By Sello Hatang:
Mercy is a spiritual gift, a higher calling that asks more of us than justice ever will. Justice keeps score. Mercy, let’s go. Justice measures what is owed. Mercy considers what is needed. And in a world that often feels transactional, mercy restores something deeply human in us.
A few months ago, I bumped someone’s car. It was the kind of moment that normally spirals, with raised voices, demands, the exchange of details, and the quiet tension that lingers long after. But this time, none of that happened. No shouting. No drama. No attempt to hold me hostage to the moment. The owner simply let it go. A quiet, dignified release.
I drove away feeling something I could not quite name at first. It was not relief alone. It was something deeper. Something sacred had just passed between strangers. In a world where we brace ourselves for conflict, I had encountered grace. It stayed with me longer than the incident itself. It made me think about the kind of world we are capable of building, not through grand gestures, but through small, deliberate acts of humanity.
This week, life brought that moment back to me, only this time, the roles were reversed. I had just settled into a restaurant when a security guard approached and asked if a certain car outside was mine. It was. My car had been hit. When I stepped outside, I saw the dent. I saw the other driver. I saw the crowd gathering, anticipating the usual script, confrontation, blame, perhaps even spectacle.
In that moment, I had a choice. I could follow the script the world knows so well. Or I could choose differently.
I chose calm. I chose mercy.
I told the driver it was okay. You could see the disbelief in his eyes. The crowd, too, was stunned. Perhaps they had come expecting a different kind of story. But mercy often disrupts expectation. It refuses to perform for an audience. It moves quietly, but its impact lingers loudly.
The next morning, it dawned on me with clarity: mercy does not end with you; it moves through you. What was once extended to me had now found its way forward. It had not been lost. It had been waiting for its next expression.
As Steve Biko reminded us, “In time, we shall be in a position to bestow on South Africa the greatest possible gift, a more human face.” Mercy is where that begins. Not in policy rooms or public declarations alone, but in the quiet, often unseen decisions we make every day. In choosing grace over reaction. In choosing understanding over anger. In choosing to see the person before the problem.
Pope Francis described mercy as the “true face of love,” the force that connects humanity at its deepest level. He said, “Mercy is the true force that can save humanity.” And when you think about it, mercy is not weakness. It is under control. It is the discipline of restraint when you have every right to unleash frustration. It is the courage to rise above instinct and choose something higher.
We often think power is in asserting ourselves, in winning, in proving a point. But there is another kind of power, quieter, steadier, more transformative. It is the power to hold back when everything in you wants to react. It is the power to release when you could hold on. It is the power to restore when you could easily break.
I have come to believe that mercy is not an event; it is a relay. It is passed from one person to another, often without announcement, often without recognition, but always with consequence. What is extended to you must find its way through you; it dies with you.
I strongly believe that Mercy is not an event; it is a relay. What is extended to you must find its way through you. Sometimes the greatest power you hold is the power not to use it.
If we are to build a society with a human face, as Biko envisioned, then it will not be built only through laws or leadership, but through lived values. Through moments like these. Through ordinary people choosing extraordinary restraint. Through kindness that multiplies rather than diminishes.
Be that person.
Be the one who interrupts the cycle of reaction. Be the one who restores dignity where it could easily be taken away. Be the one who understands that not every moment requires you to prove your power; some moments ask you to reveal your humanity.
In a world quick to react, choose to restore. That is mercy
#PowerWeek
#ReHataMmoho
#SH
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