Mercy Becomes Us

 

We do not attain anything by our own holiness but by ten thousand surrenders to mercy. A lifetime of received forgiveness allows us to become mercy. Mercy becomes our energy, our meaning. Perhaps we are finally enlightened and free when we can both receive mercy and give it away—without payment or punishment.  Richard Rohr


I want mercy to become my energy, my meaning. I suppose I need to keep surrendering to mercy. It is difficult to lean into powerlessness, although perhaps it is like weightlessness. Perhaps there is a freedom in the surrendering.


May mercy become who I am.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Love is Love

Image
  Blessed be God who animates our lives and loves us beyond measure that we too might bring love into the world. AMEN What a joy and honor to be here! I have been privileged to journey with Dana and now, to witness with her cloud of witnesses the sacrament of ordination, is something to behold!  Anyone who knows Dana knows she is passionate about the two great commandments and one of the creative ways she marks this covenant of Love with a capital L is to point consistently to the Robert Indiana Sculpture, that famous square of L O V E! (parenthetically the work of art also marks her love of Philadelphia) But let me use Love as the jumping off point today for it seems to me that no matter what or where or when, the Gospels point us to the Love of God or more accurately toward the God who is Love. And this love is expressed and lived and surrounds us through the mysterious and powerful dynamic of the Trinity. Moreover in our precious sacramental lives, ordination being such a moment but
Read more

Open or Closed

Image
Last Friday, Good Friday, the Governor of Connecticut issued order 7X to extend the time of closure for nonessential businesses through May 20. While this did not come as a great shock and may in fact be extended further, it has cause me to ponder church during this strange time. Church in the truest sense of the word is not closed! (We can argue another time whether it is nonessential?!) Yes, the building is shut; yes, we are not gathering on Sundays physically.  But...the ways in which "church" is continuing are simply amazing and grace-filled! This tension has caused me to focus on what the church is...the Body of Christ finding ways to worship and serve. That is still "open". For me, ministering to the sick has become so difficult yet certainly more intentional and emergent. For me, prayer has deepened and lengthened.  I recall at the end of my first zoom Bible Study a remark was made: now that was church! I suppose we all showed up to pray and ponde
Read more

Go Like A River

Image
  “Go like a river” is both the title and the recurring theme which runs through a magnificent novel I recently read. “Go like a river” was both puzzling and consoling for me. I was intrigued not only because I have been drawn to many quotes and metaphors of water and flow and grace but also because in the context of the story it spoke of acceptance, grace and freedom. To go like a river seemed to speak of an eternity which carries all of us, an eternity with which we might participate, but more importantly an eternity which we might become. Today in the church we celebrate and remember the baptism of Christ in the river Jordan. It has always been one of my favorites. The words which accompany my memories are belonging, believing, beloving and becoming. All “be” words. So for me baptism (and water) present or connote images of being rather than doing. The act of baptizing is less important than the transformation of spirit and soul.   And so in Go Like A River I found myself reverberat
Read more