The Virtue of Justice
required by strict justice. Since, however, we are looking at justice from the viewpoint of the Christian life, we will see that without charity and the infused virtue of justice - human nature being what it is - on will fail often to fulfill the obligations of this virtue. Finally, the obligations imposed by this virtue are always directed to somebody else, not toward self. In this it differs from the moral virtues of fortitude and temperance which have to do with the control of our inner life, our emotions, our appetites and desires, our fears. . . .
Rights and Obligations
Wherever there is a right, there are corresponding obligations. For example: I have rights which my neighbor has an obligation to respect; and my neighbor has rights which I have an obligation to respect. So rights and obligations go hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, however, there are countless persons in today's society whose rights are being disregarded.
Since the virtue of justice has to do with "rights" and the obligations that flow from the, it is important to know the source of those rights. For our purpose we can distinguish various kinds of rights. There are natural rights which flow from the very nature of man. The ultimate foundation of human right is God, who created man as a spiritual and immportal being with an eternal destiny. The founding fathers of our country were aware of this, for we read in the Declaration of Independence, which is the foundation of our American system:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men were created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men . . . "
However, if a person does not admit the existence of God and the spirituality and immortality of the soul, such a one cannot logically admit that there are any real "inalienable rights.' For such a person the source of rights is the state, and what the state grants, it can take away. And that, our beloved (once-Christian) country is gradually doing. Notice the irony of the turn of events. "To secure these rights," says the Declaration of Independence, "governments are instituted among men. And yet, it is our very government that has taken away the most fundamental of human rights, the right to life
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