A higher event in which we experience love
An appeal to justice alone risks destroying. Mercy is an element that is important, even indispensable, for human relationships. Justice on its own is not enough. With mercy and forgiveness, God goes beyond justice, he subsumes it and exceeds it in a higher event in which we experience love, which is at the root of true justice. Work that goes beyond all human expectations comes from God. A lack of forgiveness and a return to the law of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” could lead to an endless escalation of conflicts.
– Pope Francis, The Name of God Is Mercy