x – Truth and justice are paramount.
y – No, mercy and compassion are more important.
x – Mercy and compassion are meaningless without truth and justice!
y – But truth and justice are incomplete without mercy and compassion!
z – Gentlemen, gentlemen, stop arguing. You’re both right. Truth without love is shrill, and love without truth is irrational sentimentality. Like heads and tails of a coin, you need both to have something that’s worth anything.
x – You mean truth and justice are not enough?
z – They are not. We’re all imperfect and fall short of living rightly. In a fallen world, without mercy the demand for justice turns quickly into anger and hatred. Tit for tat retaliation would continue indefinitely.
y – And you mean mercy and compassion are not enough?
z – They are not. Without truth, love becomes pure sentimentality. Condoning or enabling evil out of a misplaced compassion can be very dangerous.
x & y – Then how do we solve our problem? These ideas are mutually incompatible!
z – Wrong. Stop thinking with an either/or mentality. Justice and mercy are the two ‘sides’ of love, which means they are the two sides of God. Notice that God offers both commandments and forgiveness: He commands us to act justly, and forgives us if we fail and repent. With our limited minds we tend to overemphasize one at the expense of the other. This is often what underlies the difference between the political right and left today. Love is the perfect balance of justice and mercy – for the sake of the good.
x – So I need to temper justice with mercy.
y – And I need to offer mercy when there’s contrition and a willingness to get back on the road of justice.
z – Yes, to both of you. If you seek the good of others you will be both just and merciful. And to this end, hear the words of Jesus in the gospels: “If you love me you will keep my commands…Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust…Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Jn 14:15; Mt 5:44-45, 48).