The Point: Spring 2018

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
I have this personal philosophy that each creature in this world deserves to be treated with respect. Growing up,
whenever we found a lost or injured animal, we would pick it up and take it to a wildlife center so that it could have the
chance to live out its life. That desire to protect and preserve, extend kindness and equity is why I feel so strongly about
justice and mercy, which are the themes of this spring issue.
Justice is hard to define because, as Pascal explains in his “Pensées,” human justice is shaped by custom. In society,
customs often dictate what is just or unjust. Though what goes into formulating justice for society may stem from an
intrinsic or instructed morality, human attempts to create just systems are flawed. Sometimes the systems do well; other
times they do not. Sometimes, man makes something thinking it is satisfactory, and then later realizes he has missed
something entirely—something vital to justice and mercy.
That is why justice is hard to maintain because so often it is based in a human understanding of it, which may be driven
by personal ambitions, perspectives and beliefs, some on course and some off course with the truth. Established systems
help, but again, they are imperfect.
Yet shining through are certain undeniable things about justice, which are often spotlighted by its converse: injustice.
When we observe something wrong, often we know that it is so. Injustices show us that what we are looking for is
justice, or for something to be made right. Justice, what is fair, may be hard to pinpoint in the flawed state in which we
exist, but it is there and worth our time in pursuing.
Mercy is perhaps a little easier to explain, yet also rare. Mercy is extending kindness to someone when you could instead
harm them. It occurs when you have the power to hurt, and you instead choose to love and forgive. These are the moments
that really count in life: deciding to live in compassion when it is hard to do so, when it costs you something, is
no easy task—but it is a worthy one, a dignifying one. The world would likely be the better for deeds such as these.
And that is why this particular issue focuses on these two particular words and concepts because they matter. In a world
full of injustices and cruelties, these virtues are the beauties with which to answer them.
“Cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.” -Isaiah 1:16-7, ESV
Justice clearly has a important place in living a right life. And mercy seems closely connected here, as well. Acting in
justice and obedience is what a true fast looks like to God (Isaiah 58). And that is what a proper life looks like, too:
“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.” -Micah 6:8, NIV
Monica Kochan