“Infinite Justice”

CNA-Meldung September 28, 2001:

Infinite Justice – This is the name, at least for a few days, of the military action that is starting up these days under American leadership. Then the name was changed to “enduring freedom.” The name was changed because Muslim groups protested against it. For they believe that God alone has the right to decide about justice. 

And how is it for Christians? Why did Christians choose such a name? And why wasn’t it Christians instead of Moslems who came up with the idea of publicly protesting against such a name?

It is not just because non-participants also always come to harm in a military action. That alone shows the limitation of a justice that is understood in human terms. It also has to do with the fact that the justice of God is very often different from what we humans understand justice to be. There is often a large gap between the law that is spoken here on the Earth and the justice of God which weighs all things.

God did not create injustice and suffering. However, He allows man to violate the divine laws, because He gave us our free will. We then have to bear the consequences of our actions, in accordance with the law of sowing and reaping, which we humans have given ourselves.

This law registers very precisely what preceded an evil deed and who had what share in it. A great guilt befalls a murderer. But who incited him to murder? And who, through words or actions against the divine law, perhaps gave him reason to hate? We human beings can fathom this only with great difficulty. Can we then presume to act in the name of “infinite justice”? Or should we not much more ask whether we ourselves had a share in the evil deed that has taken place? “Remove first the beam from your own eye, before you remove the splinter from the eye of your brother,” said Jesus of Nazareth

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