QUOTATION: Atheist Self-Ownership

Nowhere that the human being makes himself the one lord of the world and owner of himself can justice exist.

--Pope Benedict XVI, Opening Mass, Synod of Bishops, October 2, 2005

QUOTATION: Justice and Mercy

Justice without mercy is cruelty. Mercy without justice is the mother of all dissolution.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Love and Justice

True love is excess of justice, excess that goes farther than justice, but never destruction of justice, which must be and must remain the basic form of love.

--Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), Introduction to Christianity, 1968

QUOTATION: Justice and Mercy

If the devil tempts me by the thought of Divine justice, I think of God's mercy ; if he tries to fill me with presumption by the thought of His mercy, I think of His justice.

--St. Ignatius Loyola, Letter 8

QUOTATION: Justice and Mercy

God has two feet, one of justice and the other of mercy. We must embrace both, lest justice separated from mercy should cause us to despair, or mercy without justice should excite in us presumption.

--St. Bernard of Clairvaux

QUOTATION: God's Mercy Won't Save You from His Justice

 

Who taught you to reason that because God was good you could sin with impunity? Such is not the teaching of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, those who listen to His voice reason thus: God is good; therefore, I must serve Him, obey Him, and love Him above all things. God is good; therefore, I will turn to Him with all my heart; I will hope for pardon, notwithstanding the number and enormity of my sins. God is good; therefore, I must be good if I would imitate Him. God is good; therefore, it would be base ingratitude in me to offend Him by sin.

Thus, the greater you represent God's goodness the more heinous are your crimes against Him. Nor will these offenses remain unpunished, for God's justice, which protects His mercy, cannot permit your sinful abuse of it to remain unavenged.

--Louis de Granada, The Sinner's Guide

QUOTATION: Justice in the Next Life

We shall also see with feelings of pleasure, the crimes and torments of the damned, in which the sanctity of the good, and the justice of God will wonderfully shine forth; for then the just will wash their hands in the blood of the wicked, as the prophet saith. And what doth "washing their hands in the blood of the wicked" signify, but that the good works of the blessed will shine more brightly, in comparison with the works of the wicked? The virginity of some will be more resplendent, when compared with the adulteries of others: and the fasts and alms-deeds of many, when compared with the gluttony and revellings of others. It will then be said: this young man was beautiful, and yet he observed perpetual chastity: this other youth was beautiful also, but not content with his own wife, he often committed adulteries and sacrileges. This man was rich and of noble extraction, and yet he fasted and prayed often, and gave abundant alms: another was equally rich and of noble extraction, but being addicted to gluttony and drunkenness, he spent his money in pleasures, so that he had nothing to give to the poor. Hence it will be, that the joy of the Just will be increased, by knowing the crimes of the wicked. At the same time, their joy will also be great, from the contemplation of the justice which will be so conspicuous, in the rewards of the blessed and the punishment of the wicked.

--St. Robert Bellarmine, The Eternal Happiness of the Saints

QUOTATION: Humility, Justice, Purity

Humility orders us in relation to God; Justice regulates us in regard to our neighbours; and Purity with regard to ourselves.

--St. Thomas Aquinas

QUOTATION: Justice and Charity

Be convinced that justice alone is never enough to solve the great problems of mankind. When justice alone is done, do not be surprised if people are hurt: the dignity of man, who is a son of God, requires much more. Charity must penetrate and accompany justice because it sweetens and deifies everything.

--St. Jose Maria Escriva, Friends of God

QUOTATION: Sin, Mercy, Judgement

Before sinning, let man fear God's justice, but after sinning, let him presume on his mercy. And let him not so fear His justice as not to be strengthened by the consolation of hope; nor so confident of His mercy as to neglect to apply to his wounds the medicine of adequate penance.

-- Pope St. Gregory I, Morals 33:23.