Mercy is the Goal
Justice is not the goal
Justice is not the goal of life. Charity and Mercy are our final goal. Justice gives to others what we owe them and does not deprive them of what they have a right to. Justice makes sure that when I am pursuing my good I don’t do it in such a way that harms your good.
But this implies there is a difference, a tension, a separation between your good and my good. Charity bridges the gap – charity makes your good the same as my good.
Charity
How can charity make your good the same as my good? Jesus explains in the parable about workers in a vineyard?
Some people are picked up at the beginning of the day to work, some people are picked up in the middle of the day to work, some people are picked up at the end of the day to work and everybody gets paid the same at the end. And the people who’ve been working all day, they say, “Well that doesn’t seem just, that doesn’t seem equitable. I mean, how come their good seems to be better than our good? What’s going on there?”
Imagine that you’re in an immigrant family, it’s two brothers, they have their wives, their kids, and their parents all in the same house and they’re just scraping to get by, these two brothers. And every morning they go to different stops and they hope that somebody picks them up, right, in a truck to go work. They just hope, they wait in parking lots, they wait at gas stations. They wanna work but they can’t and they’ve got all the people in this house to support. So suppose you and your brother go out one morning and you get dropped off at 7/11 and he gets dropped off at a gas station and as soon as you get dropped off someone comes in a truck and says, “Do you wanna work?” You say, “Yes please.” You get in the car, he takes you to the vineyard, you start working. And you say, “This is great! I’m gonna have a whole day's work, this is really going to help us.” But then as you’re working you notice that every hour or so more people are brought to work and every time you hope that your brother is there. And he’s never there. You keep looking and, “ah he didn’t make it, I wish my brother were here. Then we could both be working and we could both take all this home.” And finally at the end of the day you see your brother at the last hour, the last hour before quitting time he shows up and starts working. You say, “Hey, this is great, this is great. I’m gonna get a full day’s wage and he’s at least gonna get an hours wage. We put that together, that’s really gonna help.” And then, you see not only did you get a full day’s wage but he got a full day’s wage. Oh you’re so happy, this is so much better than you expected! Why? Because he’s your brother and what he has you have and what you have he has and you’re both in it together. You’re both trying to scrape together as much as you can to support the wives and the kids and the parents. And you are thrilled because there is no division between your good and his good.
What we learn from this parable
In this parable, what happens? Well the money he makes is money in your pocket and the money you make is money in his pocket. When he benefits, you benefit because you share what you have with each other, help each other and benefit from one another. You recognize all of human life is actually a family project and every little bit helps. And you celebrate because you love your brother.
In reality, we are all brothers and God is the Father of us All. This means we are obliged to give other people more than they have the right to expect of us. And when we do – we all benefit.
Our obligation to give and forgive
4 We are obliged to give and to forgive even when the other person is not entitled to receive generosity or forgiveness for two reasons:
Solidarity - We are all in this together and society won’t survive unless we are generous.
Mercy - God has been generous and merciful to me, therefore, I should be generous and merciful to others
CCC 1939 Solidarity is the virtue of sharing material and spiritual goods
Solidarity is founded on the fact that we are all in this together. We are one human family. We are all invited into the family of God. What affects one person, affects all people for good and for bad. The recognition that if I do good for you, it results in good for me and for the whole world. If I do evil to you , it results in evil for me and for the whole world
This should inspire me to the appropriate response. I should share with you my material and spiritual goods
Ghandi said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
So, let’s be merciful and take care of one another, otherwise none of us will make it long-term
The reason for mercy
GOD HAS BEEN IMMEASURABLY GENEROUS/MERCIFUL TO US, AND DEMANDS WE REPAY HIM BY BEING GENEROUS/MERCIFUL TO ONE ANOTHER
So justice to God, requires more than justice to neighbor.. The great paradox of the parable of the unmerciful servant, and of the Christian life, is that we are MORALLY OBLIGED to give others MORE than they are MORALLY JUSTIFIED in expecting
And praise God – that prevents pride on the part of any Christian giver, and prevents ingratitude on the part of any recipient. And that’s how you want generosity to look. So let’s go live generously and gratefully, towards God and one another. Because in Christ, justice means generosity and gratitude. Which is a lot more than just rights or entitlements.