The title of this piece comes from a friend who is also a frequent commentator on these DMs. To me, injustice feels very much like a wound that is inflicted not only on specific victims but on the fabric itself of the world. Justice, on the other hand, can be rightly seen as the product of effort, as the restoration of the lost balance, and therefore as something well deserved. Not as a gift.
Also, what immediately comes to mind is the equation of injustice with imbalance and justice with balance, which is very old, as well as the connection to health. I find that at the imaginative and archetypal level we all live between the poles of injustice/ imbalance/ sickness and justice/ balance/ health. Even just a cursory reading of the works of Hildegard of Bingen, the patron saint of Creation Spirituality, will show easily how this field of meanings plays out.
I don’t think, however, that we can measure “balance” and know exactly when it is reached. We rather feel when we reach its mark. Whether it is health or justice, we “know” by feeling when we live in a state of harmony. This fits very much with C.G. Jung’s conviction that “good” and “evil” are felt rather than thought.
Experiencing balance feels like touching perfection. Feeling it does not mean that it is not real. It is a real experience which we can describe and share, but it is not measurable because it depends on feeling rather than on thinking.
The philosopher Plato is generally not seen as a good friend of Creation Spirituality because of his denigration of the body and everything physical. While I concur with this criticism, I also think that he was very perceptive in his description of the human experience.
With regard to justice, Plato observed that we know (i.e., feel) when we encounter it; yet we cannot hold on to it, grasp it permanently. Our internal feeling of having met justice in its purest form should lead our strong efforts to achieve a measure of justice in the actual world, but we should beware of believing that this material world can ever be the place where justice — or any other absolutes — can be embodied in a stable and perennial way.
Justice, harmony, and balance are quite fleeting experiences. Living in a perennial or even continuing state of this kind is not how human life works. The first noble truth discovered by Buddha — that suffering is universal — is there not to depress us, but to dismantle our illusions about life.
We are wounded all the time by other people’s actions against us, or by the suffering of others which we participate in deeply. Or simply by states of imbalance in our bodies and minds. Yet, we also experience the process of healing and the making of justice. At times — even often yet never permanently — we experience states of balance and the consequent bliss.
Through this meditation, I have come to see the wisdom of the sentence pronounced by my friend: the wound of injustice and the gift of justice.
While justice can be achieved and seen as a fruit of labor, not as a gift, in a deeper sense it is also a gift. It is not a gift from a landlord, or anybody bestowing on us what is actually rightfully due to us. It is both a product of effort — for example: justice through political action or health through medical attention — and a gift of the universe.
If we don’t see balance/health/justice as a gift, but only as a product of correct choices and acts, we can be extremely disappointed when we realize that a state so hard-fought and achieved is not permanent. Also, we can be destroyed in those cases in which our efforts cannot achieve the desired state.
I wrote this meditation today as I am aware that our Via Transformativa efforts are more important now than ever, and yet excessive attention to the news may wreck our precious bodily systems. Perhaps placing our activism within a larger, cosmic context may help.
Banner Image: “Impeach Trump Again.” Protestors call for rule of law at the March for Democracy in Washington DC, February 28, 2026. Photo by Hillel Steinberg on Flickr. CC BY-SA 4.0 .
Queries for Contemplation
What do you make of the notions that justice is fleeting and is primarily felt rather than thought/measured? How do you live your life between the extremes of the wounds caused by injustice and the achievement/gift of justice?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Hildegard of Bingen, A Saint for Our Times: Unleashing Her Power in the 21st Century
The Tao of Thomas Aquinas: Fierce Wisdom for Hard Times
TRUMP AND THE MAGA MOVEMENT AS ANTICHRIST: Recognizing the Archetype of Evil in Our Time
A Way to God: Thomas Merton’s Creation Spirituality Journey
Prayer: A Radical Response to Life
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh (Revised Edition): Transforming Evil in Soul and Society
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation
Wrestling with the Prophets: Essays on Creation Spirituality and Everyday Life
4 thoughts on “The Wound of Injustice and the Gift of Justice”
I do find that the experience of the fleeting nature of justice and balance can be disheartening, yet all the more reason to take comfort in its presence – both as the result of hard work and a gift from the universe – as you say. And it is helpful to me to see that achieving justice/balance is an emotional experience. As someone who has a more difficult time discussing or getting in touch with my feelings rather than understanding the intellectual view of events I smile at the notion that your meditation gives me incentive to keep trying!
‘Being and becoming the Divine Flow of LOVING Diverse ONENESS in the Sacred Process of the ETERNAL PRESENT MOMENT’ is my Faith and Openness to Our Source Co-Creator’s LIVING and LOVING SPIRIT within and among Us in Our Sacred Mother Earth and All physical/nonphysical Spiritual dimensions/Beings of Our evolving Living Sacred ETERNAL COSMOS….
When quantity is the dominant measure of life and trumps quality (orange pun intended), inequalities and injustice become intrinsic features of life and can only be mitigated, not eliminated. If “Polemos is the father of all things,” injustice is the fuel of capitalism. Einstein’s 1946 appeal to carry on a nationwide campaign “to let the people know that a new type of thinking is essential,” has fallen on deaf ears. Similarly, Thomas Berry’s 1999 appeal to “reinvent the Human” has been heard and heeded by too few. We are busy counting and measuring.
Focusing on the inner quality of being either unjust (i.e. out of balance, wounded) or just (i.e. balanced, open to the gift of grace) is a compulsory path towards what we could call “a just world.” Like the motto of every single snowflake in the largest storm, our mantra should be: “Let it begin with me.”
Is it “fair” and “just” that I got cancer at 57? What does that question even mean!? I am certainly doing what I can to stay healthy, but also I have a deep awareness that this cancer might be for someone else’s benefit. Maybe someone close to me needs to experience deep grief in this lifetime? Maybe the doctors will learn something from me that will help others? So maybe in a way the cancer is a gift? It certainly has refocused my attention and I don’t know that I would have experienced my awakening at Lourdes without it. I certainly would not have been posting here 6 months ago – I had never heard of Matthew Fox!
My point is that it’s impossible to know with certainty what is good and bad. And what is justice and injustice. We can feel it for sure, but it’s so slippery. As was stated – we will never live lives free of suffering. Therefore, it makes sense to me to consider suffering as a kind of gift. It’s not a gift anyone necessarily wants – but a gift nonetheless so we can experience what we need to experience with each other. Like light and dark, justice and injustice are different aspects of the same thing. One is not better than the other, they are both necessary.