Hold the Justice, Please

At the end of Mass on Sunday, the very enthusiastic choir starting singing the song with the refrain that God "shall come with justice for the wo-o-orld."
It occurred to me that I'm not really sure I want God to bring His justice. If God wants to do that, I'm totally cool with it, because He's God and all, and I trust Him to know what's what.
Justice doesn't seem an entirely wise prayer for the Average Joe Christian to pray for.
Justice for the world?
Do sinners like me really want to be praying for justice?
Shouldn't we be praying for mercy, instead? Use every man after his desert, and who shall escape whipping?
Even Christ asked for the cup to pass Him by if it could...and that cup was filled with the punishment that God justly had assigned to us. The only thing keeping us from tasting that cup is Christ mercifully acting as our surrogate. He said "Your will be done," but he also said, "Father, forgive them." I don't recall Christ ever saying "Heap loads of justice on the world."

We talk about the Corporeal and Spiritual Works of Mercy (or we used to at least). Can you imagine what a nightmare cult our faith would look like if they were the Corporeal and Spiritual Works of Justice?

Justice is spiritual chump change. It's about giving people what they deserve, and who wants what they really deserve? Mercy is where its at for the Christian -- that's the main chance.

Comments

[John]

I disagree. God's justice IS His mercy. If we were asking God to bring human justice (the justice of which you write), then yes, we would all be SOL. But God's justice is a totally different thing. God says that He will save all who come to Him; that is His justice. Because He allows us the free choice to love Him or not, He does not need to reject anyone. He calls all, accepts those who come to Him, and regretfully watches those who turn away from Him go.

So praying for God's justice sounds fine to me!

[Therese]

Peter, I share your hesitation in praying for justice. But I take heart that my patroness, St. Therese, says that God's justice necessarily includes His mercy.

Also, interestingly, in Spe Salvi Pope Benedict says he is "convinced that the question of justice constitutes the essential argument, or in any case the strongest argument, in favour of faith in eternal life."

[PeterTerp]

Also from Spe Salvi:
"The image of the Last Judgement is not primarily an image of terror, but an image of hope; for us it may even be the decisive image of hope. Is it not also a frightening image? I would say: it is an image that evokes responsibility, an image, therefore, of that fear of which Saint Hilary spoke when he said that all our fear has its place in love. God is justice and creates justice. This is our consolation and our hope. And in his justice there is also grace. This we know by turning our gaze to the crucified and risen Christ. Both these things—justice and grace—must be seen in their correct inner relationship. Grace does not cancel out justice. It does not make wrong into right. It is not a sponge which wipes everything away, so that whatever someone has done on earth ends up being of equal value."