Balancing Mercy and Justice

We have heard the word Mercy a lot recently. In fact, the theme of this edition of Vocation for Justice is Mercy. On the centre pages you will find a very interesting modern interpretation of the traditional Christian teaching of the seven Corporal Works of Mercy. Mercy is so important for Pope Francis that it is the central theme of his Papacy, and he speaks of it often in homilies. His apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (‘The Joy of the Gospel’), uses the word 32 times.

This year - 2016 - he calls on the entire global Roman Catholic Church to a Jubilee Year, to be called the Holy Year of Mercy. The Pope also says he wants the Church to live the upcoming holy year “in the light” of Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Luke: “Be merciful, just as your father is merciful”. Mercy, he tells us, is the Lord’s most powerful message.

Mercy is a door, an opening, an invitation to touch a life, to make a difference. But it is not a destination. Mercy beckons us into unexplored territory. Often it ushers us into a world of pressing human need - the destitute needing food and clothes, the homeless needing shelter, the refugee needing a friend. Mercy and justice are two sides of the same coin. Twinned together they lead us to holistic involvement. Divorced they become deformed. Mercy without justice degenerates into dependency. Mercy that doesn’t move intentionally in the direction of justice will end up doing more harm than good to both giver and recipient. Justice without mercy grows cold and impersonal, more concerned about rights than relationships.

Against dark and overpowering forces, acts of mercy can seem meagre. Food banks, although they are necessary, are an insufficient response when we live in a society that discriminates against the poor? What good are a sandwich and a cup of soup in the long term when a severe addiction has control of a person’s life? We may ask, what good is simply campaigning for peace when our governments are so immersed in the arms trade. Perhaps that is why the Bible places equal emphasis on both mercy and justice.

Mercy is a force that compels us to acts of compassion. But over time mercy often will collide with an ominous, opposing force - injustice. Mercy is a door. It is a portal through which we glimpse the heart of God. The tug on our heartstrings draws us in. But soon we encounter brokenness so overwhelming that neither a tender heart nor an inventive problem-solver feel up to the task. Our solutions fall short. Pathologies are too deep, poverty too entrenched. And we descend into our own poverty, a poverty of spirit, a crisis of confidence in our own ability to rescue. And, like the broken, we find ourselves calling out to God for answers. When our best efforts have failed us, we are left with nothing to cling to but frail faith.

In a strange twist of divine irony, those who would extend mercy discover that they themselves are in need of mercy. Out of our own need we are readied for service that is

both humble and wise. “The call of Jesus pushes each of us never to stop at the surface of things, especially when we are dealing with a person”, the pope says. “We are called to look beyond, to focus on the heart to see how much generosity everyone is capable of” he adds.

Francis said in announcing the Jubilee Year: “I am convinced that the whole Church — that has much need to receive mercy because we are sinners — will find in this jubilee the joy to rediscover and render fruitful the mercy of God, with which we are all called to give consolation to every man and woman of our time.”

During this Holy Year, let us respond to the call of Pope Francis to live lives where mercy and justice are central.  Peter Hughes

(This Editorial is taken from the  publication of Columban Mission Collaborating with the National Justice and Peace network of England and Wales & Justice and Peace, Scotland)