Beyond justice to Mercy

By Bishop Peter Baldacchino -

Keynote address by Bishop Peter Baldacchino at the 2016 Prison and Detention Ministry Conference. September 24, 2016.

“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” (Ps. 85:10-11)

These words taken from Psalm 85 open our conference this morning, declaring the plan of God for all, and I wish that they may be the true keynote, the heart of our meeting.

I greet Archbishop Thomas Wenski, our Metropolitan Archbishop, who has just presided at our opening Mass for today’s conference, and Father Jose Luis Menendez, pastor of Corpus Christi parish.  I salute the numerous dignitaries who serve within the justice system at the local, county or state level and those who work in defense of the vulnerable gathered here today.    

MERCY. Even before becoming the heralded symbol of this Jubilee Year, the word “Mercy” had been taking on an increasingly central role in the pontificate of Pope Francis.

Yet, if mercy is understood not simply as rhetoric but for what it truly is, then the appeal to mercy that the Church vigorously proclaims throughout the world this year, inevitably poses many questions in the minds of citizen and faithful alike who, each day, encounter concrete situations that plead for mercy.

These issues become even more significant when mercy is confronted with the term “justice.” As believers we have always been taught to recognize any expression of true justice as an important attribute of the very person of God and furthermore as a goal that we are strongly urged to achieve here on earth. This is the basis of my hope that all of us gathered here today may find the path to interiorize in a truthful manner the relationship between mercy and justice -- primarily in a personal manner -- so as to be able to transpose it into the public sphere.

Therefore, the subject of our meeting today, “Beyond justice to mercy,” is an important moment of guidance for us in order to respond to these issues in a way that may be philosophically consistent with the moral teaching of the Church.

Justice is not only a fundamental concept for any civil society, but it is indeed the basis on which civil order rests. Rather, justice is an essential feature of human relationality, underlying all social relationships, as evidenced throughout the western philosophical and political traditions.

On the one hand, since the time of Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, philosophers have always sought the most truthful answer to humankind’s quest for justice. What is justice? Why be just? What constitutes a just action? How can a person be just towards oneself and one’s neighbor? What are the sine qua non elements constituting any just political and juridical institution and governmental activity?

On the other hand, we are not here to define the anthropological concept of man simply within social or political attributes. I trust we all agree that a person is a social being, because this persona is essentially both a spiritual and theological being.

Delving into our Judeo-Christian tradition, we find that many of the books comprising the Bible speak of divine justice and refer to God as the supreme judge. Psalm 9 for instance, tells us that “The Lord has established his throne for judgment. He judges the world with righteousness;he judges the peoples with equity.” (Ps. 9:7-8) By presenting himself a judge, God hereby shows one of his essential attributes: He is the discerning, truthful, and impartial father-figure whose reason and will are perfectly just. Indeed, if man were to honestly collaborate with God’s design of justice, it would allow righteousness to become flesh in those who practice it and it will also bring peace to others. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good.” (CCC. 1807)

Yet what happens if these just and harmonious relationships cannot be sustained?

We all see too well the effects of a world that has rejected the opportunity of embodying God’s justice, and this happens even among those who have been baptized in the Catholic faith, both now and in the past.

Writing to the community in Colossae, Saint Paul warns them that “… For the wrongdoer will be paid back for whatever wrong has been done, and there is no partiality.” (Col. 3:25)

If we consider today’s task of rendering justice, we cannot but notice the relevance of the biblical words we have just read. Daily, those who are, or who consider themselves to be the victim of a wrongdoing, are naturally driven to purge the offense received, by having a just course of action taken against the offender. Retributive justice indicates the need to inflict a proportional penalty upon the guilty, on the principle that each must be given what is due.

Mercy, however, takes a route that is altogether different: in any human relationship, mercy is what is given, out of one’s goodness.

The concept of ​​mercy elevates the reality of man, making him a being-in-relationship with other persons and whose very existence is in function of other persons, because mercy is the other essential quality of the Judeo-Christian God himself.

God, in fact, is not only a just judge, but in him justice co-exists with mercy and forgiveness. In the Psalmist’s words: “Justice and judgment are the foundation of your throne, mercy and faithfulness march before you”. (Ps 89:15) Even the prophet Isaiah expresses this indivisible communion of attributes in the one Lord who “waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice.” (Is 30:18)

In practical terms, however, these two aspects may seem to be contradictory.

Is God then a two-faced being? Is He a sort of moody Supreme Being who randomly and arbitrarily allocates justice and mercy? These words are not too far from the complaints made by unenlightened philosophers, poets, musicians, ordinary people, and the like.

Yet, with mercy we touch the true identity of Christianity. It presupposes the acknowledgement of a foundational starting point, which dates back to the creation of man. “It is not good that man should be alone”. Indeed the plan of God is for man to be with God, to both love him and experience his love in a constant interaction and because of this communion with God, to live with the other one (not to be alone) and to love the other one.

Yet, sin breaks this plan of God, and the Judeo Christian tradition tells us that God, since the beginning of time, has prepared mercy as a way to allow man to return to him. The meaning of the biblical Hebrew word for mercy, "rahamim" refers to a mother’s love (rehem meaning “womb”). It stands for the deep bond between a mother and her child, from which flows a very special relationship of tenderness and understanding that lasts throughout a lifetime and that brings about a kind of rebirth.In his revelation to Moses, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Ex 34:6), mercy becomes not only an expression of perfect sovereignty and freedom, somehow connected to the power of giving life, but also an expression of God's faithfulness, his essence. We can always trust in him.

This has implications on many levels, and especially on social justice.

In the first place, mercy and justice both pave the way to achieve the promotion of human dignity, since both integrate and support one another. On the one hand, social justice requires a continued effort and planned structures, institutions, and correspondingly economic and political efforts, all aimed at the common good, without which any individual effort, however generous and compassionate, remains wanting. On the other hand, social mercy needs also voluntary initiatives (both individual and communal) in order to reach where institutions and structures cannot.

In this sense, mercy is of fundamental importance to social justice, since it injects spiritual values into those who take charge of such initiatives so that the poor, the weak, and the suffering can feel a real closeness, sharing, tenderness, and not simply the cold performance of ethical and political duties or, worse still, of bureaucratic tasks, which eventually dry up and become worthless on a human level.

However, nowadays this connection is not so clear in the minds of all concerned: according to the modern philosopher par excellence, Immanuel Kant, say, ethics must be guided not by emotions such as mercy and compassion, but only by the consciousness of moral duty.

We can further think about the Marxist or socialist philosophies: they adversely inculcate the notion that mercy is something negative, being used as a substitute for justice, a mere attempt at mending individual social needs, replacing the reformation of the social system and the creation of a new order of justice for all. We hear the cry, not only in countries dominated by communist regimes: “We do not want mercy, no, we want justice, we want our rights! We do not want a state or a business owner that mercifully gives us alms! No, we are entitled to a fair wage!”

It is good that our political system is based on the ideal of justice and we are indeed grateful for that. However, our economic and social system is also based on competition.

Moreover, and truly unfortunately, we also know that our social and institutional structures are tainted by man’s imperfections and, being sometimes far from promoting genuine justice, they at times even become factors or multipliers of injustice with the consequence that many people are effectively becoming poorer and poorer, running the risk of being discarded by society.

Then again, we have to recognize the limitations of what is of value in our social system and in any social system that justice may create. Indeed, necessity has many facets, and they often change very quickly. It is naive to think that any given system can adjust to and anticipate every individual situation; those who try to do so end up with a bureaucratic system full of rules, but even then, many needs will fall through the cracks of such a system.

For example, case in point, the bureaucratization of the social state and of the healthcare system, which to some degree is inevitable, creates new problems and oftentimes ends up in a cold, impersonal, and anonymous system. In such circumstances, a disease is treated only as a problem regarding a particular human organ, when instead it is a problem involving the entire person, in its physical, emotional and existential aspects. The sick person needs professional help, but also needs empathy and sympathy in the original sense of the word: he is in need of misericordia, that is, of a heart for the poor.

Christian tradition lists seven corporal works of mercy and seven spiritual works of mercy. The corporal works of mercy are: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick, visiting the imprisoned, and burying the dead. Some of these works call to mind very actual challenges: feeding and giving to drink calls us to exercise justice in a world where life resources are distributed unfairly; in Europe, sheltering the homeless has become a matter of conscience when confronted by millions of immigrants; visiting the sick and the elderly is becoming increasingly important in a society where those who count are too often only those who are young, healthy and strong and successful. Freeing prisoners implies improving and humanizing the situation of inmates and committing ourselves to those who are unjustly sentenced (political prisoners, prisoners on account of religion; not to forget the persecuted Christians, and the like).

But it is when we turn to the works of spiritual mercy that the splendor of Christianity shines forth. In fact, there is not only material poverty, but also cultural poverty, that is, the poverty of those who do not have access to higher and better education; relational poverty, that refers to those who are alone because they have become a victim of social ostracizing in all its forms, and last but not least, spiritual poverty, that involves an emptiness and an ever-growing inner desert, the lack and loss of orientation in life – a consequence of living as if God does not matter. In this sense, the spiritual works of mercy are indeed very actual: admonishing the sinner, instructing the ignorant, counseling the doubtful, comforting the sorrowful, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving all injuries, and praying for the living and the dead.

Faced by these and many similar issues, mercy and the works of mercy reveal their importance not only in specific situations, but also in a wider sphere. Individual mercy will not and cannot ever replace social justice, but it can become the inspiration and the motivation to become involved.

Pope Francis is unstoppable in reminding us every day that we are, that you are, people for the other, people called to bring mercy, and along with mercy, hope, and therefore life.

Interestingly enough, the Pope recalled that "The Jubilee Year has always constituted an opportunity for great amnesty, which is intended to include the many people who, despite deserving punishment, have become conscious of the injustice they worked and sincerely wish to re-enter society and make their honest contribution to it." (Pope Francis, Pastoral Letter in preparations for the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, 1st September 2015).

All this takes us back to our topic today, and particularly to the section concerning the youth in our justice system and to the section regarding the death penalty. I will not take the place of our distinguished panelists who certainly are more competent than myself on the topic.

However, the number of youth held in correctional facilities is indeed extremely high, which goes to prove that justice in itself is not sufficient. Apart from dealing with the hot issues concerning alternatives to detention and the facilities that host young inmates, it is unfortunate that young offenders who have already paid their debts towards society, oftentimes do not find a society ready to welcome them.

Yet what, I feel is most dear to Pope Francis when he addresses the problems of justice is the necessity not to label or classify people --- in this case through laws and trials --- into categories “righteous” and “outcast” indelibly marked.

More often than not offenders are themselves victims of violence, abuses, broken families, emotional strains, and oftentimes also bearers of the sins of others. All too often offenders have never received mercy, whether it be at home, on the streets, with their peers. It is not simply a matter of giving opportunities and creating new jobs; indeed, the issue at stake here is to touch their very souls and to heal their deep wounds.

For this reason and because of the unquestionable right of every person to live, Pope Francis has strongly voiced a clear NO, as the Church has always done, not only NO to the death penalty and torture, but also NO to life imprisonment when it becomes a truly unfair and oppressive punishment. When human lives are threatened by the loss of any hope of returning to normal life and when the most basic dignity of people is at stake, mercy and clemency MUST always prevail.

The Pope speaks not only to the conscience of ordinary people, a people who need to be reminded of the importance of such values: he also speaks to those who, suffering the consequences of crimes, whether minor or serious, and troubled by the inefficiencies of ordinary law enforcement measures, are likely to fall into the trap of demanding a repressive justice, one that in turn, can spiral down without any limit.

Our society cannot progress without mercy. Nowadays, in facing important social and judicial issues with an ever-weaker religious and moral foundation, humanity will increasingly lack the emotional impetus that is required to commit itself to a better world. Indeed, without mercy we risk that our society will turn into a desert. Mercy alone can be the foundation and indeed the innovative and motivational source of justice.

Experience has shown the impossibility of reaching true justice through any socio-political system, a justice at a historical level, a justice that can extend beyond nations and eras, a justice that may be a reflection of the justice of God, precisely because man, having separated from God, is profoundly incapable of administering true justice, beginning with his closest relationships.

The Lord Jesus Christ has actually manifested to us what true mercy is by presenting us with his greatest commandment. He tells us to be merciful, as our Father in heaven is merciful and to forgive and love even our enemies. Sigmund Freud said that the commandment to love one's enemy is an absurd commandment because it is impossible to achieve. I would say that it is surely not easy to do so, and it often takes a long journey of preparation to arrive at forgiving and loving our enemies. However, God has done just so with us and indeed invites us to go and do likewise.

Truly, if our society is unable to eliminate all forms of injustice, the real solution to the issue cannot simply rest in implementing better structures, more equitable laws, and improved judiciary and correctional systems, which, however, we must strive to reach.

Clearly it is impossible to eliminate all injustice, because injustice creates the need for retribution and this has in itself the risk of creating other injustices; thus the answer must be sought in Mercy, that alone can break this vicious circle and allow for a new beginning, a new common way towards the future.

Mercy brings hope, because without mercy hope dies.

Without mercy families are destroyed, divorce shatters the social fabric and ultimately produces throngs of children who are unable to love and are locked within themselves and within their own selfishness.  One who does not experience mercy can never learn to be merciful to others!

Without mercy, hope dies on our streets, there where children cannot find proper means of education and youth cannot access adequate jobs.

Without mercy hope dies at the workplace, because one’s rights must be defended at any cost and because the economic demands of our system suffocate it.

Without mercy hope dies in the hallways of our hospitals, nursing homes, within our homes that have become full of elderly people, who are almost completely abandoned.

Without mercy hope dies within the jail, where young and old offenders alike become more and more immersed in a culture of violence because they have no hope of finding a way out of their circle of crimes.

And without hope, indeed the true hope of Christianity, man ultimately dies.

In his encyclical Spe Salvi Pope Benedict states that: Man even though he may entertain all kinds of hopes, is ultimately without hope, without the great hope that sustains the whole of life (cf. Eph 2:12). Man's great, true hope which holds firm in spite of all disappointments can only be God — God who has loved us and who continues to love us “to the end,” until all “is accomplished”. (Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, n. 27)

How can our faith become such an integral part of our life so that we can put Jesus’ commandment of Love and Mercy into practice?

In order to achieve this, there is a need of a long journey of personal conversion that begins by bringing each person to acknowledge the other, to recognize the other as a son or daughter of God. The French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre had blasphemously said that “the other is hell” (Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit, 1944) and therefore to reach out to the other, to go towards the other’s needs, is tantamount to taking the risk of experiencing their pain, their suffering, and their lack of hope.

Pope Francis, the Church, and I too, want to remind you that the other is actually Christ, one whom we can love, one we can forgive, for whom we can be instruments of mercy and hope because Christ has done such with us in the first place!

Yet, in order to go beyond justice to mercy, to passfrom short-sightedly defending MY rights to taking care of the others, from securing my own life to risking it by loving the other, the keyword we need to understand, believe and live, is one: CHANGE. In theological language, we call it CONVERSION. An attitude of daily conversion requires three elements: (1) personal courage in recognizing our imperfections and errors, (2) the virtue of hope that we and others may change, and (3) the grace of God to make all of this happen.

To bring Christian mercy and hope into today’s life is of paramount importance. We certainly do not want our efforts to remain a sterile attempt that does not resolve the core problem; we need to delve deep into the heart of man, to reach it with the ever-changing love and mercy of God.

For this task we discover that our human qualities are often inadequate. It is necessary that we allow ourselves to be transformed in Christ, into Christ-bearing persons, missionary disciples, messengers of a good news that we have believed in and indeed lived out in its totality.

Let us ask God for the gift of Faith, and then follow what He tells us, with all humility, but certainly also with steadfast courage and hope.

In this way not only will you reach the heart of man, of the other one, but you yourself will experience that the Lord is truly the one who “goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Dt. 31:6)

Then only will Mercy permeate all our actions, and will really transform them from simply human to divine, from being limited to far-reaching, from being temporary solutions to lasting experiences of eternal hope and true charity.

If we are to change the world, to be part of its conversion, of its “turning toward” the God of mercy, then we must first allow the God of mercy to change our own hearts.  Let us then allow ourselves to be like the Prodigal son who seeks forgiveness of his merciful Father and welcomes the embrace with which the Father longs for our return to Him as His own. ULTIMATELY, it is only because of having experienced the merciful Father that we can pass Beyond justice to Mercy toward our brothers and sisters.