3. Not Mere Justice but Merciful Justice
There can be a tendency to view justice and mercy as contradictory. This arises from the fact that some people tend to see mercy as “leniency” and “justice as strictness”[13] and hence as opposed to mercy. Pope Francis has clearly underscored the inseparable link between mercy and justice by asserting that the two are not “contradictory realities, but two dimensions of a single reality that unfolds progressively until it culminates in the fullness of love”[14]So much of the political discourse surrounding refugee and migrant issues today tends to separate justice from mercy and put an emphasis on the former while neglecting the latter. Hence,discriminative laws, securing borders, investing in electronic fences and getting excessively worried about having jobs taken away by migrants, become ways of ensuring justice for the citizens at the expense of the forced migrant – the undeserving foreigner. Very little discussion focuses on a fundamental question: suppose I were a refugee or a migrant how would I want to be treated? The question remains fundamental because it moves us beyond an external challenge to the use of a language that speaks close to our hearts. It moves the discourse a step from external laws to the internal logic of compassionate love.Compassionate not because I am superhuman but because I cannot remain blind or deaf to a person in dire need. The ensuing imperative invites us to reason and act with a different logic- that of God’s unconditional love. It is with this logic that Pope Francis invited all those who would enter through the Door of Mercy to “experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instils hope.”[15]
Paradoxically, even when international and domestic laws provide policies and guidelines on how to be hospitable to refugees and migrants, too often states choose to truncate these laws and formulate new ones that best serve narrow interests at the expense of the lives of thousands of men, women and innocent children fleeing violence and death. We have seen this in Europe where refugee laws and international laws have been replaced by closed borders to keep Syrian and African refugees away. Even though the principle of justice calls us to give each his or her due, mercy invites us to a higher value – looking into the eyes of a refugee and responding to his or her need with compassion. Francis has called mercy “the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life.”[16] Looking sincerely does not admit of malice towards another person. Mercy then in the pope’s words invites each person to look at the refugees sincerely, understand their plight and respond with sincere hearts towards their needs. Labelling refugees as migrants, as Europe has done, is a deliberate refusal to take responsibility by choosing a less legally binding term to call people fleeing persecution, war and violence. It is a refusal to look intently into their eyes,name them by their true legal status, and respond to their legitimate needs.
The invitation to be merciful as the heavenly father echoes the psalmist who speaks of God as rich in mercy and abounding in kindness. In deed, “when a man rich in mercy has nothing to give to the poor, he gives him his [or her] love; and his [or her] heart and thus becomes a relative of the one who lives in misery. In that experience, man encounters the best part of his fellow human beings, that humanity not disfigured by evil, and in his fellow humans he recognizes and recovers his own humanity.”[17] This recovery of who we are gets lost when in the face of misery, instead of seeing a fellow human being in need, we see a person bent on taking what we have. Greed rather than sharing takes center stage and all kinds of walls – ideological as well as real – find their place in the face of the crisis of forced migration.
Mercy invites us to dismantle walls of hatred and greed in order to build bridges of compassion and love. Mercy is “the bridge that connects God and [human beings], opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.”[18] An invitation of this nature touches the core of individuals but it must also radically disturb the consciences of political leaders and policy makers whose decisions make refugees cry out for mercy. The Church as a conscience of society must seek to dialogue with its members in political leadership in order to avert painful decisions that affect lives of thousands of innocent people. Here it is not only mercy and justice that must embrace,as the psalmist declares; also,mercy and compassion must do the same. Before making decisions such as Austria’s abandonment of an open door policy in favor of a European fortress championed by the country’s interior minister,political leaders must first reflect how their decisions impact negatively on the lives of refugees. While it must be costly to host refugees, better approaches aimed at addressing the financial hurdles must be sought rather than making decisions that aggravate the already precarious situation of refugees.
Armed conflict remains a major cause of internal and cross-border massive flights of people in Africa. These conflicts cannot merely be resolved by recourse to “retributive justice,” to reiterate the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.[19] This form of justice can only lead to unending cycles of retaliatory violence, as has been the case in Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. The logic of mercy, as opposed to what Martha Minow has called “the logic of revenge,”[20] appeals to another form of justice, namely, restorative justice. This form of justice seeks to build bridges, mend broken relationships and create what Archbishop Tutu calls a risk-taking business of engaging in reconciliation, peace, forgiveness and compassion.[21] Without restorative justice, Tutu believes, there would be no forgiveness, and without forgiveness there would be no future.[22] Forgiveness is one of the spiritual works of mercy that Pope Francis has invited us not to forget. While it may not be easy, it is indispensable for the restoration of harmony in the world.
Understood in light of the above, mercy assumes a very practical dimension derived from God’s unconditional love for everyone, the reception of which empowers and impels us to be as merciful as God is. In imitation of God’s merciful love for refugees, rather than looking at their past with vengeful feelings,they would – without forgetting what happened to them –remember the broken past without seeking revenge, using the lens of one who does not count our guilt. Just like forgiveness, mercy is a journey but one that can be travelled and one that South Africa managed to travel, despite the potholes, hills, and valleys its people had to traverse. At the end of such a journey one can look back and in the words of Archbishop Tutu say, true “reconciliation…is a risky undertaking but in the end it is worthwhile, because in the end dealing with a real situation helps bring real healing. Spurious reconciliation can bring only spurious healing.”[23] The contrary of what happened to South Africa is what we witness in many countries that have suffered atrocities by chosing revenge rather than forgiveness. South Sudan comes readily to mind. The end result are lost lives, lost homes, malnourished populations, depleted economies, abandoned dreams, wasted years, wounded hearts and, above all, endless movements of people forced to flee their homelands. Let mercy and compassion be our path in pursuit of a sane world.
Conclusion
In this essay I have attempted to reflect on the theme of mercy from the perspective of refugees. Rather than perceive refugees as mere objects of mercy, based on a reflection on their experiences, I have argued that, given the many travails and tribulations they have gone through, they are privileged and true agents of mercy and reconciliation. Like other people in their condition of suffering they are our teachers and guides towards the vocation of mercy modeled on God’s nature and action.
[13] Joseph Lobo, SJ, “Mercy and Justice: The Warp and Woof of Human Existence” in Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, Vol. 80/4 April 2016, 33.
[14] MV, no. 20.
[15] Misericordiae Vultus, no. 3.
[16] Misericordiae Vultus, no 2.
[17] Pontifical Council for the Promotion of New Evangelization, Mercy in the Fathers of the Church Nairobi: Paulines Publications Africa (with permission), 2016, 36.
[18] Misercordiae Vultus, no. 2.
[19] Desmond Mpilo Tutu, No Future Without Forgiveness,New York: Doubleday, 1999, 260.
[20] Martha Minow, Between Vengeance and Forgiveness, Boston: Beacon Press, 1998, 11.
[21] Tutu, 268-269.
[22] Tutu, 260.
[23] Tutu, 270.