love is transformed into mercy when it is necessary to go beyond the precise norm of justice—precise and often too narrow. The prodigal son, having wasted the property he received from his father, deserves—after his return—to earn his living by working in his father’s house as a hired servant and possibly, little by little, to build up a certain provision of material goods, though perhaps never as much as the amount he had squandered. This would be demanded by the order of justice, especially as