24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 11, 2016)

Where were you 15 years ago when you first realized that the Twin Towers in New York City had been hit by a terrorist attack and those iconic towers were being demolished?  On that morning of September 11, 2001, 2,976 people from 93 nations lost their lives in New York, at the Pentagon, and on Flight 93.  Today we pause to remember that moment of horror and pray for those scarred by those terrible events.  We remember the brave men and women who responded to help those impacted by the terrorist attack.  Perhaps we will never be the same.  The need for safety and security continued to be raised up to new levels.

As we remember and pray for all those who lost their lives on that tragic day, we celebrate God’s ongoing faithfulness to our nation.  We celebrate the love of God that has been revealed to us in Jesus.  We will never will never fully understand these senseless acts of violence, but may we deeply trust in God’s merciful love that is revealed in the words and action of Jesus.  We remember your Spirit inhabits your Church.  Help us bring your comfort and peace to all.

Each of us gathers today because the Lord has sought us out and forgiven us.  At Mass, we gather to join with Jesus in offering thanks to the Father for His love.  We gather to grow in our awareness of how we are sought out and welcomed home by Jesus.

The three parables in today’s Gospel are part of the basic memory of the disciples about the content of the Good News.  Today’s Gospel proclaims how the Lord seeks us out; never gives up on us; and shares his merciful love with those in need.
 We are invited to see in these parables a metaphor for God’s searching love that draws the sinner and the lost back to the fold, back home, back to God’s loving heart.

In the first parable, imagine God as a shepherd abandoning ninety-nine obedient sheep to seek the stupid one who got lost. From one perspective the parable of the shepherd doesn’t make sense to leave the 99 sheep, but from another perspective this beautiful parable reveals to us a God who never gives up on us.  In the second parable. Imagine God as a distraught woman losing something and turning the house upside down to find it.  Then in the third parable, imagine God as an unconditionally forgiving father granting an unworthy son an undeserved feast.

The parable of the prodigal son is the parable of the prodigal, forgiving father.  The father was filled with joy when he spotted his son returning home – the son a bit desperate, recognizing he had made a mess of his life.  The message of the parable is found in the father.   The father ran to his son, embraced him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and welcomed his son with an extravagant celebration.  Jesus tells us this parable to describe extravagant forgiving love of God for us.  Like the prodigal son, we are the recipients of God’s merciful love.
 
I pray every day that we as a parish community will be a faithful witness of God’s extravagant, unconditional, healing love in the lives of people.  God’s love for us is unending.  In both the stories that Jesus told and the story that he lived, we are given chance after chance to return to the embrace of a loving God.

And yet, sadly, the Church has not lived up to her high calling.  Isn’t it amazing and tragic that though sinners felt so drawn to Jesus, some of them have so much difficulty feeling drawn to His Church.   Could it be that a world of prodigal sons and daughters have experienced in the Church the judgmental scowl of the older brother’s in today’s Gospel parable.

The older brother in the parable of the prodigal son needs to caution us against the rigidity and the resentment that can be the downfall of the righteous.  People can feel distant from the Church for any number of reasons:  divorce and remarriage, alleged or real insensitivity on the part of church authorities, scandal caused by church leaders, disagreements over moral issues such as abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, capital punishment, war, and so on.

May we, the church of St. Joseph’s, be a faith community that re-commits ourselves to witness to God’s love and mercy in our world.  May we commit ourselves to bring healing and forgiveness to a broken world.  May we in all situations and circumstances witness to the love of Jesus Christ in our world.

All are welcome in our faith community.  One of the most memorable lines in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is:  “When the son 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.”  May we be faithful witnesses of God’s compassionate love in the lives of all people.
This leaves us with a challenge:  if the central message of Jesus is mercy and forgiveness, is this also the central message of the faith community of St. Joseph’s in this jubilee year of mercy?  May this always be the ongoing grace we seek:  to share freely and abundantly the gifts that have been given to us.  Jesus came not only came to reveal the Father’s love, but sent us His Spirit so that we would become agents of reconciliation.  He came to bring us peace, but called us to become peacemakers.  He came to seek out the lost, but calls us to welcome the outcasts and the poor.  The message of the Gospel is always two-sided:  he reconciles us, and we must reconcile others.

May we test the Catholicity of our faith community by the ways we witness to the 15 ^th chapter of Luke’s Gospel.  We gather indeed because has chosen and sought us out and never gives up on us.  We gather to give thanks to God who is the Good Shepherd and the Merciful Father.  As we have been given, so we are to share.  We are to welcome, forgive, be peacemakers, and be a community that proactively reaches in the service of the marginalized and the poor.

As we remember 9/11, may we celebrate God’s ongoing faithfulness, and may we be the witnesses of God’s peace and reconciliation among all people.
Have a blessed day.