Pregnant with possibility

Liturgy this morning was really powerful. Our order of music: “open my eyes, Lord” (651 in the Gather hymnal), Psalm 41 (David Haas version), the Honduras gospel acclamation, “God ever faithful” (344 in Gather), “You are mine” (721 in Gather), “come and eat this living bread” (942 in Gather), and “Lead me, guide me” (656 in Gather). The readings: Is: 43:18-25, 2 Cor 1:18-22, and Mk 2:1-12.

Fr. John Forliti, our priest, talked about sin and admonished us not to embrace what far too many Catholics have embraced -- a sense that God is punishing us through natural events for our sin. So 9/11 -- NOT a punishment for our sin. Hurricanes, tsunamis, death from cancer, and so on -- NOT a punishment for our sin. God, he notes, does not "take" from us for our sin, but rather receives us in our pain. God has tears in God's eyes.

Simply laid out like this in a blog post, none of this seems all that unusual or profound, but for some reason this morning I was deeply moved by the whole.