Justice and mercy oversee important administrative functions interpersonally and socially. We learn about them as first lessons and can offer them as a last lesson to others weighing decisions about life and death, from military commanders counting the cost of a looming battlefield or families huddled with a doctor around a grave sickbed. Truly, justice and mercy are with us all our days. At times, right must prevail. At other times, wrong needs charity. Wherever two or more are gathered, standards for behavior invariably arise. It’s how games are enjoyed and communities develop security and confidence. The child must understand right and wrong if he or she is to move forward living amidst others. But wise parents and leaders realize that mercy is sometimes required for the child to grow or the community to be whole.
Justice seeks a maintenance of what is right, of what conforms to a good, proven standard. Mercy is a compassion-driven forbearance of the standardization, even of the punishment that justice warrants. If justice is the hook on which we hang the law and prophets, mercy is the hope and patience that makes room for more time and more resources. Mercy and justice have long histories with beloved stories elevating their importance in every culture. They are why we have hospitals and armies, counselors and cops, priests and prophets. Notably, the Christian hegemony has been built on the notion that Heavenly Justice has been satisfied by God’s Mercy – that the just punishment of the Perfect Man for the many non-conformities of we imperfect is good and welcome, divine resources coming to our folly in a grand display of justice and mercy settling a grave matter.
A number of years ago, I carefully took a cue from the apostle John -- who declared in the first chapter of his gospel that God Incarnate was “full of grace and truth” -- and I scoured the four gospels for all of the words and actions of Jesus Christ in which he was extending mercy to someone or speaking justice, often uncomfortable or unsettling. Many examples can be found for both attributes. For example, in the second chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus was told that the wine had run out at a wedding party. We’re not sure on what day of the party (they could last a week or more) the minor crisis arises, but one could assume that much drinking had been going on. Evidently, the local supplier was sold out. To turn water into wine is a stretchful mercy that some on the Right today try their best to mitigate. But, for reasons perhaps known and unknown – probably no two sermons alike – the “friend of tax collectors and sinners” restarts the party and with “the best” that was served. However, after the wedding, Jesus heads down to Jerusalem for a major festival. The sellers of religious merchandise and sacrificial offerings are making a killing. A whip is woven, tables are toppled, and these words ring forth, “Take these things out of here. Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” Yes, mercy and justice are woven throughout the Good News.
Having been waiting for the resumption of the free trolley that runs for a few miles only on Douglas Avenue in hopes of increasing customers for local shops and restaurants, I rode the route last weekend. My expectation was of a slow, open-air ride, with a festive, if not indulgent, feel. That trolley has been replaced by a small, fully enclosed, malodorous city bus. However, what struck me was this: the route was not just for festival seekers, it was a working bus with room for merciful service. After only a couple of blocks of travel, the bus stopped for a wheel-chaired man whose rant and rambling would have alarmed me if he had had use of his legs. The loading and unloading required quite a bit of our time and special effort from the driver (assembling a lift and other machinations), who was doing his best to perform cheerfully. I thought, Americans do not have to look hard for the administration of mercy. It’s everywhere. Even unexpectedly. Thank God.
I have it from Much Higher Authority that grouping into broad dualistic categories is not unwarranted (sheep and goats, life and death, e.g.). Taxonomies are also what minds do with lots of data. And two categories often suffice for lots of meaning – is/isn’t, can/can’t, should/shouldn’t, . . . All the sorting leads to stereotype and generalizations (not hasty, of course), and overarching principles. Without them, we wouldn’t appreciate the exceptions and anomalies.
The categories of Left and Right fascinate me more as I return to the Center. What is at the root of those who speak from the Left and from the Right? The political issues on which the two separate and hold disparate opinion from year to year and crisis to crisis change over time, but the separation endures. The American system promotes only two parties (unlike the multi-party system of other democracies) and highlights our general differences and dualist perspectives. Depending on individual circumstances, proclivities, tendencies, upbringing, temperament, genetics, most of us lean to one side or the other. Some of us more than lean.
The Right sets high standards and the Left marvels at how high. The Left offers more help and the Right worries if we’re teaching anyone responsibility. The Right are usually more careful followers of lawfulness. The Left has more of those who more often say, “Have mercy on me!” Some would know to add “. . . a sinner.”
The Left is more merciful, better able to “walk in another’s shoes,” especially if the walk has been hard. The Left believes more faithfully that progress requires tearing down old things, that inequality is a function of oppression and institutional harm, that more power comes from cooperation than competition. They have a kinder view of human nature. Felt needs are real needs.
The Right is more appreciative of the cleansing power of a just punishment, believes more faithfully that tearing down what time has taught to be true weakens essential foundations, that inequality is more a function of virtue lacking. They believe more in the power of competition, that individual talents and assets are expected to “get to work.” They have a less kind view of human nature, but that we are own worst enemies and “reap what we sow.”
However, peaceful pluralism in diverse human societies – without authoritarian assurances (God keep us from dictatorships of the proletariat or human kings claiming a divine right to rule!) – requires middle ground, where mercy and justice meet, and policy is crafted.
Currently relevant, we have troubles when people who are more immersed in wrongdoing than most of us are being arrested by those who are more zealous than most of us to enforce what is right. Some people are hard to arrest. Some people should not arrest anyone.
From my analysis of our current milieu, The Right is too right/merciless on minimum wage, the cost of health care, the ease in buying high-powered guns.
The Left is too merciful when it comes to weighing the political intentions of the Muslim religion, trusting people with governmental authority, disciplining the incorrigibly criminal, ending inconvenient or pain-surrounded pregnancies.
We all have our own taxonomy and casuistry, of course. Try parsing the next political controversy by attending to, What does justice require? How much mercy can be given? Do you find yourself in a middle position? At the expense of the extremes, build from there!