GOD IS IN CHRIST RECONCILING THE WORLD TO HIMSELF(Exodus 3:7-11,13-14/Psalm 51:3-4,12-13,17,19/1 Timothy 1:12-17/Luke 15:1-32

GOD IS IN CHRIST RECONCILING THE WORLD TO HIMSELF

(SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2019
24th SUNDAY IN THE ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C)

Our God is Joyfully and Mercifully Forgiving God. God’s unique kind of forgiveness is indeed second to none; Relying upon and imitating God’s forgiveness is a clarion call in today’s liturgy. We need to rise and Go to the Father. Forgiveness is an act of Love because love initiates the process of forgiveness or without love forgiveness cannot take its proper root. Someone said that humankind’s deepest need and highest achievement is forgiveness.

Today’s first reading from the book of Exodus, speaks of one incident of a provoked God forgiving His people. Throughout the Exodus from Egypt, God’s people griped and provoked Him to the extent that God made up His mind of destroying them. 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. We hear in this first reading God’s decision to abandon Israel and to form a new nation founded upon Moses himself. Moses, in a sense, says that he has a better idea. He reminds God of two things. God has a history of power and care for Israel which would be forgotten.

Then Moses reminds God of the promises made to the great servants of God, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. In a sense, God has to be faithful to Israel as a nation, because God has revealed the Divine personality in a public, historical manner. God has to be faithful to God’s being God by being mercifully faithful to Israel. Because of God’s loving-kindness for His people, He forgave and relented.

The first letter to Timothy today unveils for us what we might refer to as Jesus’ mission statement: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” This is the purpose of His life, His reason for taking on our human flesh and living our life, the reason for His life’s work and, most especially, His death and resurrection – to save sinners! But how can we know His motivation, the disposition of His heart and the heart of His Father, in the carrying out of this mission?

The parables presented in the gospel today answer that question. 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.

To counter the Pharisees, Jesus told three stories about God reaching out and about forgiveness. The gospel of today could be more properly be called “God’s Joy in Forgiving Sinners”. Jesus’ three stories have as their essential purpose, that is 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
Each parable in its own way reveals the very heart of God, the passion of God seen in Jesus and directed toward sinners.

The diligent searching of the shepherd for the lost sheep, the relentless looking of the woman for the lost coin finds their greatest expression in the rejoicing that takes place at their finding. This passionate searching and above all the rejoicing—this, Jesus says, is the passion and the rejoicing in the heart of His Father regarding sinners. And as if to leave no doubt in our minds, the eloquent Parable of the Prodigal Son reveals the One who saves sinners, who waits patiently and rejoices at the return of those who have gone astray.

The readings today invite us to imagine that we are the object of God’s search, that we are the recipients of the gaze of that love such as we picture on the face of the father in the parable. We are invited to embrace the truth that we are the source of God’s joy, the cause of that joy when we allow ourselves to be found. What is it like for us to enter into that imaginative process? What do we feel and think as we allow ourselves to be in that gaze? The answer to those questions makes all the difference in the world!

Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus, help me to turn away from my sins and seek your face so that I will be reconciled to the Father. Amen.