Mercy is a fundamental quality of both the King and the kingdom.

Mercy is the kind of loving restraint that refrains from inflicting the fullest possible punishment upon someone. In the pursuit of justice, for example, mercy means we do not seek the fullest punishment.

In Aotearoa New Zealand at the moment, a trial is beginning involving a mother who killed her three daughters. Nobody is trying to defend the actions, but the line of defense seems to be the claim that the mother was insane at the time.

I want this trial to characterised by justice, but justice with mercy.

On the one hand, let justice be fully done. Everything that can be factually confirmed and proven in court matters. If she was not insane, let that be shown. Let truth win out. Let the necessary consequences come.

But on the other hand, let justice be done with mercy. May our understandable horror at the murder of innocents not lead us to demonise and destroy. Let us not repay evil with evil. May we hold out loving hope for repentance. May there be ways for this mother to come to terms with what she has done and become useful to others who have either committed similar crimes or may be in similar situations where such crimes are committed.

Let justice be done. With mercy.