[Answering Atheism Tuesday]
As we finish our meditation on the woman caught in adultery, we’re looking at the how Christ exemplifies the powerful combination of humility, justice and mercy.
Today we look at justice and mercy.
Needless to say, our modern world is muy muy confused when it comes to justice and mercy. Much of that error comes from a Marxist/materialist/atheist view that has slithered into society.
Paul Johnson (Modern Times) has this to say, “There is, indeed no place for mercy in determinist systems such as Marxism. Mercy, like free will, is an anti-determinist idea… So-called “history,” as the dynamic of Marxism, has no mercy because it is an impersonal idea and mercy implies a person. The notion of ‘socialism with the human face,’ though superficially attractive, is self-contradictory in terms of Marxism. Mercy is thus greater than justice and it can be so because it is non-deterministic and embodies free will.”
What about justice? Here’s a pithy, uplifting perspective from Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “For Marxism there is no reason for not killing or torturing or exploiting a human person if his liquidation or torture or slave labor will advance the historical process.”
In our Judeo-Christian heritage, virtues such as justice and mercy presuppose such things as free will, absolute good, and transcendent human relationships (they are transcendent because we are connected to one another through our Creator). Atheistic ideologies (such as Marxism) flatten and dehumanize society. There is no true justice because there is no objective right or wrong. And if there is no justice, there is no mercy – by which we willingly give to others what we are due.
Here’s where things get really interesting. Recall that satan always imitates God – but in a way completely opposed to God’s plan. For example, in heaven the choirs of angels are ordered by degrees of service – the higher angels serving the lower. In hell, the ranks of demons are ordered by degrees of tyranny – the higher demons tormenting the lower.
Turning to justice and mercy – the Marxist/atheistic view of them is really satan’s view. And what satan desires is a world devoid of justice and mercy. Thus, he so deforms them that ultimately there is neither justice nor mercy – there is only cruelty.
Curiously, in God there is ultimately neither justice nor mercy. St. Augustine (amongst others) teaches that in God the two become one, there is no distinction. Mercy is just. And justice is merciful. Justice and mercy simply dissolve into a simple expression of love for the other.
Our takeaway is that justice and mercy are a very real and vital part of our relationship with God and one another. We should all be held justly accountable for our actions. And we should all experience the grace of giving and receiving mercy.
And the best way for that to happen is for us to start from a place of humbly asking the Holy Spirit to guide us in justice and fill us with mercy.
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: The Woman Caught in Adultery (John 8:1-11)
Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”
They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”