A Note From Father Eickhoff

September 29, 2024

How does God show forth His power? This is the question that lies behind the Opening Prayer of today’s Mass and I think it is worth reading the Opening Prayer in full before continuing with the answer to this question:

O God, who manifest your almighty power

Above all by pardoning and showing mercy,

Bestow, we pray, your grace abundantly upon us

And make those hastening to attain your promises

Heirs to the treasures of heavenly.

 We usually imagine that God’s power and might are best demonstrated by the works of creation that we can see and touch. For example, we look upon the stars in the night and marvel that what to our eyes appears to be mere pinpricks of light are actually immense spheres – usually, some stars are rotating so fast that their shape is actually an oblate (“fatter” in the middle along its equator) which is really cool when you think about it – of plasma thousands and thousands of times larger than the entire planet Earth. Or we might wonder at the beauty of a single leaf of a tree when viewed up close. In both cases, and in many others, we equate God’s power with the ability to bring into being great and wonderful things.

However, according to the prayer of the Church today the works of creation are not the greatest demonstration of God’s power. Rather, the greatest manifestation of God’s power is something that is to us human beings something that is completely intangible namely, the forgiveness of sins and bestowing mercy upon those persons who do not deserve mercy by their own merits. We human beings certainly recognize the need to forgive other people for their unjust actions against others; and, if we are honest with ourselves, the need to seek forgiveness for our own actions against others. Yet we struggle with how to achieve such mercy and pardoning for these are things that cannot be seen or touched or physically hammered into the correct shape.  We not only struggle with how to achieve such things, but we also struggle to believe that they can be achieved. However, mercy and forgiveness are not intangibles to God, but rather part of His very nature. This means that showing mercy and offering forgiveness are things that God is fully capable of doing. God is not just fully capable of doing such things, but in doing so is demonstrating the fullness of His might and glory for which is greater: simply destroying a broken machine or soul and starting over or, restoring a broken machine or soul to a condition better than before? Our human experience says that it is easier to start over with something new, but God chooses to restore and build back up rather than to destroy. In this restoration God I think shows forth the true extent of His power that we human beings can recognize.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Stephen Eickhoff
Pastor