Justice as Right Relationship to Your Own Body

Sor Juana engaged questions of justice throughout her work—intellectual justice, the justice of women's education, spiritual justice. But her deepest practice may have been the daily work of right relationship: to her own mind, her own desires, her own limits. For the chronically ill, justice begins at home, in the body. Justice toward your body means: listening to its signals rather than overriding them; providing it care without resentment; refusing both denial and despair; accepting its limits while asserting its worth; grieving what it cannot do while honoring what it can. This concept reframes justice from external vindication (proving you are really sick, winning disability benefits, being believed) to internal integrity: the practice of treating your own body with respect, attention, and compassion. This does not eliminate the need for external justice—medical recognition, social support, accessibility—but it names something prior and fundamental. Sor Juana's life models the maintenance of integrity within constraint. For the chronically ill, justice means establishing peace with your own body, not as resignation but as the foundation from which all other resistance and resilience grows.