Justice and Mercy

Last three weeks was the trial of my distant cousin Mat for killing his grandmother, my grandmother's niece Dot, who we traveled with a few times. He killed her in February 2008 but reported her as missing and then confessed in March.
It went to the jury Friday and they returned the guilty verdict (guilty of murder and elder abuse, 25 years to life) at the end of the day Wednesday.

It never seemed that he was remorseful, but sometimes it's difficult to see inside another person's psyche. For me, I realized I'd been carrying around this great anger along with grief.

So I have been wrestling so with the concept of forgiveness and I think I understand more about justice, mercy, forgiveness & grace. At least to explain it to my Baptist-raised self.

Justice and injustice are what we receive when we live in the world of the Old Covenant; the 10 commandments are not God's whims, but the expression of the metaphysics of the created world, actions & consequences. When we repent (turning around) there is an actual movement in our lives & experience to live in the world of the New Covenant, Jesus' covenant, where the law is love and the consequence of love is mercy, i.e., forgiveness.

In the grace of God we experience that movement from one world to another; we are gifted with a new life, new hearts & minds, that we may experience the world of the Holy Spirit where miracles abound. This world of praise and wonder, gratitude and love, is the Kingdom of Heaven, at hand to us in each moment that we let go and let God be God.

When we are full of God's love is the only time that we can look on sinners (including ourselves) with compassion & mercy in our hearts...

If I look at Mat or anyone from this kingdom of love in God's heart, I can't hold on to judgement and anger; I can't say I don't have to forgive because that person hasn't repented.