“God’s justice is his mercy.”
This statement of St. Augustine, taken from his 400-page treatise on Christ’s sermon on the Mount, is at once both simple to understand and replete with meaning. In a sense, his words sum up a key element of God’s nature, but taken from a different perspective, they can seem almost contradictory. How best may we then conceptualize this key aspect of God’s nature?
To begin from the Word of God, let us examine an Old Testament passage referenced at many graduations and featured on many gravestones: Micah Chapter 6. In this, one sees a gradual progression—first are detailed the mercies of God, followed by the punishment for Israel’s offenses, after which comes a list of Israel’s grievances against God.
“O my people, what have I done to thee… I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and delivered thee out of the house of slaves: and I sent before thy face Moses, and Aaron, and Mary.”
It is in this context also that one reads the command of God to “do judgment, (judicium, in St. Jerome’s translation) and to love mercy (misericordiam,) and to walk solicitous with thy God,”[1] after which is detailed the punishment of Israel for failing to obey the laws of God:
“Thou shalt eat, but shalt not be filled: and thy humiliation shall be in the midst of thee: and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not save: and those whom thou shalt save, I will give up to the sword.“
Finally comes the exposition of the ways in which Israel failed:
“For thou hast kept the statutes of Amri, and all the works of the house of Achab: and thou hast walked according to their wills, that I should make thee a desolation, and the inhabitants thereof a hissing, and you shall bear the reproach of my people.”
Reading this, one might wonder whether God’s mercy and justice are separate from each other, in the sense that justice is present in certain actions, but mercy exists only in others. St. Thomas Aquinas, writing in the 13th century, responds to this assertion in his typical Scholastic manner. To borrow a phrase from modern debate parlance, he first steel-man’s the argument, giving it the strongest articulation he can find.
He writes, “It seems that not in every work of God are mercy and justice. For some works of God are attributed to mercy, as the justification of the ungodly; and others to justice, as the damnation of the wicked. Hence it is said: ‘Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy (James 2:13).’ Therefore [it would seem,] not in every work of God do mercy and justice appear.”
Aquinas goes on to clarify, however, citing Psalm 24:10, that “all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth” and that “mercy and truth are necessarily found in all God’s works, if mercy be taken to mean the removal of any kind of defect … the work of divine justice (a corollary to truth) always presupposes the work of mercy; and is founded thereupon.”
Therefore, we can see, that as Aquinas continues on to explain in great detail, although certain actions of God appear to tend more towards justice and others more towards mercy, from the ultimate perspective of the Divine Actor, all His acts are imbued equally with both of these qualities, as they are both equally proper to His nature.
That these dual qualities of justice and mercy are present in the nature of God and, by extent, are manifested by His direct actions that can be seen from several Scripture passages in addition to the one presented by St. Thomas. In the book of Baruch, we read that “in the light of God’s Majesty… Mercy and Justice… cometh from Him.” This verse provides further support for Aquinas’ explanation, that mercy and justice are equally present “in the light of God’s majesty” (from the divine perspective, as proper to His nature, even if not directly perceivable on our part).
As a further demonstration of the symbiotic nature of these two key elements, we see them both appear as key conditions for God’s covenantal relationship with Israel in the Old Testament (and His Holy Catholic Church, the New Jerusalem properly realized in the New Testament,) as well as a framework for how His followers across all time periods ought to interact with those around them.
In regard to the first point, we see in the book of Hosea, God’s promise to His people. His covenant is founded on the following principles: for the Lord says, “I will make a covenant… And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations. And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.” In this passage we see not only the necessity of these conditions for the covenant itself, we see also the crucial role that these play in the knowledge and love of God, a lesson as true if not more now under the sacraments of the New Covenant as it was under the laws of the Old.
Concerning the second point, the necessity of justice and mercy as a framework for one’s interactions, we see again in the book of Hosea, the command of the Lord, “Sow for yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy.” We see also an element of natural reward to those who practice these key virtues as well. In the book of Proverbs, we read that he who acts in accordance with justice and mercy shall find “life, justice, and glory.”
When we consider in sum the words of Sacred Scripture, illuminated by the sainted doctors Augustine and Aquinas, what we can clearly see is the duality of justice and mercy in the nature and the acts of God. Furthermore, we can see also from Scripture the importance of cultivating these virtues on the part of the believer, both in regard to his sanctification before God, and his interactions with his fellow man.
Let us conclude then, as we began, with the thought of St. Augustine – this time regarding the implementation of these key virtues in our own lives. For, as St. Thomas cites St. Augustine to demonstrate, it is particularly important we remember that mercy is a virtuous act “in so far as that movement of the soul is obedient to reason,” and when it “is bestowed furthermore without violating justice.”
