Les Misérables question

Please note that I am not a literature student anymore, and do not have this as an essay question, or anything of that sort. I am only interested because this is an offshoot conversation from another discussion.

This is my absolute favorite book, it has so many themes that Hugo captures perfectly. One is the theme of Justice vs. Mercy.

We have the Bishop who, in some versions, states that "the greatest form of justice calls for mercy". It was through his pardon that our protagonist was reformed, he was essentially the catalyst for the events of the novel.

Then we have Javert, who is not a man of the cloth, but one of the badge. He still sees Valjean (maybe rightfully so) as a criminal who has violated his parole. The entire story, Valjean is antagonized by Javert.

Yet, we feel sympathy for Javert, knowing that he is very legalistic, and in comparison to the Thenardiers, his actions are understandable, and we can imagine ourselves doing the same deeds as Javert. Or at least I can.

Javert's legalism becomes most apparent when Valjean pardons him from being executed. Javert was not able to understand such grace. It all comes to a head when Javert has the opportunity to return the favour. He is faced with an, in his experience, unprecedented moral conflict, as he was raised and grew up with an unwavering love of the law.

With much internal struggle, Javert releases Valjean, but his battle was not over, unable to reconcile mercy with justice, Javert took his own life.

In contrasting the Bishop with Javert, one is not only contrasting two characters, but contrasting Hugo's embodiment of mercy with his embodiment of justice.

Javert wanted fairness, as prescribed by the law. But it was one anonymous preacher who said "the greatest news in the Bible is that God is not a fair God, grace is not fair. If God's grace was fair, would anyone be able to enter heaven?"

In the words of Yeshua Bar-Yusef: "For whom much is forgiven loves much and for whom little is forgiven loves little.", for the more a person errs the more grace and mercy is needed.