Justice and Peace Kiss

"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other" (Psalm 85, KJV)

The English printmaker, painter, and poet William Blake illustrated the metaphysical world.  In Blake’s illumination of Psalm 85, he imagines a scene before God’s throne. God holds a book (the Book of Life?... the Scriptures? we don't know...) and is surrounded by ministering angels. In the foreground, personifications of justice and peace sit facing away from one another. Yet at this sacred moment they turn to kiss. Within their embrace there is a crimson cross. 

I had never noticed that the image of restoration in Psalm 85 is one in which contradictory, if not mutually exclusive, forces are brought together: 

·      Truth wants to establish what really happened

·      Mercy desires to forgive and move forward.

·      Justice calls for wrongdoing to be squarely dealt with

·      Peace wants the well-being of the other; peace is ready for healing to begin.

What an extraordinary revelation! Restoration is the coming together, the public gathering in of four essential, but seemingly mutually exclusive virtues.

None of us are strong enough, disciplined enough, faithful enough to bring all four of these virtues together. God, I think, must be present in our individual and collective lives if we dare hope for the reconciliation of the world.