Memorial of Saint Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 491

Love justice, you who judge the earth;
think of the Lord in goodness,
and seek him in integrity of heart;
Because he is found by those who test him not,
and he manifests himself to those who do not disbelieve him.

Medieval theology, and especially Saint Thomas Aquinas, recognized in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- and the Father of Jesus Christ -- the Creator of the Universe in all its dimensions. Going beyond that, they also knew God as Truth, Goodness, Justice, Mercy, Holiness, Beauty, and so forth. All perfection is in God; and God is all perfection. 

And so, in those people and nations who have neither heard the name of Jesus nor been baptized into his Church, we can recognize their love of Justice as true knowledge of God. We honor their passion for Truth, and work with them toward a more peaceful, just, and merciful world. Sent to bring the Good News of Jesus Christ to all nations, we proclaim how Truth, Justice, Mercy, and so forth have been made incarnate in the person of Jesus. If, for whatever reason, many people show no interest or resist our proclamation despite their genuine love for the truth, we have no reason to become hostile toward them. 

Because we believe the man known as Jesus of Nazareth -- who is as real as Julius Caesar, Attila the Hun, or Vladimir Putin -- is the Incarnate Word of God, the Church insists that his principles are not simply names of things that should exist and should mean something to everyone. They do exist. There is no should about it.

They are as real as Shakespeare's Hamlet is not. They have authority and power, and can intrude on those who refuse to recognize or honor them. It doesn't matter if the wicked do not believe in truth, justice, or mercy; they will be judged and condemned by the standards they despised, and by the One they never acknowledged. 

As Saint John says at the beginning of his First Letter, 

What was from the beginning,

what we have heard,

what we have seen with our eyes,

what we looked upon

and touched with our hands

concerns the Word of life—

for the life was made visible;

we have seen it and testify to it

and proclaim to you the eternal life

that was with the Father and was made visible to us—

what we have seen and heard

we proclaim now to you,

so that you too may have fellowship with us....

We also warn them of the consequences of evil. Hell is as real as God's justice; as Psalm 37:35-36 assures us. Evil and its minions cannot endure: 

I have seen a ruthless scoundrel,

spreading out like a green cedar.

When I passed by again, he was gone;

though I searched, he could not be found.

 

Because we believe in God's justice, we can wait for God to act. We must pray continually and act responsibly and prudently. We must never fail to warn the wicked of what is coming for them. 

We may be powerless over the powerful of this world. They may refuse to listen; but we have every confidence that God will act. And those people, policies, and regimes will fail. We have only to watch.

I will stand at my guard post,

and station myself upon the rampart;

I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,

and what answer he will give to my complaint....

"See, the rash have no integrity; 

but the just one who is righteous because of faith shall live." 

 Habakkuk 2