The Christian Sense of Mercy: A Defense of “Amoris Laetitia”
have been revoked? Quite the opposite. I am now much more aware
of the allowable speed on any street I travel. Did the officer “apply the
law”? Yes, he did. He stopped me, questioned me, and made me aware
of my failure. Yet his application of the law did not require that he
write a ticket. He applied the law with mercy. The law still stands (and
is even more emphatic in my mind). He did not apply mercy instead of
the law. He applied the law mercifully.
Mercy does not present itself as an alternative to the law; rather mercy is the
Christian way of applying the law, and can even lead a person beyond the
law.
How can a Christian know when mercy will allow such an action? What
rules govern mercy? Only love governs mercy, which is also a non-law.
Mercy is acquired with faith. Its content is partially communicated by
the law, partially by parables, and fully by Jesus. The merciful actions
of the saints continue to teach disciples. 13 Believers develop a finer
sense of mercy as they become more mature in the faith.
So, too, when a couple in an irregular marriage “turns themselves in”
to the authorities, if mercy does not hold them to the letter of the law,
it does not mean that the law has been revoked. It means that the law,
mercifully applied in their circumstances, does not require them to
break up the second marriage. The merciful application of the law can
allow what the law does not permit, and can thereby ironically fulfill the
law. Mercy can achieve more than the law. Law always bows to mercy,
not mercy to the law.
An analogous application of the law should be possible in the
marital arena — obviously making allowances for the differences in
subject matters. Of course, marriage laws differ from the laws against
speeding in many ways, but the principle stands that just because the
law was not applied to the letter does not mean that the law has been
abrogated. Polygamy and adultery remain wrong. Mercy can act so as
to take the situation out of the realm of the judgment of the law, as
will become apparent below.
The standard position of the Church requires remarried couples to
avoid sin by living in “brother-sister” relationships when a seriously
unjust situation might otherwise result (Familiaris Consortio, 84). This
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