24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
First Reading: Ex 32:7-11, 13-14
Second Reading: 1 Tim 1:12-17
Gospel Reading: Lk 15:1-32
The readings this Sunday describe God’s mercy. The First Reading describes how God changed his mind about the disaster he had planned to bring on his people after their sin of idolatry.
In the Second Reading, after calling himself the “foremost” of sinners, St. Paul says, “But for that very reason I received mercy.”
Finally, in the parable of the prodigal son, Jesus shows us most clearly what his Father is like. “Only the heart of Christ, who knows the depths of his Father’s love, could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in so simple and beautiful a way,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
This parable fully describes sin and forgiveness, says the Catechism: “the fascination of illusory freedom; the abandonment of the father’s house; the extreme misery in which the son finds himself after squandering his fortune; his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to feed swine, and still worse, at wanting to feed on the husks the pigs ate; his reflection on all he has lost; his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father; the journey back; the father’s generous welcome; and the father’s joy …
“The beautiful robe, the ring, and the festive banquet are symbols of that new life ─ pure, worthy, and joyful ─ of anyone who returns to God and to the bosom of his family, which is the Church.”
In the sacrament of penance, we follow the prodigal son’s example: “endure all things willingly, be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and fruitful satisfaction.”
Jesus told us to ask for mercy when he taught us the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
This petition is “astonishing,” the Catechism says, for it says that “our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement.”
God’s mercy, so readily outpoured, “cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us,” it explains. “In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father’s merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.”
“It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offence,” the Catechism says; “but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.”
We cannot forgive each other “by imitating the divine model from outside,” the Catechism cautions; “there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and the love of our God. Only the Spirit by whom we live can make ‘ours’ the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible and we find ourselves ‘forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave’ us.”
In fact, the Catechism adds, “Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies, transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master…. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another. There is no limit or measure to this essentially divine forgiveness …”
“God does not accept the sacrifice of a sower of disunion, but commands that he depart from the altar so that he may first be reconciled with his brother,” the Catechism notes. “For God can be appeased only by prayers that make peace. To God, the better offering is peace, brotherly concord, and a people made one in the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
Let us pray, in the words of this Sunday’s Psalm: “Have mercy on me, God, in your kindness; in your compassion blot out my offence … My sacrifice, a contrite spirit; a humbled, contrite heart you will not spurn.”
Father Hawkswell will again be teaching the Catholic Faith in Plain English free of charge every week starting Sept. 15 at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre (33rd & Willow, Vancouver), 2 to 4 p.m.; Sept. 16 at St. Anthony’s Church (2347 Inglewood, West Vancouver), 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Sept. 16 at the John Paul II Pastoral Centre, 7 to 9 p.m.; and Sept. 17 at St. Clare’s Church Hall (2888 Delahaye Drive, Coquitlam), 7 to 9 p.m.
