Advent: Justice

When I was a child, justice came every Saturday morning, guaranteed by giants like Batman, Superman and Green Lantern. The Legion of Doom would attempt its evil, and for a moment it would have its day in the sun, but the Superfriends would stop them. The heroes always won. That was justice.

I'm older now, and I realize that evil doesn't usually come with names like Lex Luthor or Grodd. It usually doesn't carry a badge or hold office. Most often it's unremarkable and when it doesn't sound pleasant like "Work hard and you'll succeed!" (meaning: if you don't succeed, it's because you didn't try hard enough), it's so subtle that we don't even realize it's there, like a shadow. (Just look how hard it is to grasp the significance that all our big superheroes are white, and how many are independently wealthy, geniuses, or both, rather than working-class stiffs or people of color.)

Justice is so much harder to attain when we can't even agree what the injustice is, much less how to correct it. Sometimes justice seems like a tree at the start of the winter, barren and lifeless.

Humanity once groaned beneath the weight of the world, and they cried and reached out to God for relief. To their surprise, Justice took their hand and stood among them. The day that happened, the world began to begin anew.


Copyright © 2016 by David Learn. Used with permission.


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