September 11, 2016 – Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Lectionary: 132
Reading 1 – Exodus 32: 7-11, 13-14
The LORD said to Moses,
“Go down at once to your people,
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,
for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,
making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,
sacrificing to it and crying out,
‘This is your God, O Israel,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’
“I see how stiff-necked this people is, ” continued the LORD to Moses.
Let me alone, then,
that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.
Then I will make of you a great nation.”
But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,
“Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people,
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt
with such great power and with so strong a hand?
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel,
and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,
‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;
and all this land that I promised,
I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’”
So the LORD relented in the punishment
he had threatened to inflict on his people.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 51: 3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
- I will rise and go to my father.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me. - I will rise and go to my father.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me. - I will rise and go to my father.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn. - I will rise and go to my father.
Reading 2 – 1 Timothy 1: 12-17
Beloved:
I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord,
because he considered me trustworthy
in appointing me to the ministry.
I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant,
but I have been mercifully treated
because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.
Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant,
along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance:
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Of these I am the foremost.
But for that reason I was mercifully treated,
so that in me, as the foremost,
Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example
for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.
To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God,
honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel – Luke 15: 1-32
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them he addressed this parable.
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house,
searching carefully until she finds it?
And when she does find it,
she calls together her friends and neighbors
and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’
In just the same way, I tell you,
there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who repents.”
Then he said,
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,
‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant country
where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country,
and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought,
‘How many of my father’s hired workers
have more than enough food to eat,
but here am I, dying from hunger.
I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son;
treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’
So he got up and went back to his father.
While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him,
and was filled with compassion.
He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
His son said to him,
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
But his father ordered his servants,
‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.’
Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field
and, on his way back, as he neared the house,
he heard the sound of music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him,
‘Your brother has returned
and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’
He became angry,
and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply,
‘Look, all these years I served you
and not once did I disobey your orders;
yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns,
who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
He said to him,
‘My son, you are here with me always;
everything I have is yours.
But now we must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead and has come to life again;
he was lost and has been found.’”
Listen to the Scriptures: click on the link below:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/16_09_11.mp3
24th Sunday of the Year – C
THEME: REPENTANCE, CONVERSION AND RECONCILIATION are signs of our real acceptance of Jesus. By repentance, we turn away from sin; by conversion, we turn towards something positive; and in Jesus, we are reconciled with God the Father. Repentance implies the acknowledgment of our sinfulness; conversion is a turning away from it, and reconciliation, the reinstatement in grace and friendship and the healing of our wounded soul. This is accomplished through the discipline of the Sacrament of Penance.
Remember, John the Baptist came to us from the desert to preach a system of inner, moral conversion. His was a rugged, virile message, brought by an austere man. Then the gentle Jesus came, willing to meet with sinners and attend their dinner parties. But his message, too, was one of sincere inner conversion, from sin to love.
Point 1: Repentance is the beginning for a mature, adult spiritual life. The Prodigal Son could live it up with his friends, oblivious to anything spiritual or filial. Only as a last resort, as he, a Jew, watched “unclean” pigs eating better than he, did he come slowly to recognize his low estate. Spiritually, the sinner has to be awakened from his moral bankruptcy and shown what a “sense” of sin really is. Alcoholics Anonymous tells us something of the same thing – an alcoholic cannot be cured until he faces the reality of his abject state.
Point 2: Conversion is the second step: it can be a subtle, long-rage affair, or it can be as sudden as St. Paul’s on the road to Damascus. Every adult, at least once in his life, must travel down that road to Damascus and meet Christ in his personal life. At some time or another, every born-Catholic has to cooperate with the gifts given so freely and generously in infant Baptism, and say, “Yes, I believe!” Most of us spend many years traveling that road. But some people, who have led thoroughly secular and materialistic lives, are afraid to turn around interiorly. Can God be so merciful as to forgive my sins? If the father-figure in today’s parable can rush out to meet the delinquent son, can God the Father be any less generous? The point in Christ’s story is that God’s mercy exceeds that of man. Turn wholeheartedly to God; don’t be misled by worldly wisdom or pseudo-science. Forget all the sacred cows and golden calves: God the Father awaits you.
Point 3: Reconciliation with God is the final goal. It is a great joy, for the ninety-nine sheep can wait a little, the elder son can grumble a bit. Men like Paul and Augustine considered themselves great sinners, yet the grace of God was able to make them great saints. Abbot Marmion pointed out over and over again that the twin points of spiritual life and progress were the constant battles to die to sin and live in Christ. Repentance and conversion take us away from sin; reconciliation helps us grow in Christ. The Sacrament of Penance can restore our baptismal harmony; the Eucharistic banquet assures the growth of the Christ-life in us. Then we are ready to run the race, strive for the prize, and live as Christians.
Conclusion: The example offered by the parable is not in the behaviour of the Prodigal Son as much as it is in the Father’s infinite mercy and forgiveness. It would be a deadly abuse to indulge in sin with the idea that God will always forgive us in the end. But for those who have fallen into sin, it is an immense consolation to know that there is a way back to God.
QUESTIONS THAT MAY LEAD TO OTHER THOUGHTS / REFLECTION / DISCUSSION / WRITTEN
- Do you have some Golden Calf in your life that leads you away from God?
- Are you grateful, as St. Paul was, for the gift of faith? How do you express this – How do you show it?
- Do you try to share your spiritual conversion with others? Can you give an example?
- Do you cooperation with the graces God has given you so that you are actually growing in the spiritual life? Point out a few ways in which you have grown in the spiritual life?
- You want mercy from God; do you show mercy to others? Can you give an example?
The Shepherd’s Joy (Reread the Gospel of the Day)
That is the picture Jesus drew of God; that, said Jesus, is what God is like. God is as glad when a lost sinner is found as a shepherd is when a strayed sheep is brought home. As a great saint said, “God, too, knows the joy of finding things that have gone lost.”
There is a wondrous thought here. It is the truly tremendous truth that God is kinder than men. The orthodox would write off the tax-collectors and the sinners as beyond the pale and as deserving of nothing but destruction; not so God. Men may give up hope of a sinner; not so God. God loves the folk who never stray away; but in his heart there is the joy of joys when a lost one is found and comes home. It is a thousand times easier to come back to God than to come home to the bleak criticism of men.
The Coin A Woman Lost and Found (Again reread the Gospel)
It is easy to think of the joy of the woman when at last she saw the glint of the elusive coin and when she held it in her hand again. God, said Jesus, is like that. The joy of God, and of all the angels, when one sinner comes home, is like the joy of a home when a coin which has stood between them and starvation has been lost and is found; it is like the joy of a woman who loses her most precious possession, with a value far beyond money, and then finds it again.
No Pharisee had ever dreamed of a God like that. A great Jewish scholar has admitted that this is the one absolutely new things which Jesus taught men about God–that he actually searched for men. The Jew might have agreed that if a man came crawling home to God in self-abasement and prayed for pity he might find it; but he would never have conceived of a God who went out to search for sinners. We believe in the seeking love of God, because we see that love incarnate in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. who came to seek and to save that which was lost.
The Story of a Loving Father (the Parable of the Prodigal Son) – Reread the parable again – pray over it.
Pause as you read it and think about the truth in this parable:
- It should never have been called the parable of the Prodigal Son, for the son is not the hero. It should be called the parable of the Loving Father, for it tells us rather about a father’s love than a son’s sin.
- It tells us much about the forgiveness of God. The father must have been waiting and watching for the son to come home, for he saw him a long way off. When he came, he forgave him with no recriminations. There is a way of forgiving, when forgiveness is conferred as a favour. It is even worse, when someone is forgiven, but always by hint and by word and by threat his sin is held over him.
Once Abraham Lincoln (16th President of the US) was asked how he was going to treat the rebellious southerners when they had finally been defeated and had returned to the Union of the United States. The questioner expected that Lincoln would take a dire vengeance, but he answered, “I will treat them as if they had never been away.”
It is the wonder of the love of God that he treats us like that.
That is not the end of the story. There enters the elder brother who was actually sorry that his brother had come home. He stands for the self-righteous Pharisees who would rather see a sinner destroyed than saved. Certain things stand out about him.
- His attitude shows that his years of obedience to his father had been years of grim duty and not of loving service.
- His attitude is one of utter lack of sympathy. He refers to the prodigal, not as any brother, but as your son. He was the kind of self-righteous character who would cheerfully have kicked a man farther into the gutter when he was already down.
- He had a peculiarly nasty mind. There is no mention of harlots until he mentions them. He, no doubt, suspected his brother of the sins he himself would have liked to commit.
Once again we have the amazing truth that it is easier to confess to God than it is to many a man; that God is more merciful in his judgments than many an orthodox man; that the love of God is far broader than the love of man; and that God can forgive when men refuse to forgive. In face of a love like that we cannot be other than lost in wonder, love and praise.
For the Church: that we may search out and welcome with compassion all who have become estranged from God, the Christian community, others, or themselves, let us pray to the Lord.
For the grace of repentance: that we may recognize from whom we have wandered and turn towards the Good Shepherds outstretched arms of forgiveness, let us pray to the Lord.
For the grace to forgive: that the love of God will free our hearts to forgive all who have injured us, let us pray to the Lord.
For the ministers of the Gospel: that they may spend themselves in seeking out and searching for the alienated, estranged and despairing so that they may share the Good News of God’s love and mercy, let us pray to the Lord.
For a renewed understanding of the sacrament of reconciliation: that we may be open to God’s gift of mercy and unbounded forgiveness, let us pray to the Lord.
For all who are alienated from themselves, from others, or from God: that God’s love may break the walls of separation, warm the coldness of isolation and lead them to a new beginning, let us pray to the Lord.
For families that are alienated or separated: that God will remove the barriers and heal the hurts that have caused division, let us pray to the Lord.
For the leaders of government: that God will inspire their minds and embolden their hearts to seek justice for the oppressed, relief for the suffering, and opportunities for the hopeless, let us pray to the Lord.
For all who are unemployed: that God will open new doors for them to use their gifts, to build up society, and to support their families, let us pray to the Lord.
For all who work for peace and reconciliation: that God will remove fear from their hearts and give them new insights so that conflicts may cease and old wounds be healed, let us pray to the Lord.
For all who have fled violence, particularly refugees of the Syrian conflict: that God will protect them from harm and provide for their daily needs, let us pray to the Lord.