Justice - grace - mercy

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Vera_Ljuba

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A short while ago (a few days or weeks) someone quoted a priest, who said:

Justice is when you get what you deserve.
Grace is when you get what you DON’T deserve.
Mercy is when you DON’T get what you deserve.

I think it is an excellent summary. Your immediate thoughts? And your thoughts after you contemplated these propositions?
 
My first impression is it’s a concise, and to-the-point statement on justice, grace, and mercy. I like it.

Mary.
 
I’m not sure I like how justice and mercy seem mutually exclusive in that example. Perhaps it makes a good quick summary, but I don’t think it captures the reality of the situation.
 
Wesrock said:
I’m not sure I like how justice and mercy seem mutually exclusive in that example.
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It is not an example, it is the definition of these terms. And they do not “seem” to be mutually exclusive, they “are” mutually exclusive.

Formally, if “G” is what you get, and “D” is what you deserve, then:

Justice: G = D
Grace: G > D
Mercy: G < D

But you have a point, if you feel uneasy. Whoever was responsible for accumulating the alleged attributes of God, did not think very deeply. They just wanted “heap” as many good attributes on God as they could, and did not think about the inconsistency of the different attributes.

You have two options now: 1) either discard the concept that “God is BOTH perfectly just and infinitely merciful”, or 2) stick to your guns, and degrade God to the status of a “married bachelor”, who cannot exist, having two mutually contradictory attributes.

The choice is yours.
 
Actually I do see a scenario where both justice and mercy can be satisfied:

A monetary debt is owed.
The debtor cannot pay it back.
A third party pays the debt or an arrangement is made that the debtor pays in installments.

Justice is served because the creditor is paid back.
Mercy because the debtor does not have to pay a debt that they cannot afford.

This is similar to why we believe that the crucifixion had to happen:
An understanding of substitutionary atonement that is compatible with the Catholic faith is known as vicarious satisfaction. According to this view, Christ allowed himself to be killed by men (not by God) and by allowing himself to be killed he offered his life to God as a sacrifice of love. Because of the infinite merit of the sacrifice (due to his divinity), the Father accepted the sacrifice as making satisfaction for the sins of the world. Christ thus made satisfaction for us vicariously but was not “punished by God,” who due to his omniscience cannot regard an infinitely holy Son as anything other than infinitely holy.
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From Jimmy Akin on ewtn.com/v/experts/showmessage.asp?number=323759
 
The summary proposed seems isolated and self-centered.

Justice works with a will that was made to be a gift. Reading the essays of Josef Pieper, I gathered that a morality that is strictly based on cause points to an immature personhood. No one can be just without prudence, and no one can be prudent unless they have a general orientation to the virtues of Justice, Temperance, and Fortitude. There are no recipes or techniques in the moral life. Each person is an individual and has to discern reality and apply the virtues based on objective truth. For the conscience, an aspect of prudence, has to be informed.

Grace gives the invitation toward the journey to truth. Mercy is the intention to come to the need of the one who lives in falsehood. When love is done by the informed conscience, the truth is passed to others. And when love is incorporated with the truth by acceptance of grace - justice is done, and mercy confirms it to the recipient.
 
Vera_Ljuba said:
A short while ago (a few days or weeks) someone quoted a priest, who said:

Justice is when you get what you deserve.
Grace is when you get what you DON’T deserve.
Mercy is when you DON’T get what you deserve.

I think it is an excellent summary. Your immediate thoughts? And your thoughts after you contemplated these propositions?
Click to expand...
Immediate thoughts: I like it!

Thoughts after contemplation: I like it!
 
Vera_Ljuba said:
You have two options now: 1) either discard the concept that “God is BOTH perfectly just and infinitely merciful”, or 2) stick to your guns, and degrade God to the status of a “married bachelor”, who cannot exist, having two mutually contradictory attributes.

The choice is yours.
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I choose #3:

God is just and merciful when He doesn’t give us what we deserve. What is merciful to us is just for Him.

But hey… nice try. 😉
 
God is both infinitely just and infinitely merciful.
“Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my mercy to be revealed.” (Isa 56:1, LXX) The Prophet indicates mercy as the reason for justice. For justice is missing in a fallen world, and it is merciful to come to the need of any void of good, only in the context of a just deed. In the same act of mercy, He gives justice.
 
Vera_Ljuba said:
A short while ago (a few days or weeks) someone quoted a priest, who said:

Justice is when you get what you deserve.
Grace is when you get what you DON’T deserve.
Mercy is when you DON’T get what you deserve.

I think it is an excellent summary. Your immediate thoughts? And your thoughts after you contemplated these propositions?
Click to expand...
AMEN!👍
 
Justice pertains to the will. Grace pertains to the soul. Mercy pertains to the person.

The will assigns the power of justice. The soul responds to the prompting of grace. And mercy fills the needs of the body and soul.
 
Gorgias said:
I choose #3:

God is just and merciful when He doesn’t give us what we deserve. What is merciful to us is just for Him.

But hey… nice try. 😉
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If everything else fails, introduce your own definition… and convince yourself that you did not. Doublethink at its finest.
 
Wesrock said:
I’m not sure I like how justice and mercy seem mutually exclusive in that example. Perhaps it makes a good quick summary, but I don’t think it captures the reality of the situation.
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Who said they are mutually exclusive?
 
Vera_Ljuba said:
A short while ago (a few days or weeks) someone quoted a priest, who said:

Justice is when you get what you deserve.
Grace is when you get what you DON’T deserve.
Mercy is when you DON’T get what you deserve.

I think it is an excellent summary. Your immediate thoughts? And your thoughts after you contemplated these propositions?
Click to expand...
No Marcus, Jesus believed all of it happened. Certainly He didn’t get it wrong.
 
Vera_Ljuba said:
A short while ago (a few days or weeks) someone quoted a priest, who said:

Justice is when you get what you deserve.
Grace is when you get what you DON’T deserve.
Mercy is when you DON’T get what you deserve.

I think it is an excellent summary. Your immediate thoughts? And your thoughts after you contemplated these propositions?
Click to expand...
It’s catchy, like the song Arius sang. It’s also enormously problematic, like the song Arius sang.

Justice is right order among rational beings. So the first line is basically okay, though incomplete.

Grace is a gift of God in addition to nature that heals, elevates, and/or perfects that nature. The second line could include being robbed, cheated, killed, whatever.

Mercy is the removal of an affliction. The third line allows for oppression, chattel slavery, starvation, etc.
 
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