24th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Luke 15:1-32
High ideals can frighten people and leave them feeling useless as they reflect on how far they are from perfection. Last Sunday’s Gospel presented us with such high ideals and frightening heights of perfection: hate your father, mother, wife children brothers and sisters! Give up all your possessions. Not only did these demands frighten us, perhaps we are left in a state of impossibility.
Saint Luke was writing his Gospel at a time when the initial enthusiasm of even the most devout disciples was beginning to wane and many had slipped back into the way of thinking which the scribes and the Pharisees had - they criticised Jesus for eating with sinners in order to cover up their own shortcomings.
High ideals always frighten people but Jesus knew this too and perhaps this is why the teaching of today’s Gospel takes a different line. Luke recalls three parables of Jesus to illustrate that while we do fail in our efforts to respond to the Gospel and the call of Jesus, there is also the Gospel of Mercy, a Gospel of Compassion, a Gospel of welcoming-back, a Gospel of joy at the returning of the sinner. Whether it is a lost sheep or a lost coin or a wayward child, Jesus uses the stories to rebut the criticism of his welcoming of sinners and eating with them.
What was at the root of their critical attitude was fear – fear of scandal, fear of how contact with sinners might infect good people, fear of lowering standards. Those fears which so often occupy the minds of religious leaders today, have been put in the back seat by the actions and words of Pope Francis. When you think of it, weren’t our religious practices very often based on our fears rather than on real committed spirituality?
Those who would destroy our religious practices, often play on our fears of evil and fascinate us with evil words. When preaching and teaching concentrates more on condemnation of wrongs than on the proclamation of goodness and hope the joy of the Good News and the celebration of God’s goodness are obscured.
So, the parables of the lost sheep, the mislaid drachma and the prodigal son, while not diminishing the pain of isolation, or loss, or the effects of sin and irresponsibility, assure us that, when we are lost or isolated or sinful God does not abandon us and that there is ‘rejoicing in heaven’ when we come back or are found.
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the elder son refuses to sit down with his sinful and wayward brother. Jesus seems to revel in sitting down at table with whomsoever accepts His invitation.
We are the honoured invitees to the Eucharist. Let us share it with all who wish to come.