Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
“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?” Exodus 32:11
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. Luke 15:20
Psalm 51:3-6
Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense. Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me. For I know my offense; my sin is always before me. Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight that you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn.
Studyhttp://www.usccb.org/nab/091607.shtml
Piety is found in prayers of intercession for the people. Moses prayed for the people and God relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people. Piety shows in our praying for each other. Paul admits his sinfulness and tells how mercifully treated by God he has been. Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Our piety meets with our action when we reach beyond ourselves to those who need Jesus and his forgiveness. The grace of God is abundant in our love and faith in Christ Jesus.
Because Jesus was working with the tax collectors and sinners, the Pharisees and the Scribes complained that he welcomed sinners and ate with them. Christ gave a real challenge with the parable of the lost sheep. The joy in heaven over one sinner who repents is a challenge to all of us to study our environment. To see how we can find and help even only one on the road back to the Lord so that we can be responsible for the joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.
The parable of the ten coins and the one that was lost tells the story of the joy of even the angels of God over one sinner who repents. But it is the parable of the prodigal son that brings the Father into the joy over a sinner repenting. It is the prodigal love of the Father who gives so much more than can be expected that captures our imagination. The Father is seen with one eye on the road waiting for his son to come home. Forgiveness is painted with vivid colors. There is a feast for the retuning son that upsets the older brother who is perhaps too much like us in how unforgiving he is. We will be forgiven for the wrongs we do in the same proportion as we forgive those who hurt us.
Who do I need to forgive? What are the resentments in my heart? The Lord is calling us to be loving people. Peace will not reach our world unless we can live the forgiveness that Christ preaches. Forgive even as we have been forgiven in the embrace from the Cross. Celebrate the feast of forgiveness with the Father.
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