Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 132
Reading 1
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
R. (Lk 15:18) 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.
R. 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.
R. 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.
R. I will rise and go to my father.
Reading 2
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.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
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.’”
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
In the Gospel Reading today we are blessed to hear one of the most powerful and recognizable parables that Jesus told: The Parable of the Lost Son. It serves as a reminder that none of us are beyond redemption. Jesus wants us just as we are, broken and beautiful. There are no preconditions to a relationship with Him. Too often, we stay broken and distant from Jesus because of a feeling of unworthiness. The thought of our sins and the embarrassment of the times we didn’t live up to our own expectations and the expectations of other people weigh on us so much that we cannot even start to believe that we can be forgiven. We become the biggest obstacle from entering a loving relationship with Jesus. We then stay in a state of loneliness, emptiness, and guilt. Jesus does not want us to be alone. He is constantly calling us to come back to Him. He is also waiting for us to return to Him with great expectation, just like the father awaited his son’s return. He does not want to be apart from us and He also does not want our self-inflicted wounds to go unhealed. Instead, He wants to nurture us back to health so that we may experience life the way He intended us to in the first place: with Him and not apart from Him.
As sinners, we are extremely arrogant. That is how we sinned in the first place. Turning away from God and doing bad things takes a lot of pride. There can be not excuse of ignorance in this area. We all know the difference between right and wrong. We just choose to be godlike and do what we know we should not do. The pride doesn’t end there, though. When we look at the mess we created, we then feel that we are unworthy of forgiveness. We did far too much to ever be forgiven. In fact, the opposite is true. God has already forgiven us. Jesus has already done the heavy lifting for us by taking all our sins and nailing them to the cross. He died on it for our salvation. Yet, we continue to look at ourselves as a very special case. We make ourselves so important in our own eyes that we stick out in comparison to the sins of other people. The reality is that we are not a special case. We are just as dirty as everyone else. We are all wallowing in the same mud called life. It is up to us to make the decision to come out of the mud and let Jesus Christ wash us clean. To be clean, we need to want to be clean. We then have toto let ourselves be cleaned.
Repentance involves two things. The first is an understanding that something we did was wrong and that we are truly regretful for doing what we did. The second part of true repentance is making a commitment to do better in the future. We cannot do better in the future without letting go of the past. We cannot be lifted up if we keep pulling back in response. Every day we have an opportunity to be new creations through a relationship with Jesus Christ. We must recognize that that we have value, even if we don’t feel that way at times. We all are rare coins in the eyes of God. We just need to be cleaned off a bit so we can shine. It is through Jesus Christ that this happens.
The Apostle Paul serves as a model for us all. He started off as a persecutor of Christians and one who was responsible for the death of many, to being one of the greatest evangelizers of the faith. He himself would claim to be a person of no great importance. First and foremost, he claimed he was no different anyone else: a sinner first in need of redemption through Jesus Christ. We all need Jesus Christ in our lives. We all need continued forgiveness. To be forgiven we need to let Jesus forgive us and understand that this comes with a powerful cleansing. As God tells us through the prophet Isaiah:
“Though your sins be like Scarlet, they may become white as snow.”
Deacon Tom
