20. It would not be out of place at this point to recall the relationship between justice and mercy. These are not two contradictory realities, but two dimensions of a single reality that unfolds progressively until it culminates in the fullness of love. Justice is a fundamental concept for civil society, which is meant to be governed by the rule of law. Justice is also understood as that which is rightly due to each individual. In the Bible, there are many references to divine justice and to God as “judge”. In these passages, justice is understood as the full observance of the Law and the behaviour of every good Israelite in conformity with God’s commandments. Such a vision, however, has not infrequently led to legalism by distorting the original meaning of justice and obscuring its profound value. To overcome this legalistic perspective, we need to recall that in Sacred Scripture, justice is conceived essentially as the faithful abandonment of oneself to God’s will.
The standard textbook Latin view? As for Pope Francis's opposition between faith and the observance of the law, is he getting the right opposition? Is he characterizing the problem with the Pharisees correctly? Is this rooted in an erroneous understanding of Divine Justice, which fails to see that it is actually identical, or an aspect of Divine Mercy, as is indicated in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and in the use of dikaiosune?
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