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Friday, September 20, 2019
9-15-19
Caught by Mercy
In the past year or so I have been trying to run a couple of times each week, usually just 3 to 4 miles. I have to admit, it is not my favorite thing. As I often tell people, I like having run, but not running in itself. Sometimes I have to trick myself into it by just putting on my running gear. Another trick I use is to pray as I run to take my mind off the fact that I am running. Sometimes I imagine myself running with Peter and John to the empty tomb on that first Easter morning. Sometimes I motivate myself more simply by telling myself things like, “Just to that next light pole...just to that next stop sign, etc.” The Gospel for this Sunday presents us once again with the parable of the lost or prodigal son. And in this parable we find the father running to his wayward son while he was still a long way off. What this parable does so well is to emphasize the active, eager mercy of God. In the pendulum swing between our own presumption (the idea that God owes us mercy) and despair (the idea that we are beyond God’s mercy), it is good to remind ourselves that we have a God who runs to us in love. And yet, we have to let ourselves be caught. We have to receive that eager love, that eager mercy of the Father. This can be difficult for us as human beings who like to believe that we earn everything we have. In either our pride or our self-loathing we can try to outrun God’s mercy. My prayer this week is that we allow ourselves to be caught by God, who runs to us in mercy and, in turn, that we might show that same mercy to others. Who knows? Maybe on my next run, I’ll imagine myself as the father running to his long lost son...whatever it takes to forget that I’m exercising. --Fr. Thom
The 2019 Pacem in Terris Peace and Freedom Award will be given to Bishop Munib A. Younan, the former President of the Lutheran World Federation. Bishop Younan will receive the award on September 24th, 2019, at Augustana College.
Front L-R:Jenny Dickes (Hagen), Jess Mendenhall (Davis), Emily LePretre (Rohlman), Andrea Adam (Tiedemann), Kelli Kluever (Bechtel), Alyssa Duran (North), Riley Beltramea (Franklin) Back L-R: Jacob Braun (Cosgrove), Kaitlin Enright (Cosgrove), Claire McCarthy (McCarthy), Alberto Vargas (North), Johnny Callahan (Townhouses)
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In the past year or so I have been trying to run a couple of times each week, usually just 3 to 4 miles. I have to admit, it is not my favorite thing. As I often tell people, I like having run, but not running in itself. Sometimes I have to trick myself into it by just putting on my running gear. Another trick I use is to pray as I run to take my mind off the fact that I am running. Sometimes I imagine myself running with Peter and John to the empty tomb on that first Easter morning. Sometimes I motivate myself more simply by telling myself things like, “Just to that next light pole...just to that next stop sign, etc.” The Gospel for this Sunday presents us once again with the parable of the lost or prodigal son. And in this parable we find the father running to his wayward son while he was still a long way off. What this parable does so well is to emphasize the active, eager mercy of God. In the pendulum swing between our own presumption (the idea that God owes us mercy) and despair (the idea that we are beyond God’s mercy), it is good to remind ourselves that we have a God who runs to us in love. And yet, we have to let ourselves be caught. We have to receive that eager love, that eager mercy of the Father. This can be difficult for us as human beings who like to believe that we earn everything we have. In either our pride or our self-loathing we can try to outrun God’s mercy. My prayer this week is that we allow ourselves to be caught by God, who runs to us in mercy and, in turn, that we might show that same mercy to others. Who knows? Maybe on my next run, I’ll imagine myself as the father running to his long lost son...whatever it takes to forget that I’m exercising. --Fr. Thom
