“God does not deny justice… He rather envelopes it and surpasses it with an even greater event (mercy) in which we experience love as the foundation of true justice.” – Pope Francis
God is just. He will never deprive us of justice. He will never remain deaf to the cries of the poor, the hurt and the oppressed.
His mercy moves Him to be just. His justice moves Him to be merciful.
He would rather pay the price Himself than deprive us of justice. He would rather suffer pain and humiliation than turn His ears away from our cries. He would rather die than deny us healing and new life.
It is unfathomable how He could place Himself in the place of a sinner and be punished as a criminal would. It is beyond our grasp how He Himself could bear the wounds that our offenders deserve, that we deserve also as we sin.
Jesus paid for our every debt. When the Father looks down from Heaven and sees the cross, He can’t help but see both infinite mercy and perfect justice because Jesus Himself has paid in full for your sins and mine.
But he was pierced for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The punishment that brought our peace was on him;
and by his wounds we are healed.
-Isaiah 53:5, WEB
God’s passionate love for his people—for humanity—is at the same time a forgiving love. It is so great that it turns God against himself, his love against his justice. Here Christians can see a dim prefigurement of the mystery of the Cross: so great is God’s love for man that by becoming man he follows him even into death, and so reconciles justice and love. – Pope Benedict XVI
The thing about hope is that it’s a positive force that shines the most when it’s dark. When everything’s going well, we hardly notice it’s there. But when things go against us, when our dreams fade and when we see no immediate reprieve from our troubles, that’s when hope does its best work for us.
"Where Hope Can Be Found"