The True Meaning of Mercy

As we enter into the Jubilee Year of Mercy which Pope Francis proclaimed from Dec 8, 2015 to November 20, 2016, some reflection on exactly what mercy is and what it is not might be helpful.

Is mercy a mystery?

This question usually arises in connection with the attributes of God. We know that God is all powerful, all knowing, all present, etc.  But for some people a dilemma arises when they wonder how God can be all just and all merciful at the same time.  Since the two virtues appear to be mutually exclusive, folks generally conclude that this is a mystery. We should point out that there are genuine mysteries in our Catholic faith. A mystery is something we profess to be true even though we do not understand it. Here are three examples:

1.    The Trinity. There is only one God but there are three persons in God.

2.    The Eucharist. At Mass, the bread and wine are changed into the real Body and Blood of Christ.

3.    The Resurrection. Three days after Christ died, he rose to life.

These are genuine mysteries.  However, how God can be both just and merciful at the same time is not a mystery provided we understand what is really meant by each of these virtues.  The best examples come from Sacred Scripture itself.

The parable of same wages—Matthew 20:1-16

At the end of a hot day all the laborers received the same wage whether they had worked for 8 hours or for only 1 hour. Those who had worked all day complained because they felt they had been treated unjustly. The owner of the vineyard assured them that he had been fair. He reminded them that they had agreed to a daily rate contract and he insisted that he was free to be liberal with his money by giving the same wage to those who had worked for only one hour.  In other words, the complainers had mistaken generosity for injustice.

The Verdict of Guilt or Innocence

In civil court, convicted people can throw themselves on the mercy of the court and if the judge decides to reduce their sentence, then the judge is not being unfair. The judge is being generous. And judges have the discretionary power to do this. The fact that the convict has been found guilty satisfies the demands of justice. But mercy is the ability to go beyond fairness to being bighearted. Although this may not appear fair to the victims of the crime, nevertheless the virtue of justice is satisfied by the guilty verdict. Sentencing is something else. 

The Sentencing or Retribution

For almost every infraction, a judge has latitude when it comes to sentencing. Sentencing has to do with the amount of payback required, not with the verdict of guilt or innocence. We might wonder, is a complete pardon fair?  Yes. The verdict remains “guilty” and it is the verdict that fulfills the cry for justice. A complete pardon from retribution is a generous dismissal of any required payback but it is not a reversal of the wrongdoing.

Mercy and Forgiveness

Is mercy the same as forgiveness? No. Mercy is not the same as forgiveness. Forgiveness does not require forfeiting restitution. A person may forgive an offender and still demand recompense for damages done. If someone wrecks our car, we can forgive them but still demand that they pay for the repairs. In other words, even the virtue of forgiveness does not eliminate guilt.  On the contrary, before one person can forgive another, some wrong has to have taken place. Otherwise there would be nothing to forgive. 

We see this in the sacrament of reconciliation. When we go to confession, God, through the ministry of the Church and the words of absolution by a priest, does forgive our sins but we still have to perform a penance in restitution for the wrong that was done. The amount of restitution required is where the virtue of mercy comes into play.

The woman caught in adultery—John 8:1-11

When Jesus was left standing alone with the woman caught in adultery, he never told her she was innocent. In fact he strongly charged her to avoid infidelity, which in itself, indicates that Jesus, like the rabbis, found her guilty. His refusal to condemn her to death did not revoke her guilt. Rather his merciful, generous act of not condemning her merely reduced the legitimate sentence of stoning to a lesser restitution, namely the freedom to sin no more; a payback that may have been just as difficult to render.  

What Is Mercy?

Mercy then, is more closely associated with benevolence than with justice.  Here we can begin to appreciate the true meaning of mercy. In God’s eyes, mercy has less to do with equity and everything to do with generosity. To recap:  Justice is served when a verdict of guilt or innocence is passed. Forgiveness is served when guilt is absolved and restitution is required. Mercy is served when the required restitution is substantially reduced or eliminated altogether out of sheer kindness.

For Holy Homework, let’s select and perform one of the Church’s 14 spiritual and corporal works of mercy. By way of reminder, the corporal and spiritual works of mercy are:

To feed the hungry                              To instruct the ignorant

To give drink to the thirsty                  To counsel the doubtful

To clothe the naked                             To admonish sinners

To shelter the homeless                        To bear wrongs patiently

To visit the imprisoned                         To forgive offenses willingly

To comfort the sick                               To comfort the afflicted

To bury the dead                                  To pray for the living and the dead