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Homily |
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SEPTEMBER 16, 2007 |
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Today’s Gospel is about lost things: a lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son. Objects, animal, human beings: the whole of creation. We can understand, by reverse, what it means to find or to be found. It makes the family, the flock, the treasure complete once again. At times we can ask ourselves: “What is God like? How does he feel about us, and most so, about you and me? “ Jesus tells us through three stories -- about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a man whose son had gone wrong. In the first two parables there is no concern for how the sheep and the coin are lost: they are not culpable. All that matters is that they are found. By contrast, the prodigal son is culpable. In fact he is lost because of his dissolute life. The father, however, is not concerned with culpability. He is only concerned that the son has come back, as though from death. The father represents the love of God, our father who rejoices more over the repented sinner than for the 99 saints who do not need repentance. In the third story, the man hasn't lost a sheep or a coin; he's lost his son. The kid couldn't wait for the old man to retire or die; he wanted his inheritance now. After blowing all the money, he comes home with his tail between his legs! Two sons and none of them understood the love of their father. The one who stayed home did so out of fear. ”This son of yours...” taking distance from his father and his brother. “You never gave me a little goat or lamb to celebrate with my friends” He never understood that there was no need to ask: everything belonged to him. He stayed at home not as a son, but as a slave! The young one: he wishes his father were dead to get a share in the inheritance. He is brought back to his sense by a terrible event that opens his eye.: a famine. At times we navigate in life. A watched a Chinese movie: “Eat, drink, man, woman”. There is more in life. It can be a serious illness, an accident anything that shatters our little world”. God is so merciful to us. Then we realize that our priorities are wrong. The young boy: he prepares a little apology without being convinced. He is ready to come back home as a slave. The father, with his love, gives him back his dignity of son. The father does not allow him to finish the apology; he chokes the son in his embrace. In reality, the only prodigal person in this parable is the father, he shows himself to be wasteful with his love. It is the same with us: neither republicans nor democrats in the church understand the father. God can not be comprehended with our limited intelligence; he can only be grasped and be held by love. These three stories are wonderful news for you and me ... so wonderful, we're afraid to believe it. Our God is not a stern, unforgiving taskmaster who keeps track of all the bad and dumb things we do. He's a shepherd who works overtime to bring us back. He's a woman who's overjoyed at recovering something precious. He's a loving father who watches out for us even when we're a long way off. No matter how far we stray, he never stops reaching out to us and throws a party when we return. I discovered that when the good shepherd brought home the lost sheep, he noticed the hole in the fence through which the sheep had sneaked out. He refused to mend it, against the advice of the other shepherds because he wanted the sheep to stay with him not because forced to do so by lack of possibilities, but out of love.
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