Justice That Restores Community: From Beyond Legal Logic to Fulfillment Through True Love.
Aquinas regards justice as a "magnificent virtue" directed toward the common good rather than the individual good.
In modern Korean history, the word "justice" (*justitia*) has been a value that was simultaneously most tainted and most desperately sought after. Paradoxically, the "new military" forces—who seized power by violently suppressing the May 18 Democratic Uprising in 1980—adopted "realizing a just society" as their national slogan.
At that time, the Servant of God Cardinal Stephen Kim Sou-hwan proclaimed in his homilies: "Let justice flow like a river" (Amos 5:24). While the "justice" invoked by those in power to justify unjust rule was merely a "hollow pretext," the justice presented by Cardinal Kim was a "living order"—one that reclaimed what belonged to the oppressed and restored universal values.
In the philosophical system of Thomas Aquinas, justice transcends mere personal virtue; it serves as the personal foundation for the rule of law and a core principle maintaining the order of the community. In the *Summa Theologica*, Thomas classifies justice as one of the four cardinal virtues—alongside prudence, fortitude, and temperance—yet accords it the highest status among them. This is because justice does not remain confined to an individual's inner cultivation but strives toward the universal value of the "common good" (*bonum commune*) within the context of relationships with others.
Thomas defines justice as "the constant and perpetual will to render to each his due". The most notable aspect of this classical definition is that the subject of justice is the "will," not the intellect. Justice is not merely an intellectual activity of recognizing what is right; it signifies a steadfast habit of according others their due rights. In particular, Thomas held that a sensitive appetite cannot be the subject of justice because it lacks the capacity for comparison or analogy. In other words, justice is a volitional decision and a personal habit that presupposes a high degree of intellectual deliberation.
Furthermore, Thomas regards justice as a "magnificent virtue" directed toward the common good rather than the "individual good" (*bonum singularis*). Justice directs the acts of all virtues toward the benefit of the community; in this sense, it is identified with "legal justice" (*justitia legalis*). This essential definition of justice is concretized within the social order through the objective standard of law. Having established that the subject of justice is a right will directed toward others.
Reflecting on these distinctions, restoring the truth and rehabilitating the honor of the victims of the May 18 Democratic Uprising is not merely an act of charitable compensation. It represents the realization of distributive justice, correcting distorted social proportions by allocating a fair share commensurate with the value of the contributions individuals have made to the community.
Furthermore, for Aquinas, justice serves a dual purpose: it safeguards the equality and rights that form the foundation of human society while simultaneously acknowledging inherent human limitations and acting as a steppingstone toward higher virtues—namely, religion and true love. Viewed through the lens of contemporary ethical practice, Aquinas’s insights emphasize that justice must not be subsumed by the cold logic of the law; instead, it must evolve into a "justice perfected in love," grounded in the dignity of the human person.
Thus, the May 18 Democratic Uprising was a massive, willful outpouring of the community’s resolve to restore a sense of justice that had been violated. The unlawful massacre perpetrated by the state at that time constituted a clear act of injustice—a usurpation of the "due share" belonging to others, namely their lives and dignity—and a grave sin against true love, which is the life of the soul.
Today, the process of restoring the honor of the May 18 movement is an act of reparation aimed at re-establishing the arithmetic and geometric equality that had been destroyed. Reconciliation and peace achieved hastily, without justice, easily devolve into deceptive falsehoods. Restoring the moral health of the community by thoroughly responding to the demands of justice is the essential prerequisite for Korean society to enjoy true happiness.
Text by Park Seung-chan Elijah (Professor, Department of Philosophy, The Catholic University of Korea) (This article was shortened.)
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