September 11^th 2016.Twenty Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL: Luke 15:1-32

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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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 neighbours
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.’”

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . In the first reading, God wants to punish his people for their terrible infidelity, but Moses reminds him of his promises and the Lord “changes his mind”. What can this mean? Does God really become merciful in response to our intercession? The Gospel throws light on this enigma. Here we are told the story of the merciful father whose only concern is to be a father. He is not interested in the past wrongs committed by the younger son; he is not even interested in the past righteous actions of the older son; what he wants is that both of them have an intimate relationship of love and trust with him. This is the message of the Year of Mercy. The real issue in life is not conformity or non-conformity with ethical systems; what counts is that we have life. And this requires being in right relationship with God. Wrong actions break our intimacy with the Lord. The priority is to foster this relationship of closeness to God. Returning to the first reading, it is not that Moses really changes the intentions of God. The dialogue between him and the Lord is a way of expressing the reality that God does not operate according to an internal weighing scales in which right actions are rewarded and wrong actions punished. It is we who are changed by this dialogue as we come to realize that God is a Father whose priority is not a simplistic application of justice, human-style, but an exercise of divine paternal love.

In the first reading Moses intercedes with God on behalf of the people. As a result God “repents” and does not act as justice demands. Instead he is merciful. How are we to understand this notion of a God who changes his mind in response to human intercession?

The first reading this Sunday helps us to approach the parable of the merciful Father contained in the Gospel. In the Book of Exodus, Moses is receiving the tables of the Law when God informs him that the people have made an idol out of metal and have prostrated themselves before it. They have betrayed the covenant even while it is still being made. The Lord foretells a great punishment and the destruction of the people. Moses intercedes for Israel 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’”. And then, enigmatically, we are told that the Lord repented of the evil he had threatened on his people. The notion of a God who repents is an anthropomorphic one and a source of frustration for those who criticize the bible. But the word of God is something that seeks to foster growth, transformation, change in the human being. Thus we are presented with a dialogue between God and his collaborator that results in God changing his position. The lesson here for us is that we all have a duty to intercede for each other, to assist each other with prayer. This story of God “repenting” of his intentions is an effort by our poor minds to grapple with the greatness and mystery of God and to understand how God’s justice works.

The Gospel presents the picture of a father who is not fixated by the interior weighing scales of the rights and wrongs committed by his sons. Instead his priority is to be a father to his sons.

In the Gospel this week, we hear how the Pharisees are irritated by the fact that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them, whilst justice requires that they be rejected. In God there is something that goes beyond the little interior weighing scales that each one of us possesses, a scales that says that things are either right or wrong, black or white. In God there is something greater and more noble. The parable tells us of a father who has this divine concept of justice; it is his paternal relation to his son that is the central issue. When his son returns, what is important is not that he has erred but that he has come back. And now that he is back, it is not essential whether he works as a servant or not (the issue that the older son is fixated by) but that he live this relation of sonship, a relationship of trust with his father.

The dialogue with Moses in the first reading is really a journey of discovery for Moses and for us. It is not that God changes his mind. It is we who change as we come to realize that God’s love is greater than simple acts of reward and punishment. God wants us to have life, to have an intimate relationship with him. Good and righteous actions mean that we are on the path of life.

Returning to the first reading, God ought to destroy these idolaters, we feel, but he does not. They have only just been led out of the land of Egypt and they have already deviated from the path the Lord indicated to them. But God does not destroy them. He listens to Moses who reminds him of his promise. In reality, this dialogue is an expression of the love of God which is broader than simple reward and punishment. God does not ignore the requirements of justice, but neither does he ignore the bounty of the promises he has made to us. And he cannot neglect the enormous care he has for his people. We must continuously open ourselves to recognizing that God is always greater and deeper than we can imagine. The change of position of God described in the first reading is not very surprising when we consider that we are talking about the Lord of life. It is really we who change position as we come to gradually understand better his love. The point of this Gospel and of the whole Year of Mercy is to help us understand that justice only makes sense within the context of authentic relationship. In the first reading, Moses’ intercession consists in reminding the Lord that this is his people, the people that he has interacted with and to whom he has made promises. In the Gospel parable, the father is exactly that, a father. All of this prompts us to ask: What are our sins before God? What are our good actions before God? It is not that we make God content by our good actions! We are simply on the way of death or on the way of life. Our good actions bring us into intimacy with the Lord and our sins break our intimacy with him – this is what counts, not the ethics and morals of who is better or who is worse! The older son judges his brother using this mentality. And the younger brother has the exact same mentality, thinking that, when he returns, his past actions entail that he will now have to live as a slave. Reality is completely different. God is the unmoving point of reference of what is real. His love is the parameter that never changes. He never refrains from being our God, from being faithful to his promises. He is faithful to that which Jesus has reveals; namely, that he is willing to do anything for us.