Desire for others what you desire for yourself. Mercy is an action taken on behalf of another. In this way it is an operational and not a static affair. One has to act to be merciful. But, the prerequisite for mercy is humility or the capacity to set aside your own interests if at least momentarily. I will write more in depth about humility later, as it is also one our rules for planning for peace.
Think of Mercy is the container for compassion and justice(two of our rule set operations); whereas the act of humility is the key to unlocking the container. Inside this container are the acts of compassion and justice. Here is how it works. Begin first with compassion and then turn to matters of justice. Acts of compassion are basically bandaging the wounds of people. In this process of bandaging wounds the one acting asks the other how the wounding happened and listens to the story told.
In the hearing of the story, it becomes crucial to understand the context of the wounding so that you begin to ask the question: “What needs to be done to ensure we do not need to bandage others in the future?” This question is a systemic question in search of understanding either what social policy has been violated or what social policy needs to be updated and our created.
I hope you can see the potential for the interrelationship of compassion and justice when seen in this framework. Next I will unpack a bit more the acts of justice, as we understand it.
Coming soon will be the questions we need to ask ourselves regarding how we can begin to understand how to measure success.
Posted by John Fair 