Daily Mass Reading Reflection (Nov 12, 2024)

Justice

If there could be one theme across all three readings from Mass today it would have to be justice. St. Paul first exhorts women and young men to live both piously and temperament, but ultimately justly in their conduct as a response to the great gift of God’s grace. 

Historically, justice has probably been the most discussed virtue because of its applicability and its sociability. It is one of the four cardinal virtues, including temperance, prudence and fortitude, so called because cardinas is the Latin word for “hinge,” and these four virtues have been the hinge upon which human actions turn. Their significance is also found in their presence apart from revelation. These virtues are found in writings by as many outside of the biblical faiths as those within. 

This is part of the significance of St. Paul and Jesus’s exhortation. Because the virtue of justice is recognized amongst those outside the faith, it is especially important that it is lived by those within the faith as a means of evangelization. While anyone can recognize justice, it is the Christian whose justice is formed by charity as explicated by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae part II-II, question 23, article 8. 

The irony in Jesus’s point to his apostles in the Gospel reading is that while their attitude should be that of a servant, one doing what they owe God out of justice, it is God who graciously invites them to the table. This is exactly what the Last Supper was and what eventually became the Mass- We humble servants, deserving nothing but the opportunity to give back to God what we owe…everything. Then, without expecting anything in return, God gives us more than everything this world could offer, Himself.