SPRINT OR MARATHON? TRINITY 11

Could this be the origin of "runner's high"?

Latin Collect (<Gelasian Sacramentary)

DEUS, qui omnipotentiam tuam parcendo maxime et miserendo manifestas, multiplica super nos
misericordiam tuam, ut ad tua promissa currentes cœlestium bonorum facias esse participes. Per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum.

Prayer book of 1549

GOD, which declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in shewyng mercy and pitie; Geve unto us abundauntly thy grace, that we, running to thy promises, may be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christe our Lorde.

Prayer book of 1662

O GOD, who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity; Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(It's interesting that the Latin “parcendo et miserendo” is translated by “showing mercy and pity”. The mercy is the furthest from the Latin: “parco” means to spare. And “misericordia” is translated as “grace”.)

This is a curious Collect, and an attractive one. The attraction lies in the “currentes”: we run to God’s promises of heavenly treasure. But it is also odd: what is the relation between that running and God’s power shown in mercy and pity?

So we start thinking. Usually, in a Collect, the relation between pts 2 and 3 is somehow causal: so here we ask God to multiply upon us his mercy, so that we may run to his promises and thus may be made partakers of his heavenly treasure. In other words, we need his mercy to start running. We cannot run toward God without his mercy; and there we see the genius of Cranmer as a translator – here he has understood that what we need even to be able to start running toward God is God’s own grace.

We can do nothing good of ourselves. We are stuck in the mud of our own little barnyard, and our feet can barely suck themselves out of it to take a single step. Yet when we hear what God promises us, we are on fire with enthusiasm: we want to go, to run even, toward him and toward the treasure he promises us. But the world is too much with us: getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. So we pray for mercy, we pray for grace, to free us, to pull us out of the mud so that at last we can run.

And the interesting thing is that the essence of the promise itself is grace. What is the heavenly treasure? Eternal life: a life without time, lived in the permanent presence, in the glorious ambient grace, of the Triune God. We need his grace to run to his grace. A wonderfully virtuous circle.