You didn't ask for suggestions, and I'm not offering any, but here is what strikes my heart thinking about the readings this Sunday in the midst of mourning and remembering Pope Francis:
The Psalm says that God's mercy "endures forever" and in the second reading Christ says he's the First and Last. The name of God is Mercy, and the face of Mercy is the face of Christ. A Mercy that endures through all time and all things. A Mercy that conquers sin and suffering and death. A Mercy that searches for me until he finds me. A Mercy unafraid of my shame and sin.
That's the God who Pope Francis taught me to believe in.
Thank you for preaching this Sunday. Please share with us what the Lord leads to say.
On the subject of mercy: there's a story I sometimes tell when giving retreats, about Abraham Lincoln at the end of the Civil War. He was asked how he would treat the Southerners who had broken away. He replied, without hesitation: "I will treat them like they had never been away." I think Francis had a very similar notion of mercy and, like Lincoln, sought to live "with malice toward none, with charity toward all," seeking to summon "the better angels" of our nature. How we need that now!
You didn't ask for suggestions, and I'm not offering any, but here is what strikes my heart thinking about the readings this Sunday in the midst of mourning and remembering Pope Francis:
The Psalm says that God's mercy "endures forever" and in the second reading Christ says he's the First and Last. The name of God is Mercy, and the face of Mercy is the face of Christ. A Mercy that endures through all time and all things. A Mercy that conquers sin and suffering and death. A Mercy that searches for me until he finds me. A Mercy unafraid of my shame and sin.
That's the God who Pope Francis taught me to believe in.
Thank you for preaching this Sunday. Please share with us what the Lord leads to say.
Thanks for sharing what is on your heart, Paul!
On the subject of mercy: there's a story I sometimes tell when giving retreats, about Abraham Lincoln at the end of the Civil War. He was asked how he would treat the Southerners who had broken away. He replied, without hesitation: "I will treat them like they had never been away." I think Francis had a very similar notion of mercy and, like Lincoln, sought to live "with malice toward none, with charity toward all," seeking to summon "the better angels" of our nature. How we need that now!
My husband is preaching, too. Opportunities abound!