The Gazette 1980

GAZETTE

DECEMBER 1980

'If, beyond legal rules, there is really no deeper feeling of respect for and service to others, then even equality before the law can serve as an alibi for flagrant discrimination, continued exploitation and actual contempt'. "We see the Justice of God as the goal of our actions when we realise that justice is not the concern of the legal profession alone. The Eucharist is always an act of the whole Christian community. Our celebration today is a sign that your work is a service to all of us, and that it is a work in which we are all involved. It is a work which is gravely hampered if members of the community see themselves as uninvolved spectators in the administration of justice. The formal opening of the Law Year is a reminder to all citizens of their responsibilities. 'There is no point in a person complaining that prison fails to rehabilitate prisoners if he or she would not be willing to give an ex-prisoner a chance to make a new start; there is no point in a person complaining that some parents fail to control their children if he or she is not ready to do something to support and encourage families who find it difficult to cope; there is no point in a person complaining about the growth of violence if he or she is violent in word or attitude, indulging in 'selective indignation, sly insinuations, the manipulation of information, the systematic discrediting of opponents' — all of these, as the Pope has said, are attitudes 'capable of fostering the murderous game of violence'; there is no point in a person complaining about the threat to law and order which arises from the frustration of the young unemployed if he or she is content to see the maintenance of their own standard of living take precedence over the preservation and creation of jobs. For all of us, not just the groups represented here, and in every aspect of our lives, the Justice of God is the goal to which we are called and which we must approach together. Justice is a task for all of us. "We see the Justice of God as the goal of our actions, finally, when we are aware that God's Justice must, in the end, be brought about by him not by us. Our respect for the dignity of others, our generosity, our sense of common purpose are taken up by his power into a new creation. Justice is something for which we must not only work but for which we must pray. That is, in fact, what we have come to do. We pray in this Mass that, in the coming year, in our work as members of the legal profession in Ireland and in our lives as citizens, we may foster that human dignity, community and freedom which we hope to find again, illuminated and transfigured in God's kingdom of justice and love. At the same time, we renew our resolve that our work and our lives will make us ready to stand before the judgment seat of Christ knowing that the amount we measure out will be the amount we will be given back". R. W. RADLEY M.Sc., C.Chem., M.R.I.C. HANDWRITING AND DOCUMENT EXAMINER 220, Elgar Road, Reading, Berkshire, England. Telephone (0734) 81977

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