From time to time, a major university or public health organization publishes research about moral issues.  One of the favorite topics of such research are the issues of justice and fairness.  Those research projects are based on simple tests in which all participants are offered the promise of reward but only one participant has power to distribute the reward.  The single participant with decision-making power is often given a choice between distributing rewards unevenly among participants or withholding reward from all participants, including themselves. 

The results of those research projects are rather consistent regardless of the nature of the reward.  Monetary rewards, edible rewards such as candy, and intangible rewards such as public prestige are treated largely the same by participants; all are judged to be valuable, and all provoke a moral judgment by participants. 

It’s interesting to note that not all participants make similar judgments about fairness and unfairness.  The majority of people, regardless of age or background, choose the outcome they consider advantageous to themselves – without perceptible concern for fairness to other participants.  That is, when faced with an uneven distribution of rewards, most participants prefer to deny rewards to all participants, including themselves, rather than to be disadvantaged by the uneven distribution of rewards.  Only a minority of participants demonstrate concern for others when faced with the choice to distribute rewards unevenly. 

Researchers tend to ascribe this disparity in judgment to the instinctual drive for survival.  While evolution and the survival instinct probably play a role in the decision-making process, one should never forget that all moral decisions are primarily the result of conscious reasoning.  Consequently, the Catholic Faith has a great deal to say about morality and decision-making. 

The second reading this Sunday is from the Letter of James, a text composed of a series of moral exhortations.  In Catholicism, morality is derivative but not discretionary.  Although Catholicism’s moral code holds a secondary position to Catholicism’s beliefs, it remains a mandatory requirement for believers because of its origin in revealed truth. 

The selection from the letter that is our second reading this Sunday deals with the issue of landowners withholding wages from agricultural workers.  Apparently, some of the wealthy members of James’ church community were making themselves wealthier by not paying their employees the agreed-upon wage.  The Letter of James warns those greedy landowners that their unfair behavior “will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire.” (Jas 5:3) 

The Letter of James says that if one is concerned about what one considers fair to oneself, then one is obliged to be equally concerned about what is fair to other people.  In the situation addressed by the letter, the landowners are entitled to derive suitable income from their farmland, but they are equally obliged to allow their laborers to derive suitable income from their labor. 

While this instruction deals with an isolated situation in a particular church community in the far distant past, it has general applicability.  Catholicism’s moral teaching is derived from Catholicism’s beliefs; consequently, individual moral teachings provide general guidance not restricted to the individual circumstances in which they arise.  The teaching contained in the Letter of James about justice and fairness applies to all issues of justice and fairness.  The Letter of James says that just and fair behavior amounts to giving others what you think you deserve for yourself; less than that brings condemnation. 

For example, if you think it’s fair for you to take something that doesn’t belong to you or that you didn’t pay for, then it’s fair for other people to do the same thing to you.  If you think it’s fair for you to criticize, belittle, or threaten someone whom you dislike, then it’s fair for others to do the same to you.  If you think it’s fair for you to enjoy privileges that other people don’t have, then it’s fair for others to enjoy privileges that you don’t have. 

On the other hand, if you think you deserve advantageous treatment from the people around you, you owe the people around you the advantageous treatment you think you deserve.  Justice and fairness means giving others what you think you deserve for yourself.   

It might not be necessary, and I’m unwilling, to speculate about the eternal fate of those complain about not receiving sufficient fair treatment while refusing to behave justly themselves.  It’s only necessary to look at the consequences in this life of choosing to act unfairly and unjustly toward others.   

If you desire fair treatment but treat others unfairly, you have made fairness and justice into a lie and made yourself into a promoter of lies.  This is what the author of the Letter of James meant when he wrote that the unjust actions of some of the members of his congregation “will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire.” (Jas 5:3) 

The moral teaching in the Letter of James is true and valid even from the utilitarian point of view of evolution and basic survival.  It would be a lonely existence if you were the sole survivor of the human race, but even lonelier if you are the only human to enjoy the advantage of justice and fairness.  

Catholic morality doesn’t require neurotic scrupulosity about justice or any other aspect of one’s behavior.  Catholic morality does, however, require honesty with oneself, an honest effort to behave justly, and a sense of compassion both for those who behave unjustly and for those who are treated unjustly. 

If you do not want your actions to be testimony against you, choose carefully how you wish to be treated and treat other people in exactly that way.