Justice First Before Mercy

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

IT’S true! While divine mercy will have the last word, the requirements of justice, including human justice, no matter how imperfect it is, will have to be tackled first. Christ himself submitted to this condition, even if in his case, the most unfair injustice was handed on to him. He did not escape the justice-first-before-mercy principle.

With the imperfections of our human condition in this world, we cannot deny that there will be a lot of injustice committed around. These cases should be resolved as properly as possible, but seeing to it that we should not get stuck with retributive justice alone, but should also be concerned about restorative and reformative justice.

But at the end of the day, we know that justice has to give way to mercy. If we follow Christ, this is what we should do. In his most unfair trial, Christ remained silent when he could have defended himself abundantly. But he remained quiet and allowed the erratic wheel of human justice to roll on.

He did it only for one sole purpose—to redeem us. He had to pay for the debt we could not pay. He had to assume all the sins of men, die to them so that with his resurrection, we also would have a way to recover our dignity as children of God if we also die with Christ.

Christ remained silent because it was his time to go, to complete his mission. He just allowed himself to be treated with the severest injustice there could ever be in this world—condemning God through our own human system of justice. That is how much Christ loves us!

This is a point worth our serious consideration if only for us to try to approximate that attitude. Yes, we need justice, and full justice at that. But we have to understand that our justice can only do so much. It cannot capture the whole dignity of man no matter how bad a man may be. At the end of the day, it has to yield to a higher virtue which is mercy.

Our human justice can only do so much because even if pursued with all the due processes involved, we still cannot know everything about the person concerned. At best, we can only judge on the basis of what we know. Yet even in this, we always have a strong tendency to overstep. We can go to the extent of executing a person.

Besides, our human justice is usually instigated by anger and the desire to make even or to have revenge with someone who may have done us wrong. It is not totally inspired by charity. Some self-interest dilutes it.

Yet, if we look at Christ’s example, we know that Christ offered forgiveness to everyone, including those who crucified him. “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they are doing.” He even offered excuses for them, and continues to do so for all of us, because each one of us is precious to him. Justice cannot have the last word for us. It’s mercy that has the last word.

We need to see to it that we learn how to be merciful the way Christ is merciful with everyone of us. And everyday, we actually are given many opportunities to live mercy that goes beyond justice. But justice should not be totally ignored.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com