"You will never know real mercy for the failings of others until you know and realize that you have the same failings in your own soul. (St. Bernard of Clairvaux) During this Year of Mercy, reflecting on God's expansive mercy to us in spite of our many failings may help us to show that same mercy to others. We don't deserve mercy, it is a gift. But if we do not show that same mercy to others, then what we deserve, namely God's justice, will be measure out to us. So we have a choice: God's mercy or God's justice.