Kyriacos C. Markides presents a cogent overview of the mystical nature of Eastern Orthodoxy. Here's an excerpt on the spiritual practice of justice.
" 'So what is God's justice?'
" 'Real justice,' Father Maximos responded, raising his voice after a deep breath, 'is for God to help us through His Grace to rectify that which truly wronged us. And what is that? Our estrangement from our Divine nature. Real justice means the attainment of Theosis, the reunification with God who created us in His own image. We are endowed with the potential of becoming gods through Grace. Our ultimate goal is reunion with our Maker, our real homeland and final destination. It is exactly at the core of our being, ontologically speaking, that we have been wronged, through the Fall.'
" 'If I understand you well,' I repeated, 'that means justice ultimately implies our reentrance into Paradise, the return of the Prodigal Son to the palace.'
" 'Precisely. When that is done, everything within ourselves will begin to work in accordance to our essential nature. Then our minds and hearts will open up and be able to perceive the things of this world with radically different lenses and criteria, spiritual criteria. At that point, justice will be experienced and function, not as commonly understood, but as total, absolute, and unconditional Divine love. Paradoxically, what we notice is that whenever humans align themselves with Divine justice as unconditional love, then the laws of logic are transcended and God works within them in such a way as to vindicate them both on earth as well as in Heaven. That's why hermits who have attained saintliness are least judgmental with people. One would expect them to be austere and intolerant of human weakness. The opposite is true.
" 'Anyway,' Father Maximos went on, 'the meaning of Christ's words, "Blessed be those who thirst for justice . . ." in reality implies "Blessed be those who thirst for the Grace of God." For God is justice, truth, peace, everything.' "
