Where Is Justice?
Faced with this question, many would answer, nowhere!
Christian Science challenges this negative assertion. In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy refers to justice as an attribute of God. See Science and Health, p. 465; Since God is infinite Mind, and everything that is real is Mind's manifestation, justice must be infinite and ever present. The source of the illusion that man is separated from justice is the claim of a material universe—of a mortal man formed by and born into matter and separated from God. Man, created in God's image, necessarily includes justice as an attribute of God, Mind. Infinite Mind makes man and causes him to embody Mind's qualities. When the Pharisees asked Christ Jesus when the kingdom of God would come, he answered, "Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21 ;
When we are tempted to believe in the illusion that man is mortal and separated from justice, or that some person or thing is responsible for this separation, we should remember the Master's words. Let's resist the temptation to believe either that justice is "here"—limited to someone's acts—or that it must be found "there" in some needed legal process. We begin to set mankind free from the merciless bondage of injustice as we know the truth that God's idea, the spiritual selfhood of individual man, includes His attributes and qualities. Understanding this, we cannot be mesmerized into believing anyone is separated from his eternal source. Mrs. Eddy tells us, "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration." Science and Health, p. 259 ;
This was proved in the experience of an actress who was playing a bit part for a showcase production. A woman playing an important character role had to leave the cast unexpectedly. The actress in the bit part knew she herself was well qualified to play the major role and assumed it would be given her. The director, however, did not think she was suited to it and told her someone else would be found.
With resentment, anger, and deeply hurt pride the actress at first felt in her heart, "There's no justice!" But she was a student of Christian Science. She realized that emotional reaction would not solve her problem. So she wrestled with the arguments of unjust mortal personalities, of merciless human opinions. She tried to see the director as God's idea, reflecting His justice, and to see herself as a loving expression of God, free from anger and resentment. But nothing gave her peace.
Then she remembered Isaiah's comforting words, "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us." Isa. 33:22 ; She turned to the familiar passage in the chapter "Recapitulation" in the textbook where the word "justice" is given as an attribute of God. Immediately she declared with conviction that as an idea of God man must include justice; therefore, in her real identity she must express it; her life couldn't be without it. Why look to the other fellow over there for justice? Justice, being man's, was her birthright. Nothing, not even what seemed to be an unjust circumstance, could deprive her of her rightful heritage or obstruct the human expression of it. The inspiration that flooded her thought freed her, and she went to sleep.
The following morning she went to rehearsal with a sense of peace, humility," and willingness to help. Her ambition to have the part was gone. On the third day the producer was not satisfied with the replacement and asked her to fill the role instead. When she assumed the part, the director repeated, "You are really not the type for the part."
This time, however, his opinion did not disturb her, because she realized it was not within her province to change his thought. She had only to exercise responsibility for and dominion over her own thought. The result was that this showcase production really launched her career, and each year brings her increased evidence of God's love in a measure "pressed down, and shaken together, and running over." Luke 6:38. Her healing had taken place when she realized that her spiritual self-completeness included justice and that she could never be separated from it.
Inequality and discord are illusions. The very nature of man is the expression of harmony. Realizing this fact can set us free to detect the illusion and destroy its effect. This truth is a law of God, which operates as power through inspiration and understanding.
Where is justice? Within man's consciousness. When we accept our true spiritual selfhood as God's idea, justice will make itself evident in our affairs. As we find the kingdom of God within—for ourselves and our neighbor—human justice will take its pattern from the divine.
