The Nature of Mercy

Thoughts on mercy and how it helps all.

Mercy is something that is often not shown to others, either due to pain in one’s life or due to anger and rage toward what another has done. Mercy is often discarded in favor of justice while many never realize that justice can be found in mercy. When I say that, I mean that justice and mercy go together and one can be found in the other because mercy is the forgiveness or compassion shown to another when you are in a position to hurt or break another. Justice is fair play or fairness. Too often, people think that justice is sending a murderer to die, a rapist to suffer the same fate as what they put upon the victim, especially if that victim was a child. But, here is the thing; many people who do these things are broken, are sick, hurt, and lost. Very lost. And where is the true justice in hurting someone that is in such a condition?

    Now, let me be clear. It is not excusing what has been done. It is not saying that what they did is okay, because it is not. However, what I am pointing out, is that things are done like this because someone made a decision, in hurt, anger, a sickness of the soul or mind, and that shedding more blood or hurting them will not make healing happen for the victims that were harmed or their families. It will not bring back a person who died, it will not restore the innocence or power that was yanked away from a rape victim/survivor, and, I admit, neither will mercy. But why cause more pain and sorrow when enough has been done? Why hurt another further when they have only acted out of their own pain, or because of something that was done to them, or out of a sickness of the mind or soul? Mercy can stop any more pain from happening, and it can also provide healing over time. Mercy can also bring true justice because of the yoke being broken.

    I say that because, when seeking justice against a person, and seeking it with an eye for an eye mentality, you would have to go so far back to where it began. It didn’t just start with that person one day; something had to happen for that person to become who they are and for them to make that choice. To find justice, with the eye for an eye mentality, you would have to go back to that person’s past, to whomever did it to them and seek their equal payment in that. And then you’d have to go back even further and further and further until it stopped. But, with things like that, there is a never ending cycle because it is an endless circle. Revenge does not help with that because you’d drive yourself crazy and also because you may hurt another indirectly with your actions and start another chain of events that hurts many people as well. It is endless and this yoke must be broken somewhere.

    When a decision is made to hurt another, free will comes into play. We have the freedom to choose what we do to another, whether to forgive another or hang on to what was done. We have so much power over one another and ourselves. The problem with free will, however, is that people are very short sighted. They only see what they want, or what was done to them, and then they act on it. They don’t see how it affects another, or the full scope of their actions. They don’t look beyond themselves and this is why decisions are made to hurt others and why it is never ending. It becomes a yoke that several generations handle in their lives, along with their decisions and choices they make. It builds and adds up, and continues and it doesn’t stop- until someone steps in and says, “Enough.”

    The nature of mercy sees free will and realizes that free will and freedom of choice affects us all. Any decision we make affects another. The nature of mercy is existentialist- an approach that emphasizes the person as a free and responsible agent for their own development through acts of the will.  Mercy, using this approach to view life and the decisions of others, opens the door for the yoke of vengeance and anger to be broken. Mercy recognizes that we are all joined together, by an invisible thread,  and that our actions can have positive or negative effects. Every action can bring about good or it can bring about bad. It depends on what you decide.

    Mercy, as love and forgiveness, is not an easy path to choose. It is far easier to hang on to anger and just wallow in it. That is not to say that you will not be angry or hurt, but it is saying that you don’t need to allow it to rule you, that you don’t need to allow it to drive your life. As with hate, vengeance can poison and embitter the spirit and the heart.