34 Justice will catch up with those who invent lies and those who swear to them
I really hope this is true. The biblical message, as well as Heraclitus’, is clear: injustice and lies will not prevail, truth and justice will in the end be established. Many many writers have also lamented that it doesn’t seem much like that, from day to day. And they are right: every day, there are examples of the unjust triumphing. The rich hide their money away from making its contribution to our common needs; the planet continues to be destroyed to serve human greed; liars flourish and the honest are condemned.
President Obama often used a phrase of Martin Luther King, Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”. But it appears that King was paraphrasing a portion of a sermon delivered in 1853 by the abolitionist minister Theodore Parker. Parker said: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”
A 21st century President quoting a 20th century civil rights leader, quoting a 19th century preacher. None of them claimed to have reached the other end of the arc of the moral universe, but all of them were sure that in the ultimate long term, justice was its end. To believe that justice will prevail is an act of faith and of conscience. The more of us believe it, the sooner it will become the truth of the world we live in.