We all want mercy. We all want forgiveness and clemency. There’s no shame in that. But neither by themselves is balanced; neither will repair the world.
Repentance is what we need. Repentance is self critique. Repentance is recognition of harm. Repentance is justice enacted on the self.
Mercy without justice will always favor the privileged. Forgiveness without repentance only allows history to repeat itself over and over, in a single person’s life and in a society’s greater time span.
Mercy without justice is no mercy at all. Forgiving before atonement, before repentance had even been attempted, is an injustice to the victim, to society, and even – ultimately – to the offender.
eish zarah 