The 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 11, 2016
Click here to listen to this
homily (mp4 file)
This morning I’m going to direct my homily to the
few instead of the many. I want to speak to any of you who may be carrying a
heavy burden of sin, or who may be burdened by memories of past sins and may
wonder whether God has really forgiven them. That’s not many of you, I’m
quite certain, but I’m willing to bet it’s some of you. If so, this is for
you. If not, I trust you will indulge me. It’s the Year of Mercy, after all!
And now you’re probably wondering, ‘After an
introduction like that, what on earth is he going to say?’ Nothing
earth-shaking. Just a few things about sin and forgiveness. I can’t count
how many times over the years someone has said to me – in Confession, or
just in a heartfelt conversation - ‘Father, I’m not sure God can really
forgive some of the sins I’ve committed.’ My response is always the
same: ‘God not only can forgive you. God does forgive you. You need only
ask!’ Then, to prove the point, I turn to the 15th chapter of Luke’s
gospel – to those three wonderful parables of Jesus we just heard.
It’s important to remember why Jesus told those
parables. The reason was given in the opening verses of today’s
gospel: “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to
Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘this man
welcomes sinners and dines with them.’” It was because the Pharisees
and scribes thought Jesus was soft on sinners that he told the three
parables. He told them to explain why he spent so much of his time in the
company of sinners. The Pharisees found this troubling, but Jesus knew that
being with sinners was his calling -- it was his very reason for being.
Where else would he be but with sinners!
But it’s not hard, is it, to understand the
Pharisees’ point of view? They lined up with the God of today’s reading from
Exodus, the God who was ablaze with wrath against sinners – against his own
people who made that golden calf and fell down before it in idolatrous
worship. If that was how God was inclined to deal with sinners, why was
Jesus spending so much time with them? True, in the Exodus story God
did relent, but only after some very clever bargaining on the part of Moses.
As the Pharisees saw it, it was one thing for God to forgive, but quite
another for this upstart preacher from Nazareth to be singling out sinners -
favoring sinners even - spending virtually all his time in their company,
dining in their homes, breaking the bread of fellowship with them. The
Pharisees were quite sure that that wasn’t God’s way of dealing with
sinners. For them, this was a sure sign that Jesus was not from God.
So we see what Jesus was up against. In order to
bring them to a new place, to open their closed minds, he told not one, not
two, but three parables – three of the most beloved and reassuring parables
in all the gospels, parables with power to change the minds of people who
question God’s forgiveness or who go through life believing that God may
forgive sinners but convinced that they are an exception.
But, of course, there are no exceptions! Jesus
tells us that God is the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to go after the
one gone astray; God is the woman who turns her house upside-down to search
for one lost coin; God is the father who doesn’t wait for either of his two
sinful sons to come back to him but goes out looking for them. God is
forgiving and passionate to forgive. God is the Hound of Heaven in
Francis Thompson’s great 19th century poem, relentless in his pursuit of the
sinner, lavish in his offer of unconditional forgiveness.
All this is especially evident in the parable of
the Prodigal Son. It should really be called the parable of the
Prodigal Father because that father is the living embodiment of the God who
is prodigal – beyond generous -- when it comes to forgiveness. And the
first son? He’s the patron saint of all who want God’s forgiveness but
who think that their sins are so great that they have to earn it. But none
of that young man’s sins – not his selfishness, not his total disrespect for
his father, not his wanton squandering of his inheritance, not even all his
loose living – none of those sins was so great that he had to earn his
father’s forgiveness. He may have disowned his father, but his father never
disowned him. His father didn’t even let him finish his carefully rehearsed,
self-serving confession. No, after running out to meet him, he
embraced him, cut short his confession, wrapped him in a fine robe, put a
ring on his finger and threw a great party for him.
But what about the other son, the one we think of
as the good one, the one who served his father faithfully and always obeyed
the rules? Well, he’s the patron saint of the self-righteous who would put
limits on God’s mercy but who need it every bit as much because of their
sins of pride, jealousy, and cold resentment – different sins from his
brother’s but just as serious.
My friends, I began by saying that I wanted to
speak today to those who need forgiveness but who are afraid they can’t have
it, and I’ve ended up with a word for those who may not think they need
forgiveness at all, but who really do. So maybe I’ve actually ended up
speaking to everyone. The stories of Jesus are like that. There is something
for everyone. And there is healing and welcome for everyone now as we move
to the table of the Eucharist, remembering that Jesus is the one who
“welcomes sinners and dines with them!"
Father Michael G. Ryan
