Justice or Mercy

A pal of mine was recently in the city and that made for some company during the last few weekends. Last weekend I decided to accompany him to a church ( I've always been awed by the concept of churches & the aura of tranquility that surrounds them. Had been longing to visit one for long ).

The priest was delivering a sermon on a topic that I found really interesting - "Whether God's retribution is based on Justice or Mercy" ?

Interesting in the sense that people usually believe that God's retribution is justice based. The old adage - "You'll reap the rewards of the deeds you sow" rings a bell here. In fact, if you have been wronged - you silently put the onus on God to punish the guilty.

The priest then went on to explain how God looks upon fellow beings as his creations and never intends to harm them. Justice is something devised by humans for fellow humans. Something that we humans fail to understand is that God wants his creations to co-exist in peace & all his fellow beings to be benevolent and kind. For this to happen, "Mercy" has to be the cornerstone of his actions.

I have a queer feeling that this is one of those topics that might be debated endlessly. Justice is important too. Historically, Plato had included justice as one of the four cardinal virtues ( along with temperance, courage, and wisdom ). However I feel - justice has to go hand in hand with mercy. Both have to be balanced equally. Todays society & media have placed too much onus on justice. Some element of mercy needs to be incorporated in the same too.

Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.
- Lao-Tzu