Activist Shane Claiborne lays out the distinct choice we can make to draw on grace or vengeance when seeking justice:
Violence is contagious. Violence begets violence. A rude look is exchanged for a cold shoulder. A middle finger for a honked horn. Hatred begets hatred. Pick up the sword and die by the sword. You kill us and we’ll kill you. There is a contagion of violence in the world; it’s spreading like a disease.
But grace is also contagious. An act of kindness inspires another act of kindness. A random smile is exchanged for an opened door. Helping someone carry their laundry or groceries makes them nicer. Randomly paying someone’s toll in the car behind you invites them to pay it forward. A single act of forgiveness can feel like it heals the world. Grace begets grace. Love rubs off on those who are loved….
There’s nowhere you can see the battle of grace and disgrace waged more vehemently than in the criminal justice system. When it comes to words like “justice,” people can say the same thing and mean something completely different.
Capital punishment offers us one version of justice. There is a sensibility to it: evil should not go without consequence. And there is a theology behind it: “An eye for an eye … a tooth for a tooth” [Exodus 21:23–24].
Yet grace offers us another version of justice. Grace makes room for redemption. Grace offers us a vision for justice that is restorative and dedicated to healing the wounds of injustice. But the grace thing is hard work. It takes faith—because it dares us to believe that not only can victims be healed, but so can the victimizers. It is not always easy to believe that love is more powerful than hatred, life more powerful than death, and that people can be better than the worst thing they’ve done.
These two versions of justice compete for our allegiance. One leads to death. The other can lead to life, and to healing and redemption and other beautiful things.
Mercy is a natural outflowing of grace:
It’s been said, “Mercy is not getting what you do deserve, and grace is getting what you don’t deserve.” Both are beautiful, but both can also seem like a betrayal of justice. That’s why justice can’t just come out of our heads, but it also has to flow from our hearts. Grace and mercy are things, just like forgiveness, that exist in the context of evil, and in contrast to it. When all is well, grace and mercy are hard to notice. But when things are rough, they are hard to ignore. They shine brightly. Just as light shines in the darkness, grace is radiant next to evil.
Reference:
Shane Claiborne, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It’s Killing Us (HarperOne, 2016), 5, 7–8.
Image Credit: Jordan Heath, untitled (detail), 2018, photo, New Zealand, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. At the meeting of river and lake, we see the great watershed of God’s mercy— justice rolling wide and without vengeance, drawing us into a love larger than our own grievances and inviting us toward the common good.
Story from Our Community:
I have been reading the Daily Meditations for many years now. I first connected with Father Richard through reading Everything Belongs. Every time I read it, I learn something new. My most impactful learning comes through the theme of “restorative justice” versus “retributive justice.” It has changed the way I think about things in today’s divided world and our country in particular. It is a great guidepost before reacting and judging. Thank you for being a helpful guide every day.
—Mark M.
