Hunger for Justice

Reflection · Leading value: Justice, Responsibility, Dignity

A word for Sunday

There is a disquiet within me that for years I could not name. It is not anger at the world, nor a need for endless dispute. It is rather a quiet, persistent conviction that certain things can be ordered more honestly — and that one must not pretend not to see it.

For a long time I thought it a weakness. That it would be easier to pass by, not to ask, not to stop over someone else’s cause. Today I know it is something else. It is a hunger for justice — and it is not about pointing out the guilty, nor about a sense of moral superiority. It is about not becoming indifferent.

For the justice I have in mind does not begin in grand declarations. It begins in very ordinary moments. In the tone in which we speak to someone weaker than ourselves. In whether we reply to someone’s letter or leave a person without an answer. In whether we see in another person a problem to be dealt with — or a person.

Sunday is a good day to reflect on this. It is a day on which we slow down for a moment and remind ourselves that we are not merely a function, a post, a role in a system. That behind every case stands someone’s life, someone’s fear, someone’s hope.

I believe that bridges between people are built precisely there — not in the dispute over who is right, but in the readiness to listen to another human being. In the courage to tell the truth without humiliating. In a compassion that is not afraid of responsibility. This is harder than indignation — but only this truly endures.

I cannot mend the world. None of us can. But each of us has a small sphere of responsibility — a team, a family, patients, neighbours — within which we can bring about a little less fear and a little more humanity.

If you carry a similar disquiet within you — this word is for you too.

Have a good Sunday.