Lessons From Baton Rouge: Should There Be An Eye For An Eye?

When someone hurts us… it’s our natural tendency to want revenge. We want to get even and settle the score. An eye for an eye, and maybe even a little more. But justice is not revenge, so how do we deal with those who have unjustly offended us?

I’ve lived in Atlanta for the past 30 years but my hometown is Baton Rouge, a city whose history is rooted in a demand for justice. In 1699, French explorer Pierre Le justice, Sieur d’Iberville named Baton Rouge the “red stick” because a conflict between two tribes of that area had been resolved with a “red stick.” The tribes placed a tall red pole, called Baton Rouge by the French, marked by sacred animal carcasses and feathers in the ground on the bank of a bayou, establishing a new border between their peoples. Baton Rouge was founded on an act of respect, harmony and justice.

I was in Baton Rouge visiting family during the week when violence took place in the shooting death by police of a local man. Tensions and emotions ran high as people took to the streets in protest, expressing sorrow and outrage and demanding justice. It’s a universal human reaction that transcends all cultures, races and religious beliefs – that justice must be served whenever a tragedy occurs. We all react by demanding, expecting, insisting upon justice.

Justice For Violence, Justice For Divorce

In the tragedy of divorce, many of us may have found ourselves demanding, expecting, insisting upon justice for the tragic series of events that tore our families apart. How is this fair? How can he/she get away with that? Where is the “justice”?

Craving justice is woven into the fabric of our very beings, along with the innate desire to promote equity with regard to persons and to the common good. But when someone hurts us… it’s our natural tendency to want revenge. We want to get even and settle the score. An eye for an eye, and maybe even a little more.

Going through a divorce can bring out the very worst in us, and can make us feel like we are justified in wanting revenge against the person who hurt us so much. But revenge is sin. So Jesus tells us in the gospel of Matthew 5:38-39:  “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other, also.”

Know Justice, Know Truth

The need for justice to be served is real, but in today’s society, the line between justice and revenge can be somewhat blurry. An “eye for an eye” was actually meant to help personal vendettas from inflicting a harsher punishment than the criminal deserved. If somebody blinded someone, they shouldn’t be killed for it but held accountable for only an eye. The Bible supports measured justice. But even if we stay within the bounds of inflicting reciprocal pain, we’re still missing the point – revenge is a sin.

Seeking justice is actually equivalent to seeking the truth, and all of us can relate to that…seeking truth in the midst of any tragedy is our way of coping. It helps us to set our focus on finding out the “why” and “how” whenever we are caught off guard by events we never thought possible. Seeking answers helps our minds to make sense of things, whenever our world seems to be spinning out of control and crashing down around us.

Personal Justice

How we approach the concept of justice can depend on the source of interpretation of the concept. When we approach justice from a criminal defense or court system position, we must depend on its interpretation by a judge or a jury in a court of law. But, as Catholics we can find justice in our own situations by starting with the spiritual realm, guided by the ultimate source of truth – the Bible – and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Both of these sources identify the starting point, cultivating a virtuous lifestyle.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

“A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good. It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best of himself. The virtuous person tends toward the good with all his sensory and spiritual powers; he pursues the good and chooses it in concrete actions. The goal of a virtuous life is to become like God” (CCC 1803).

The Catechism also describes the four pivotal virtues known as the cardinal virtues:

The cardinal virtues – Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called “cardinal”; all the others are grouped around them. They are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. “If anyone loves righteousness, [Wisdom’s] labors are virtues; for she teaches temperance and prudence, justice, and courage. These virtues are praised under other names in many passages of Scripture” (CCC 1805).

Justice is the moral virtue that consists of the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. From a spiritual perspective, God has given each and every one of us the gift of the virtues – with the goal of a virtuous life to become like God.

And God will take ultimately take care of justice. It may not be when and how we want it, but he will make sure that justice is done. This position is not a lack of justice – it is a call to remember that justice is a cardinal virtue and that we are not to take personal revenge in order to get justice. Leave justice and revenge to God. Some of that justice we won’t see until we get to heaven but some of that is going to happen here on earth.

For my hometown, I pray that conflict is once again resolved with a red stick – but this time with the blood of Christ on the wood of the cross, which represents our pledge to live fully as Christians, and our willingness to make all sacrifices required to fulfill the vocations to which God calls each man, woman and child.

Blogger Paige Mitts is a divorce recovery leader in her community and activist work for the GA Coalition for Vaccine Choice. Follow her on Twitter @paigemitts.