“Still a long way off,” the Scripture says, as the father goes running. “Mercy within mercy within mercy,” as Thomas Merton put it. Something merciful and healing happens when you decide that escaping yourself is no longer an option. Our re-creation requires this, and we rest in the merciful bath of self-acceptance. Not just a bath but mercy as the water we swim in. In German, the word for “mercy” translates to “warmheartedness.”
