counsels, we want to absorb its sublime spirit. The apostle Paul describes the two levels as follows: We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute (1 Cor 4: 10).
Brothers, no-one can aspire to the perfection of justice, unless he appear foolish, weak and base in human eyes, as Jesus Christ did first. The two levels are wonderfully symbolised by Sion and Golgotha, the glorious, happy mountain and the squalid hill of lamentation. Dear brothers, you aspire to profess an Institute which has taken its name from the charity of the crucified One. You must, therefore, carefully contemplate these two hills with the eyes of faith and choose the hill of blood where the Institute of Charity originated. It did not spring from human wisdom or power or nobility, but from foolishness, weakness and shame — from the very Mount on which we now find ourselves.
In founding the Church, Jesus instituted the religious state
Jesus Christ, in founding his Church on justice, instituted the religious state deep within it. This state is chosen only by those generous lovers who, to draw closer to Jesus, practise and profess his counsels as a sure means towards perfect justice. They seek his dear, though bloody, footprints in obedience to his clear voice: Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’ (Matt 16: 24).
Yes, brothers, the religious state is one, although we see it outwardly divided into many orders. It was instituted in its beautiful unity by Jesus Christ so that those who profess it, under any form whatsoever, constitute as it were a single Society. Rooted in the depths of the universal society of the faithful, the religious state is another choice shoot, flowering from the same root of justice. The religious state is nothing more than the perpetual profession and promise made by human beings to tend willingly and more perfectly towards justice.
Justice, the sole end of the Institute of Charity
Our Constitutions are perfectly clear, dear brothers. They expressly declare this to be the sublime, noble aim of religious life. From beginning to end, they affirm that the end of the Institute for the professed and those wanting to make profession, is simply the salvation of our souls (Salus animae in sanctitate justitae, Eccl 30: 15) and perfection (To know your power is the root of immortality. Wisd 15: 3).
If we are faithful to our calling, all we want is intimate, practical knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, of crucified wisdom and justice. This, brothers, is the simple, unique, but great principle from which flow all our duties. Our rules, our instructions, our customs all flow from it, just as all our thoughts, affections and actions have to return to it.
If you wish, the Society of Charity differs from other religious orders in one way only. Their holy Founders, taught from on high, were not content with justice as the sole norm. They added, as an essential end of their profession, one or more exterior ministries useful to their neighbour and the Church, such as preaching, education and so on. Our Institute has its essential rule, its only aim, in justice alone. Consequently, whoever professes this Institute obtains all that the Institute has set before itself and fulfils his calling simply by practising and reaching out for perfect justice. He is not bound once and for all to any specific good work.
In this way, we add nothing and subtract nothing from the rule of religious profession that came from the mouth of Wisdom itself, whom Joel called the teacher of justice (Joel 2: 23). Moreover, the faithful adherents of their Institute, who do not limit their inner desires or external works to a single ministry or some specific duty of charity, offer themselves to the Providence of their heavenly Father, ready to undertake all those ministries and works in which they can expect to acquire, through divine grace, greater justice and holiness.
Unlimited works mean unlimited sacrifice, of course. Each of us, therefore, must read his own rule in the lacerated body of our Saviour. The rule we have sworn, or want to swear, is written in living blood. And, as we leave the shore of this life, we grasp the wood of the cross, the ark of salvation, described by the inspired book of Wisdom in wholly appropriate words: Blessed is the wood by which justice comes (Wisd 14: 7).
Open to me the gates of justice
Brothers, this is why, at the beginning, I applied to the Institute of Charity the verse from Psalm 117, and pictured each of you making this request: Open to me the gates of justice, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord (v. 19).
This is why I attributed the foundation of the Institute to the fervent prayers of just souls scattered throughout the whole Church. From the depth of their hearts, they begged God and the angels and saints to open, not the gates of Solomon’s earthly building on Sion, but the gates of the true, spiritual temple, built on earth and in heaven by incarnate Wisdom when, on Calvary, he offered himself in perfect sacrifice. This is the deeper truth behind the words Open to me the gates of justice. Entering them, I shall praise the Lord.
Brothers, you have certainly prayed with these holy souls to enter the gate of this house of God. Your very presence in this place and the desires you have so often shown are your way of crying out: Open the gates of justice.
I am happy indeed to be able to satisfy your generous request in the name of the Lord and say, as I do so, through the trust you have inspired by your constant proofs of a sincere love of justice: This is the Lord’s own gate. The just shall enter through it.
I am happy to lead you into our Society through this gate of the Lord. Come, then, enter courageously and with humble gratitude, trusting in the goodness of your God. Enter this life-commitment in which you propose to fulfil with simplicity what is just, and to do so justly. As the Wise Man says: For they will be made just, who observe just things in justness (Wisd 6: 10).
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