justice demands restitution
“If I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.” This is what justice is all about. When we have sinned against justice we are required to make a restitution, we have to pay back what we owe. If I stole ten pesos, I have to pay back the ten pesos I stole, either outright to the person himself or secretly. If I defrauded someone, if I did not give somebody what is due to him, I am required by justice, I am required by morality to pay back what is due to the person I defrauded. Justice demands restitution. It is not enough that we confess our sins to the priest and receive absolution from him. It is not enough that we are sorry for the sins we have committed against justice. We have to pay it back. This is something we often forget in morality. Justice demands a restitution.
About six years ago in the seminary, I received, one day, a letter from a seminarian who went out of the seminary about 4 years earlier. In that letter, carefully wrapped, was two hundred pesos. In the letter he stated that one time when there was a big occasion in the seminary he took from the collecta two hundred pesos. He confessed it, he said and he wanted to leave his past behind. He was repaying back what he owed, so that he said, he could move on and leave his past behind. This is what we call restitution – to repay what we have taken, to repay in full what is not ours by justice.
This is what Zaccheus did in our gospel today. He knew he was forgiven by Jesus. But he also knew that forgiveness is not enough. He has to repay the people he had defrauded, if he had defrauded any. And in generosity he was not just repaying the exact amount he had taken, but he made the restitution four-fold.
I think this is something we should think about and take seriously in our desire for holiness. Yes we fall to sin. Sin is the consequence of our frailty as human beings and only Jesus can truly forgive us. In fact we are already assured of forgiveness by the blood of the lamb - as the song goes quoting St. Paul only by grace can we enter, only by grace can we stand, not by our human endeavor but by the blood of the lamb. Only in Jesus can we be truly forgiven and our human endeavor can never compensate for the sins we have done and the punishment that we deserve.
But forgiveness is not just about being forgiven. It is not only about being absolved. Forgiveness is also about moving on. We have to move on. But most often we wallow in our sins because we refuse to move on. And we can only move on if, first, there is an acknowledgement of the fault, and second if there is a real desire to redress the wrong, if there is restitution on our part. Of course we can never fully compensate the wrong we have done. That is why we say only by grace, only by the grace of God. But moving on is trying to compensate what we can never fully compensate.
We do not have to wallow in the mud of our sins, we have to move on. This is the message of Jesus to those who heard Zachaeus. Jesus alone forgives and in our catholic belief, sins have to be acknowledged before a priest. But to move on we have to have the desire to redress the wrong we have done.
About six years ago in the seminary, I received, one day, a letter from a seminarian who went out of the seminary about 4 years earlier. In that letter, carefully wrapped, was two hundred pesos. In the letter he stated that one time when there was a big occasion in the seminary he took from the collecta two hundred pesos. He confessed it, he said and he wanted to leave his past behind. He was repaying back what he owed, so that he said, he could move on and leave his past behind. This is what we call restitution – to repay what we have taken, to repay in full what is not ours by justice.
This is what Zaccheus did in our gospel today. He knew he was forgiven by Jesus. But he also knew that forgiveness is not enough. He has to repay the people he had defrauded, if he had defrauded any. And in generosity he was not just repaying the exact amount he had taken, but he made the restitution four-fold.
I think this is something we should think about and take seriously in our desire for holiness. Yes we fall to sin. Sin is the consequence of our frailty as human beings and only Jesus can truly forgive us. In fact we are already assured of forgiveness by the blood of the lamb - as the song goes quoting St. Paul only by grace can we enter, only by grace can we stand, not by our human endeavor but by the blood of the lamb. Only in Jesus can we be truly forgiven and our human endeavor can never compensate for the sins we have done and the punishment that we deserve.
But forgiveness is not just about being forgiven. It is not only about being absolved. Forgiveness is also about moving on. We have to move on. But most often we wallow in our sins because we refuse to move on. And we can only move on if, first, there is an acknowledgement of the fault, and second if there is a real desire to redress the wrong, if there is restitution on our part. Of course we can never fully compensate the wrong we have done. That is why we say only by grace, only by the grace of God. But moving on is trying to compensate what we can never fully compensate.
We do not have to wallow in the mud of our sins, we have to move on. This is the message of Jesus to those who heard Zachaeus. Jesus alone forgives and in our catholic belief, sins have to be acknowledged before a priest. But to move on we have to have the desire to redress the wrong we have done.
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