Volume 2
Issue 5
March 2015
Archbishop Cardinal John J. O’Connor’s motto was “there can be no love without justice.” Jesus said that
the two greatest commandments are to love God and love your neighbor. Love requires that what we want suits
our happiness. However, when someone’s rights are taken away from them, they aren’t happy and free to live a
life they choose.
Archbishop Cardinal John J. O’Connor’s motto is one of inspiration and truth. In order to love our
neighbor, we need to be just. In order to live out this commandment, people donate to the poor, prevent them
from stealing, and refrain from plotting revenge against anyone. To love your neighbor means you show support,
respect, sympathy, and perform acts of kindness. Hopefully, God will be able to guide people in living a life like
Christ.
When someone loves another, they have a strong feeling of affection and concern toward that person. To
love also means to feel devotion toward God. In order to understand justice, we need to understand God’s love
and mercy. God’s justice desires payment for the punishment of sin. God’s love, on the other hand, desires
happiness to be restored with Him. God’s love brings happiness into our lives. If there is no justice, sin causes pain
and suffering.
When you show justice to others, at the same time, you can love. Justice allows you to be true to yourself
and others around you. If you are not true to yourself, how can you be truthful and honest to your neighbors? By
showing acts of injustice such as lying, cheating, or stealing, you can never show love to those people you are
hurting. I agree with Cardinal John J. O’Connor’s motto because in order to be happy you need to live a free and
equal life. A free and equal life requires justice. I believe that only when a person is truly happy can they show
love for themselves and others.
I hope that people realize the depth of this motto and the inspiring thoughts it portrays. As the Bible says
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)
Emily Zapinsky
Social justice means fair distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges. Archbishop
Cardinal John J. O’Connor’s motto “There can be no love without justice” means to me that we cannot
have a relationship involving love, when it is not fair and balanced.
To be just to your neighbors means that you want to be fair to your neighbors whether they
are next door, or nearby to friends and family. In the bible, Jesus taught how important it is to be
neighborly. He showed us how being a good neighbor leads to having eternal life. If we want to be good
neighbors, we must seek a comfortable balance with our neighbors. A good neighbor is one who is
supportive of his or her neighbor.
To love someone, it means you have a deep affection for him or her. For what loving someone
should look like is found in God’s Word, which teaches us that true love is a commitment. It is about
sacrifice and it is also about choice. Jesus showed his everlasting love for us when He chose to die on the
cross for our sins. He did this for us because He loves us.
Justice and love are linked by human emotions. Jesus showed justice in His actions by dying on
the cross for our sins. He showed his love for us by healing the sick, raising the dead, feeding the hungry,
preaching the kingdom of God, and most importantly, giving His life for us.
Showing justice to others is a way of loving Him, because we care for that person enough to be fair and
balanced. We cannot be unjust to our neighbors and still love them because, if you love someone, you
have to be open and fair to them.
Francesca Compagno
“There can be no love without justice.” To me, this Episcopal Motto of Archbishop Cardinal John J.
O'Connor means there cannot be true love in the world if we are not fair to each other. We must also treat
others with respect. We can live out this motto by being just to our neighbors. Another way we can live out
this motto is by loving each other.
To be just to our neighbors means to treat our neighbors with the respect they deserve. We should
always treat others the way that we would want to be treated. We can treat our neighbors justly by not
treating them differently just because of their color, ethnicity, or beliefs. We should treat people based on
their personality, not their appearance.
To love means to have an intense feeling of affection for another person. If you love someone, you
never want to let them go. You don’t have to be in a relationship to know what it feels like to love someone.
You can love your family, friends, pets, and your neighbors. Love is a natural feeling you have for a person
that you care about and you would never want to live without that person.
Love and justice are closely linked because justice is what love looks like in public. If you treat
someone fairly and with respect, in a sense, you love them. If you think about it, why would you care about
someone if you didn’t love them? We are made to love everybody. Maybe we don’t necessarily like
everyone we know, but deep down we still love some of their qualities and characteristics. Therefore,
showing justice towards others is a way of showing your love for them. Yes, we can be unjust to our
neighbors and still love them because being just to someone is another way of showing that you love them,
so you can love someone and not show it through your actions.
Being just to someone is another way of showing your love for that person. We all love someone or
something. We always make sure to treat that special person or thing the way we would want others to treat us.
It is very important to have love and justice in a family, relationship, and friendship.
Amanda Montanino
Cardinal O' Connor's motto can be interpreted in different ways depending on how a person
views life and love. To me, the motto, "There can be no love without justice", signifies the value of
people's feelings in everyday life. The motto tells us that justice is needed for us to love. I believe that is
true. How could you love someone if there are no regulations or rules? However, sometimes, love is a
powerful emotion that renders the brain useless to justice. Occasionally, love clouds people's judgment
and that is what makes it special.
Being just to your neighbor means respecting them and their views, and helping them when
they are in need. Everybody deserves trust and respect at first, until they betray your kindness and take
you for granted. To love means to trust someone with your whole being. It means waking up and smiling
and never letting that person/being go. It is an intense, overpowering emotion that changes your whole
life. Justice and love are linked because together they create something beautiful. They create peace.
Showing justice to someone can be a way of loving them. If you loved someone, you would jump
through hoops and obstacles just to make sure they have a safe environment and are better than okay.
In order to do that, you have to establish justice and discover your love. Although, we can also be unjust
to our neighbors and still love them. This is because people have a different way of showing love. What
may be just to you may not be just to someone else. Some people can mistake your justice for hate
because they wouldn't understand why you would love them or they underestimate the power of love.
Love is complicated but it is worth it in the end.
Depending on whom you are and what love means to you, this motto can mean different things.
My love and your love can be displayed in different ways but in the end, it is still love.
Ava Duskic
Love and justice are two powerful words that are linked together. Justice is a form of love. But
love is unconditional. You cannot say you love a person if you are unjust to them. Yet there is still love in
a family even if justice isn’t present.
To be just is to be guided by truth, reason, and fairness. To love is to show/have an intense
feeling of deep affection. Being just to our neighbors is a way of showing love. Respecting others is
loving others. There is no love without justice, but sometimes love is unconditional and overpowers any
evil. But justice is intertwined with love. And God wants us to be just. After we will be just and forgiving
to others, God will be the same to us. “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the
Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk
humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
The Episcopal Motto of Archbishop Cardinal John J. O’Connor: “There can be no love without
justice.” is a motto every Christian should follow. This motto teaches people to be just to others and, in
return, others will be just to you. In this kind of relationship love is always present, as there should be in
every relationship. In order to live a good Christian life, you must act the way you want others to act to
you, as the New Commandment states. On Judgment Day, God will judge our lives and if we were just
and merciful and loving, God will be the same to us. The Bible also teaches this. Living like a good
Christian gives us the chance to have eternal life with God and eternal life will only happen if we have
lived with love and justice.
Danielle Kaminski