TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY HOMILY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C
Ex 32:7-11, 13f. 1 Tim 1:12-17 Lk 15:1-32 (or 15:1-10)
Being Joyfully and Mercifully Forgiving
God’s Unique Kind of Forgiveness; Relying Upon and Imitating God’s Forgiveness; Rise and Go to the Father; Forgiveness, the Final Form of Love
1st Reading – Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14
7 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.
8 They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshipping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, ‘This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’
9 “I see how stiff-necked this people is,” continued the LORD to Moses.
10 Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation.”
11 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?
13 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.’”
14 So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
R. (Luke 15:18) I will rise and go to my father.
3 Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
4 Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. I will rise and go to my father.
12 A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
13 Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. I will rise and go to my father.
17 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall proclaim your praise.
19 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.
2nd Reading – 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Beloved:
12 I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry.
13 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.
14 Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost.
16 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.
17 To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Alleluia – 2 Corinthians 5:19
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
19 God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ
and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel – Luke 15:1-32
1 Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
2 but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
3 So to them he addressed this parable.
4 “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?
5 And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
6 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.’
7 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.
8 “Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it?
9 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.’
10 In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
11 Then he said, “A man had two sons,
12 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.
13 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.
14 When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need.
15 So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
16 And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any.
17 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.
18 I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
19 I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’
20 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.
21 His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
22 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.
23 Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast,
24 because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebration began.
25 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.
26 He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
27 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.’
28 He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him.
29 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.
30 But when your son returns, who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
31 He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours.
32 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.’”
Homily
With good reason, someone has said that humankind’s deepest need and highest achievement is forgiveness. Today’s excerpt from the second book of the Bible, Exodus, speaks of one incident of a provoked God forgiving His people. Throughout the Exodus from Egypt, God’s people griped and whined: They complained that the pursuing Egyptians were going to overtake and kill them; they complained that they didn’t have enough to eat; when God gave them manna to eat, they complained about its monotonous taste; they complained that they didn’t have enough water (so God gave them water from the rock); they complained that the inhabitants of the Promised Land would be too strong for them; and so on and on.
Now, while Moses was on Mt. Sinai, they complained that Moses had abandoned them, so they moulded the golden calf-idol. God announced that He would destroy the people for this, and so Moses appealed to Him to forgive. Because of God’s loving-kindness (hesed) for His people, He forgave. Of course, God doesn’t “get angry” or “change His mind” or “repent”. But in our efforts to understand God, we have to use human language, as did the writers of the First Testament. So what began as a story of a people’s sinfulness really became a story of God’s forgiveness.
God’s forgiveness on Mt. Sinai foreshadowed what Jesus would do and teach. Today’s portion of St Luke’s Gospel begins with the Pharisees’ complaint that Jesus was eating with sinners. In truth, Jesus’ dinner companions were what the cat dragged in. They would never make the guest list at White House banquets or appear in newspapers’ society pages. And the Pharisees had a point. Whereas to us it may appear simply that Jesus was being friendly, in their culture sharing food together meant that the people at the table show that they accept one another? To counter the Pharisees, Jesus told three stories about God reaching out and about forgiveness.
Because the three stories are of the lost — the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son – some flippantly call this section the “Lost and Found Department”. It should more properly be called “God’s Joy in Forgiving Sinners”. Jesus’ three stories have as their essential purpose the revelation that God’s love is broader and deeper than people’s love, and can forgive even when people would refuse to do so. But they don’t all say exactly the same thing.
The beautiful “Story of the Lost Sheep” (W. 3-7) contains the distilled essence of Jesus’ Good News. To be a shepherd wasn’t easy. Many of the flocks were owned by poor villages, which left two or three shepherds in charge. If at the end of the day a sheep was lost on the grassy plateaus, steep cliffs, or vast stretches, returning shepherds would get word out that one shepherd would be late because he was taking his turn at searching. When a villager reported seeing the shepherd with the lost sheep across his shoulders, there would be joy and thanks in the whole community. Jesus said in effect, “That’s the way it is with God and a repentant sinner!”
Then (vv. 8-10) Jesus told the “Story of the Lost Coin”. It wasn’t hard to lose a coin in a house of that time. The house, often built into a hillside, was dark, lit by one window (which was small, the better to keep out the elements at a time before glass was used for windows), with a floor of hard earth covered with dried reeds. The woman who lost the coin perhaps needed it, small though its value, to feed her family. Or perhaps it had» great sentimental value because it was one of the ten little coins she received on the day of her marriage and wore on her forehead. In either case, when she saw the glint of the coin her joy would be great. When dealing with lost people God, said Jesus, is like that woman, too.
These two stories went against the tradition, which never conceived of a God Who went out to search for sinners. The Pharisees, in fact, had a saying that “There is joy in heaven over one sinner who is obliterated before God.” (And isn’t that the way we think sometimes?)
After these stories’ portrayal of God as one Who actively seeks what is lost, Jesus told a glorious story of the Father Who seems content to wait for a sinner to come to his senses and return home (W. 11-32). Here the image of God is subtly different from the previous. Often called the “Parable of the Prodigal Son”, it might better be called the “Story of the Prodigal Father”— for “prodigal” means spendthrift, and when we think about it we see that it is indeed the Father Who is spendthrift, lavishing His love, welcome, and forgiveness.
It is been said that the ingratitude of a child is more hurtful to a parent than the assassination attempt of a servant. What concerned this father most was that, whether he complied with his young son’s heartless and callous request for his inheritance (V. 12) or not, he was going to lose his child.
Eventually, the son’s misery brought him to his senses (v. 17). Here he was, this kosher boy, in a pig sty, envying the food of an animal that was itself not fit to be food. He had hit rock bottom. He had reached the first stage of seeking forgiveness. He determined —— albeit selfishly – to do what we said in today’s Responsorial Psalm: He would rise and go to his father.
The father’s options with his returning son were many. He could scold him, or demand an apology, or be condescending accepting, or disown him. Or he could demand that the son make restitution by working as a hired hand, which was what both the son and Jesus’ audience expected.
But the father chose forgiveness.
Now, there are many ways of forgiving. It is often done reluctantly, holding, back, conveying continuing guilt to the recipient. Sometimes forgiveness is done as a favour. Worse, at times the forgiver, in a form of blackmail, implies that the other’s sin will still in some way be held over him. With this father, though, the forgiveness was total, offering to treat the son’s sins as though they had never happened. And it was joyous. To celebrate. it the father broke forth into typical Semitic poetry (v.24). He threw his arms around his son, kissed him (v. 20), and instructed his servants to dress him as befits his son (v. 22) — to give him a ring, a token of honour and authority, and sandals, the mark of a, freeman, since only slaves went barefoot. (The American slave’s dream of heaven in the Afro—American spiritual is, “All God’s Chillun Got Shoes”)
Whereas the father had interrupted the younger son’s prepared confession out of love, the elder son in turn interrupted the father’s expression of forgiveness because of small—spiritedness. Part of his thinking was possibly that the money for this party was partially coming out of his share of the estate! He complained about having done his duty (v. 29), and he undoubtedly had — but grimly. If over time his father hadn’t heaped marks of affection upon him, it could well have been because his son’s coldness made that impossible.
The elder brother showed meanness of speech in referring to his brother as “your son” (v. 30) rather than as “my brother”. He alleged without evidence that the younger brother had swallowed up the father’s property with prostitutes (v. 30). This is the kind of rash judgment in which the self-righteous often indulge. The father’s answer was heart—rending, “My son, everything I have is yours” (v. 31).
‘The story of the Prodigal Son actually has no ending. We don’t know whether the elder brother goes into the house to join in the celebration, or whether he nurses his self-righteousness outside. There’s no ending because it is not just a story. It’s a challenge — to each one of us. Would you go in or stay outside?
Today’s reading from the first letter of St Paul to Timothy shows one result of what God’s forgiveness can do. It shows Paul to be full of gratitude over the great mystery of mercy whereby he, the arrogant and fierce persecutor of Christian communities, had been forgiven. And God’s forgiveness included trust. When people forgive, often they won’t trust the forgiven again. After totally forgiving Paul, God appointed him to responsible service in His Church.
Nothing speaks of the radical nature of Jesus’ message more than his teachings on forgiveness. Forgiveness is the final form of love, and wholehearted forgiveness is so loving that it is God-like. Those realizations should inspire us to see our need for Jesus’ gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation for God’s forgiveness of our sins, saying, “I will rise and go to my Father.”
And we are to imitate God’s kind of love in joyful forgiving of other people. In individual cases that may be difficult. To those who brood over injuries, it may be easier to learn Chinese than to say “I’m sorry” or “l forgive you” in our own language. Remember, though, to pray for the grace to forgive, even when we don’t feel like forgiving. The very fact that we sincerely want to forgive means we have actually forgiven the person in our heart. Good feelings will follow, though not necessarily right away.
Consider the honest testimony of a woman damaged by one of the most psychologically ruinous experiences possible to women. Her husband left her. She said, ‘After that I was angry, bitter, and filled with resentment and hatred for my ex-husband. I went through questions like, ‘What have I done?’ and could come up with nothing. I had always tried to please him. So I asked, ‘Lord, how could you let this happen to me?’ I cried, I sobbed, I moaned, and I wailed. I beat my breast and asked for forgiveness for the spiteful feelings I had toward my err-husband, and for the anger. Then, one sleepless night, I prayed
aloud, ‘Father, forgive me. I want to trust and have faith like a child, but right now I don’t. Please help me really mean that I want to truly wish my husband all the best that life has to offer. You know I don’t mean this now, but I want to.’ ”
She had unconsciously followed the advice of St Augustine, who said, “Do what you can do, and pray for what you cannot yet do.”
Remembering that forgiveness is humankind’s deepest need and highest achievement, let us look into the concealed places where lost people tend to hide, and contribute to the healing forgiveness that we and our world so greatly crave.
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