Homily

Twenty fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – C – 2019
God rejoices over repentant sinners
The central theme of today’s readings is the invitation to believe in a loving, patient, merciful, and forgiving God. The readings remind us that God actively seeks out the lost, wants their repentance and rejoices when the lost are found.
The whole chapter 15 from St. Luke’s Gospel is essentially one distinct parable, the “Parable of the Lost and Found,” with three illustrations: the story of the lost sheep, the story of the lost coin and the story of the lost son. These parables remind us that we have a God who welcomes sinners and forgives their sins whenever they return to Him with genuine contrition and resolution.

Through the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin Jesus says that God is immensely happy when a lost sinner is found and brought home. God loves those people who never stray from Him, but He expresses even greater joy when a lost sinner comes home.

There's an old story that I think is still funny. The phone rang and a little boy answered in a whisper: "Hello?" The caller said: "Hi, is your Mommy there? "Yes!" "Can I talk to her?" "No!" "Why not?" "She's busy." "What about your Daddy, can I talk to him?" "No! He's busy." "Well, is there anyone else there?" "My little sister." "Is there anyone else there?" "Oh, yah. The police." "Can I talk to one of them?" "No, they're busy." "No one else there?" "Yes, the firemen." "Can I talk to one of them?" "No, they're busy too." Caller said, "Good heavens, your whole family is busy, the police and fire department are there! What is everybody doing?" The little boy giggled and whispered: "They're looking for me."

Does the boy’s action represent our situation with God? God is looking for us and we seem to be hiding.
Messages for our daily life: 1) We need to evaluate ourselves: This can be for us a Sunday of self-reflection and assessment. If we have been away from God by sin, God's mercy is seeking us, searching for our souls with a love that is way beyond all imagining. God is ready to receive and welcome us back, no less than Jesus welcomed sinners in his time. Let us pray today that we will allow God’s love and forgiveness into our lives. And we should have the courage to give up our sinful habits.

2) We should confess our sins and regain peace and God’s friendship. The first condition for experiencing the joy and relief of having our sins forgiven is to see them as they are and give them up.  We have to be humble enough to recognize that we need God’s forgiveness to be whole. The next reasonable step is to experience God’s mercy in the great Sacrament of Reconciliation.

3) Lastly, we ask God for the courage to extend His forgiveness to others who have offended us. At that very moment of sad and painful self-recognition, we will know how much our brothers and sisters need our compassion, and we will be more able to help them.  Don’t we all pray, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us?” As forgiven prodigals, we must be forgiving people.
As we continue with this celebration of the Holy Mass, we need to pray also for God's Divine mercy to keep us always in His love, never to go astray again.