In this episode we explore the true meaning of God’s mercy. This to avoid two extremes: rigorism, which excludes mercy for the sake of justice and laxism, even more spread in our days, which refuses justice for the sake of mercy. Justice and mercy cannot be set one against the other for the fact that, according to St Bonaventure, whatever God does is done by virtu of the abundance of His goodness. Therefore, for the Seraphic Doctor, while justice is “the fittingness of divine good”, mercy is “the abundance of divine goodness.” Justice is the presupposition, mercy the completion. There can never be mercy without justice, nor justice without mercy.
Comments are closed.