Thoughts On Justice

Justice is “Just Ice”. It’s just like icing on a cake.

It may appear to be a solution to a problem or make someone feel better temporarily, but it is only a short-term gratification that does not address the real issues.

Most of you heard in the news some time ago now about the Governor from Chicago who made a decision to take prisoners off of Death Row. He pointed out that many innocent victims are executed for crimes they didn’t commit. He gave life imprisonment to the “known” killers and released three prisoners that were thought to be “innocent.” This has caused a HUGE debate. This has outraged the public. I have been paying close attention to the issues, and have felt called to ask, “what would love do here?”

What saddened me was witnessing the public’s RAGE and ANGER toward this Governor for making this decision. It was also clear the intense ANGER that the victims’ families had for the perpetrators. One family member said, “all I live for is to see this person die.” Most of these tragic events happened anywhere from five to twenty years ago and yet the families are still plagued with anger, outrage and vengeance. I cannot begin to understand their anger, as nothing of the sort has happened to any of my family members, yet I do know that there is a time in everyone’s life when it is necessary to let go of the anger. How long will we torment ourselves with anger and pain? Life is often not about what happens to us, but what we do with what happens.

There are always situations in everyone’s life that cause intense pain. What about the person whose life was literally eaten away with cancer? Shall we spend our days and nights furious at the cancer? We can choose that if we like. I am in no way trying to lessen the atrocity of the crimes committed. I feel pain for anyone who has suffered; a victim of a crime, a prisoner of war, a patient with cancer, or even an animal hit by a car.

Yet, I believe that we are all divine beings created from the same Life force energy that created the Universe. I believe in the inherent goodness and innocence of everyone. I believe that our soul purpose in this lifetime at the level of human form is to LOVE. To experience God and I believe God is Love.

If God is love, and if I am love, then everyone is love, everyone is an extension of God. Victim/perpetrator alike. Yet some of us our unskilled, lacked positive role models, etc. We all have that life force energy in us, some of us use it to shine light into a dark room, and some of us use it to electrocute someone.

I do know that Anger is a mask for a deep-rooted pain. Yes, painful experiences in this human life are inevitable. Yet peace is not. There is a Peace and Love of God that surpasses everything and is everything. It is always available and ever present. The anger that we feel inside pollutes our Life, our very Being. Yet, there is a peace beyond that anger. As we shine the light of our true eternal Being into any situation, there is peace.

I have heard it said that Revenge is like drinking poison yourself and expecting someone else to die. I believe our goal is to get to that place of Divinity with ourselves that no matter what happens we show up with Love. Love is the only answer.

I realize that it is hard to love someone who hurts you. And I realize this sounds absurd to love someone who brutally killed a loved one. Yet, countless of people throughout time have found their way through pain and anger to love and forgiveness.

There have been people (survivors of the holocaust, survivors of major crimes, prisoners of war, etc) who have been subjected to the most heinous of acts, and yet still have forgiven and released their anger.

Yet it seems that most of society still has this “eye for an eye” philosophy. I would say that this is vengeance, and not justice.

A Course in Miracles, states that justice is equated with fairness, that no one would lose and everyone must benefit. Yet vengeance is when someone wins and someone loses.

While the victims’ families may benefit from the execution of a murderer, does the murderer benefit? How can we create a situation in which everyone benefits? Ideally, that would be to create a world in which NO crime exists. One in which we all realized that we are one.

Mother Teresa said, “If there is no peace (or love), it is because we have forgotten that we belong to one another.” How profound.

What if each and every one of us really got that? What if victim/perpetrator are one in the same? What if I really understood that if I robbed you, I was stealing from myself? What if we all realized that if we hurt someone, we are hurting ourselves?

Again, I was so sad when I heard about the tragic death of some of the family members of the perpetrators that were taken off of Death Row. It hurt me immensely to hear about the viscous, malicious killing of a mother and her unborn baby. Yet, it also hurt me to hear about some of the prisoners who were suffocated, electrocuted and brutalized into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit. Or some of the stories and history of abuse of the perpetrators.

Society has this attachment to death as a punishment, both in war and in executions through our criminal justice system.

My spiritual teaching, teaches me that we are not our Bodies. That we are more than this human shell we run around in. We are an Energy; a life force that remains even after our physical bodies are gone.

If we are attached to our bodies, we will always seek solutions at the level of human form (our bodies). If we believe the ultimate goal is to perpetuate the existence of our human body, than yes, anyone who interferes with that is unjust.

What if there is a purpose beyond our physical bodies? What if our purpose is to love and express God at every moment? What if we viewed death differently? What if death was equated with freedom from limitation? What if we truly knew that no matter what happened to our physical bodies that there is an essence of who we are that lives on eternally, that can never be touched by illness, or violence?

It is also a spiritual teaching that we should love people who hurt us, or who lash out at us. I am taught to love everyone equally, no matter what their actions are. Yet how can we love those that are cruel, those that are mean to us or our families? The way to love is through forgiveness.

Forgiveness does not mean condoning an action, but merely seeing someone’s innocence. Now, again, I am not saying that murderers are “innocent” as the world sees “innocence vs. guilt.” But innocence in the way that there must be something really horrific going on in that person’s life that they would do this to another person? Did they learn this behavior? Were they abused and tortured as children? Do they feel unloved?

And where have we fallen short on making everyone feel loved?

A Course in Miracles teaches us that every act is either love or a call for love.

I know that many crimes are committed due to a lashing out in pain, a feeling of not being heard or loved. What if every single one of us absolutely felt loved and nurtured?

Do we have enough love in our hearts for everyone? Or do only certain classes or types of people deserve love? Furthermore, who makes that decision?

I am not saying that people who commit crimes should not be accountable in some way for their actions. I would not say that or think that. But, I am saying that I would ask us to question why we should consider death and killing as a way to put an end to death and killing? It’s like on one hand, we are saying that killing is wrong. And then we are saying, “but it’s okay for us to kill you because…” What are we teaching?

The same justification we use that allows us to “kill” someone for doing something inappropriate, may be the same justification that a person may have used to validate “killing” someone else.

We have this same philosophy in war. If you do this to us, we will retaliate and hurt you even more. After 9/11 everyone wanted Afghanistan to pay, now we want Iraq to pay for crimes to the United States.

I know that no matter what happens at this human level of form; that only love remains. Any time we get in a state of declaring right or wrong, victim or perpetrator we are declaring separation. We are putting ourselves at opposite sides, when we are all really on the same side. Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Any hatred can be transformed through the power of love.

I don’t know the specific solutions, or claim to have all the answers. I know the God in me knows to respond to ALL situations with love and understanding from a Higher perspective.

I know that the only power in the Universe capable of solving all the World’s problems: is Love.

I ask that each and every one of us open our hearts to Love. Surround innocent victims of crime and their families with love. Surround the perpetrators with love, knowing that at some level they are hurt as well. Surround strangers with love. Surround yourself with love. Surround people in other countries with love.

I’d like to share with you a story out of my book Peaceful Earth that addresses these issues. And I would ask you to open your heart and examine your feelings about justice and death.

I know the Truth that our growth on the planet and as individuals depends on our capacity to LOVE and to see each other as reflections of ourselves, knowing that we are all One.

© Lisa Hepner
Life Channels Staff Writer
All Rights Reserved

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