my gut tells me that this is not "justice"...it is instead, compassion. it is Justice if my intention is to stop the man. it is Compassion if my intention is to save those people.
molly and i were in an airport a few months ago...we were waiting at the gate while all of the passengers stared at the television. the fox news journalists were absolutely outraged that moussaoui was given a life sentence instead of a death sentence. they could find no "justice" in the jury's verdict.
we talked for quite some time later about justice, and our thirst for it. and how it is usually vengeance or retaliation in disguise.
but when compassion determines our response...i would suggest it rarely looks like "shock and awe" bombing campaigns, more troops, tanks, or missle strikes.

this is a divergence from mclaren's parable, but one that i think penetrates much deepeer and is perhaps a little more applicable to the reality that we find ourselves in.

peace

I've been trained my whole life that justice has to do with fairness, and that retribution settles the score for some wrong. I wonder where we come up with this stuff? Is there a really score book up there, telling us that we have so many unpunished crimes, or so many unrewarded good deeds?

Instead, I'm beginning to think that justice is as tied to righteousness ideologically as it is linguistically. Doing the right thing is just, and facilitating righteousness is just. Justice is both the context and the result from right-doing. Thus, it has a lot to do with harmony, which results more quickly from mercy and forgiveness than it does from retribution and preemption.

We certainly have to explore how difficult it is to actually get to that man, or men, in order to "stop him" or them. If this is something that happens, we must remember that justice is not simply to stop the action, but that mercy, compassion, healing, and reconciliation must happen with both "sides". This is justice, because it them becomes repentence, in which one is made new.

Mclaren's illustration is often a psychoanalytic analogy for our more personal issues, that have great effect on our families and communities. In either case, Thich Nhat Hanh has some wise words:

"Without understanding there can be no love. Each person’s disposition is the result of physical, emotional, and social conditions. When we understand this, we cannot hate even a person who behaves cruelly, but we can strive to help transform his physical, emotional, and social conditions. Understanding gives rise to compassion and love, which in its turn give rise to correct action. In order to love, it is first necessary to understand, so understanding is the key to liberation. In order to attain clear understanding, it is necessary to live mindfully, making direct contact with life in the present moment, truly seeing what is taking place within and outside of oneself."
-thich nhat hanh

As far as current war situations, much of the healing and reconciliation needs to happen in our own neighborhoods, where children are being taught to believe that the "roots" of the problem in the Middle East are the "terrorist", rather than ourselves.

The only means it is okay to stop any person from throwing more people into the stream is to love them, even if it won't stop them..."In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

I posted this on my blog site in February. Just some more ideas to think about...

La justicia y la paz se besaron

Psalm 85:10 reads from La Santa Biblia (Reina Velara), "La misericordia y la verdad se encontraron; La justicia y la paz se besaron." I would translate this into english as "Mercy and truth find each other; justice and peace kiss each other." I think what we have here in this verse is these four concepts of truth, mercy, righteousness (justice), and peace, intersecting each other. Where might they intersect? At the center of the cross perhaps? At the meeting point between God and man? Is the intersection of these four concepts a good starting point to understanding what God's definition of Love is, and what the Kingdom looks like? We may be on to something!!!