Mercy and Justice

Question I:
How mercy and justice co-exist with each other?
Mercy and justice in God are not Opposed:

It is commonly thought that justice and mercy are opposed to each other. So whenever one is
merciful, he is not just. How, then, can God manifest His justice and mercy in the same works of
creation and sanctification?

1. Mercy and justice are not opposed. Mercy is the fullness, the superabundance of justice.

We should explain that in bestowing perfections on creatures, God manifest both His justice and
mercy. We have noted in the preceding article that whatever perfection God communicates by the
act of His will is in accordance with His divine wisdom and must be, therefore befitting the nature
to which the perfection is communicated. In this sense, the communication of gifts is always good
and just. It is the work God’s of justice. Because however, such perfections remove the defect
and misery of the creature, the giving belongs to the mercy of God. God acts mercifully, not by
going against His Justice, but doing something more than what mere justice requires. Mercy
therefore, does not destroy justice. It is its fullness; it is a superabundance of justice.
An example will clarify this statement. If I were to give a creditor much more I owe him, I should
not thwart justice, but I would be liberal, generous, and merciful to him. In the same manner in
forgiving one who has done me wrong, I not only satisfy justice; I do much more than that.
Instead of balancing the wrong he has done by punishment, I give him forgiveness of the wrong,
and this is the superabundance of justice. “Mercy exalteth itself above judgment.

 One principle makes another principle proper. Justice is not proper if there is no mercy.
Mercy is not proper without justice.

Love is the natural inclination of the will to its proper object, the good. Now the first, the
principal motion of any operative potency is to its proper object. Hence, those acts of the will
which look to good, such as love and desire, must precede those, as for example, hatred
and despair, which result from the consideration of evil; for we hate an evil because it is
opposed to the good which we love.

The act of love, he explains. Has a twofold direction, a twofold inclination: 1. Toward the
good one wills somebody (self of another;) 1. Toward him (self for another) to whom one
wills the good.

Barbaric

i. Justice in God is not a habit; it is an act.

ii. There is justice in God: Justice, by which one renders to another what is his
due, in God signifies not commutative but distributive justice. In God, justice is
founded not on the rational creature’s rights, but upon divine wisdom in this
 way: Having willed a rational creature exist, God owes it to Himself, to His
wisdom, to provide the necessary means to the end.
iii. God is Justice Itself: The act of the divine will by which, in accordance with divine
wisdom, God provides the rational creature with the necessary means to its end, is
identified with subsisting “ To Be.” Hence not only is God just, but He is justice.
iv. Justice in God may be called truth: God’s justice establishes an order conformed to
His wisdom which is the law of His justice. Hence, the Justice which establishes
such conformity may be fittingly called truth.

Article III: Divine Mercy.

2. Mercy is the act of the will by which God alleviates the misery, the defects of rational
creatures. God is merciful. He is Mercy Itself.
3. Mercy and justice are not opposed. Mercy is the fullness, the superabundance of
justice.
4. Goodness, justice, Liberality and Mercy are manifested in the works of God, in giving
perfections to His creatures.

Question number II:

Since God is merciful, can we do whatever we like? Explain

 God is merciful, it is true; yet how many does He daily condemn to the torments
of hell! God is merciful but He is also just. He is merciful for those repent of their
sins, but not to those who abuse His mercy to offend Him more freely.
O God, how often have I done this! How often have I offended Thee because
Thou wast good and merciful!

O Christian! When the devil again tempts you to sin, telling you that God is merciful,
remember that the Lord showeth mercy to them that fear Him, but not to them who
despise Him.

-St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori