Catholic Beliefs about Justice, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation

Catholic Beliefs about Justice, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation

Catholics believe that forgiveness is an aspect of love. When you

forgive someone you don’t hold the person’s offence against you, nor

do you seek revenge or treat them like a foe. Christians are asked not

to do evil to their enemies, but to instead to them good, and to pray

for them. Also to always have a forgiving attitude towards them and to

always be prepared to be reconciled with them.

When we are hurt or perhaps injured, we often feel rather bitter and

resentful, when we feel this, its hard to get rid to those feelings

even if that’s what we want. To overcome this, Christians must

remember that forgiveness is an aspect of love of neighbour. The

Catechism of the Catholic Church says, ‘The works of mercy are

charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbour in his

spiritual and bodily necessities.’ This emphasises that forgiveness is

an aspect of love.

The Catechism tells us that, ‘Justice is the moral virtue that

consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and

neighbour.’ This tells us that justice is a kind of fairness, its

giving to others what is their right. Justice is a basic way of

putting into to practise the command to ‘love your neighbour as

yourself’. You would not want your neighbour to steal your

possessions, so you should not steal the possessions of your

neighbour. ‘You shall not steal’, this is the seventh commandment and

it ‘commands justice and charity in the care of earthly goods and the

fruits of men’s labour.’ The Catechism tells us here that it’s for the

sake of common good to respect the right to private property.

In today’s world there is a clear lack of justice. It’s a well known

fact that the resources in the world are unequally shared out. In many

areas the rich are getting richer and the poor are becoming poorer.

There are more than enough resources to go round the world, but 80% of