"Justice demands only what is fair for me and you, and has deep in its origins the mistrust that you..."

"Justice demands only what is fair for me and you, and has deep in its origins the mistrust that you...":

“Justice demands only what is fair for me and you, and has deep in its origins the mistrust that you might be getting something more in the bargain than I am likely to be getting. Justice, then, is a standard of potential enemies, an even division of booty in which both sides are apt to view each other dimly and even with underlying hostility. Friendship, on the other hand, includes the willingness to get less than one deserves for the sake of another for whom one cares. The ultimate friendship –fittingly worth noting at the beginning of Lent – is that friendship of God to Man, and of Jesus to his fellow humans, who surely got less than he deserved and gave more than any godhead has ever been expected to offer to an inferior creature. As we pray every Sunday before receiving the body of Christ, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word, and I shall be healed.’ We pray not for justice from God – for surely we would all burn eternally in Hell if justice was the measure – but for mercy, for love.”

- What I Saw in America: Friendship and Politics"