Where I thought he was going with this story: God always keeps the string over the door for us. Even when we stray from our faith, that string is there; we only have to pull on it and the door will open.
Where he actually went with the story: The string wasn't over the door when the disciples and Jesus' other followers were in the locked room following his death. They were scared and in hiding. He asked us to close our eyes and imagine that we are in that room, and to imagine that we are the ones who are to keep the children occupied...and quiet. I could feel a portion of the tenseness that those followers had to have felt, especially when there was a familiar knock on the door.
He asked us how we find mercy when our world has been upended. To find mercy, we have to extend mercy. And, to do that, we have to hand every aspect of our life over to Jesus.
I went on Saturday with my younger son who was headed to prom and we had a priest who is not our usual. His homily centered on doubt, the four things that can cause doubt, and what to do about it. Basically, humility is the answer.
ReplyDeleteWent on Sunday morning with the rest of my crew, and we had our usual priest - our pastor. He pointed out that Jesus revealed himself to us by his wounds and quickly tied the reason for his becoming one of us to those wounds by breathing on his apostles and giving them the authority to forgive and retain sins. "God came to save us from the slavery of sinfulness, not to be our sugar daddy. That's why we call Him 'Our Lord and Savior' and not 'Our Lord and Sugar Daddy.'" The heart of our God is Mercy. And there is nothing - absolutely nothing - so broken in a human life that the hand of God can not mend it...nothing.
The last 2 statements are ones that we hear often repeated, but they are fundamental truths, and I supposed maybe we need to hear them over and over so that they sink in and become part of our thinking.