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7. Justice and the Supernatural
- University of Notre Dame Press
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C H A P T E R S E V E N Justice and the Supernatural Force is in everything that is social, only the scales of justice can vanquish force. Weil, Notebooks In the late spring of 1942, Simone, preparing to accompany her parents to New York, was counting on getting permission from the Free French Forces in London to reenter France so she could participate in the struggle of freeing her country. Her writings during this period between her agricultural work in southern France and the final months of her life in London testify to the crystallization of her thoughts around the power of charitable actions inspired by supernatural love. Confidence in the spiritual efficacy of love had now fully replaced the reliance on rationality that had motivated her early militant activism in the 1930s. Her intellect was operating simultaneously on several levels as she worked through the themes we explore in this chapter: love of neighbor, obligations toward meeting basic needs of others, and the hypocrisy of France’s calling for ethical behavior from others while doing violence to the dignity of the indigenous population in its own colonies. The following essays show the fundamental importance Weil gave to love of neighbor as a springboard for the revitalized social institutions that she wanted Frenchmen to imagine for their postwar existence . She had little trust in Charles de Gaulle’s ability to lead France in the direction that would lead to the spiritual well-being of its people. 183 184 Simone Weil and the Specter of Self-Perpetuating Force Only justice infused by love of others could prevent the spiraling devastation of vengeful force. These conditions required leaders who had a true regard for the people under their jurisdiction and who were willing to make a public affirmation of their moral commitment to meet the needs—of both bodies and souls—of all members of their community . Weil called this affirmation a profession of faith and specified its wording. Nevertheless, she felt that the people had the ultimate obligation to see that their country acted morally toward everyone, inside and outside the national borders. Fifty million people lived in its colonies , many of whom responded to France’s appeal to defend the mainland under assault from the Nazis. Weil wanted the French people to acknowledge the shameful conditions in their colonies and to begin treating all subjects in the empire as their equals. The essays in this chapter reveal the next step in her thinking, in which she developed the rationale for justice administered with compassion and explained the role of supernatural love. LOVE OF NEIGHBOR COUNTERS NATURAL JUSTICE When a strong and a weak person meet, there is no need to unite them, for there is only one will, that of the strong. The weak obey. Weil, “Forms of the Implicit Love of God” On the eve of embarking for America, Weil gave her friend Hélène Honnorat a heartfelt piece entitled “Forms of the Implicit Love of God” to be delivered to Father Perrin. In it, she described for her beloved friend and mentor, who had wished for her to be baptized in the Catholic Church, her theory that God revealed his divine love universally to all persons throughout time and not just to those within the Christian tradition. This concept meant that all persons, the powerful as well as the disinherited, merited equal and compassionate treatment . Her opening section, entitled “Love of Neighbor,” provided the basis for her belief that “the supernatural virtue of justice consists, if one is the superior in the unequal relationship of force, in behaving ex- [54.82.44.149] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 21:08 GMT) Justice and the Supernatural 185 actly as if there were equality.”1 Only by sincerely treating others as equals could one mitigate the aggressive reactions that led to forceful confrontations. In composing “Forms of the Implicit Love of God,” Weil wished to show that proof of the “grand Revelation . . . God’s apparent absence yet secret presence here below” resided in the compassion, gratitude, friendship, and love for the beauty both of the world and of religious practices present in every known century and country.2 To verify this affirmation, she cited the biblical statement: “Wisdom penetrates everywhere because of its perfect purity.”3 She often brought in evidence from ancient Egypt that humankind had always inherently cried out for God’s love in the hope of...