Twenty-fourth Sunday C in ordinary time

Jesus teaches us to be merciful to ourselves.

Introduction.

Don’t you also feel that today little is said about mercy, and even less compassion is put into practice in life? Perhaps it is because mercy can be viewed and understood as a weakling condition. But the opposite is true. We can have the experience that mercy enriches a person, and great people are advocates and realizers of love through understanding.

Sermon.

We are reminded of this by the parables in the Gospel of the lost sheep, the lost drachma, and the prodigal son. The Lord Jesus says: “The angels of God rejoice over one sinner who repents” (Lk 15:10).

Three times in quick succession, we hear of the mercy of God. God is not only excellent and forgiving when the sinner returns, but God goes after the sinner, seeks the sinner, and is happy when He finds the sinner. This is what the parables of the lost sheep and the lost drachma are about. In the parable of the prodigal son, the father does not wait until the returning son comes to him, but the father rushes to meet the son and throws his arms around the son’s neck. These parables tell us about the love of God for man, the sinner. God knows He is omniscient, where the sinner is and what condition he is in. God knows the state of the sinner’s soul. God does not care that someone has fallen away from Him by sin. God respects the freedom and reason of man that he has received from his Creator. God will do everything in His love to make the sinner turn around, find his way back to his God, repent of his sin, and realize the magnitude of his guilt. Every sinner can be found in the person of a younger son who has squandered the possessions given him by his father in a life of debauchery. The father in the gospel is God. The God whom man offends by sin. The God who sends his Son to earth becomes like a man in everything except sin, only to redeem and save man, the sinner. God the Son desires man to become his brother and sister so that we may call his Father our Father. That is why the Son of God, Jesus Christ, promised us the Comforter of the Holy Spirit, who even today teaches us and reminds us of the love of God and the mercy of God to every sinner. Today’s Gospel does not say how long the sheep was lost, nor what state of danger it was in, nor what the particular son of the father did, nor what the value of the drachma is, but Jesus speaks of the great love of God for man. God does not stop loving man when he sins. God is willing to forgive; He is merciful to any sinner who sincerely tells himself that he will return to the Father. Today we know that Jesus Christ died for all of us; for our sins, mistakes, weaknesses, and falls.

Christ’s death opens heaven for every sinner who chooses to repent. God has reconciled the world to Himself. That is why fornicators, terrorists, thieves, and murderers can go to heaven when they leave the path of sin and enter the way of voluntary repentance when they realize that Jesus loves them and died on the cross out of love for them when they were sinners. Thus, we have St. Margaret of Cortona, who lived for years in an illicit marriage and affair before her return to God. Today we have St. Augustine, who, before his conversion, as he writes in his book Confessions, was a heretic, a Manichean, a prodigal, and had an illegitimate child. Today we have St. Matthew, a mythicized, hated, and despised man because of his occupation and especially his way of life. We know that the murderer of St. Maria Goretta, Alexander, also died in the grip of sainthood. Today we have many Marguerites, Augustines, Matthews, and Alexanders in Heaven, and God, as a kind Father, has open arms for more Augustines, Matthews, and Alexanders, and more Marguerites.
What might we realize today? Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of reconciliation. He gave the power to forgive sins not only to Peter and the Apostles but to every priest who the Church gives this power through a bishop. God’s mercy awaits each of us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. God shows us His love when we confess our sins and realize our falls when we want to begin a new life.
It is right to have a correct view of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is suitable when we avail ourselves of the opportunity to return to our loving Father through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It happens that we put off returning to God for a long time. Who among us will remain lying in the dirt on the ground when he can get up? Who among us will be content with soiled clothes? No one? Why do we linger longer in a state when our soul is in sin? When an accident occurs, do we put off having a medical examination until later, a week or a month later, or until the following Easter or Christmas holiday? No! It would be foolish; it would be wrong; it might be too late! Right. And that is why it is wrong to despise God’s mercy.
Yes, it can happen, for even a priest is only human. Sometimes, in our confession, he does not behave as Christ preaches; he is stern, inattentive, and disrespectful, and we say to ourselves that we will not go to confession anymore. Is such conduct not wrong? After all, we believe in God. We believe in the mercy of God – and we want to despise this gift?
Indeed, you have personal experience of God forgiving our many and great sins. We understand that at that time, God gave man the best clothes, a ring for the hand, and shoes for the feet, as in the parable of the father to the son.
The proper understanding of sin is not on the side of “taboos” or “prohibitions” but on the side of love. We realize that sin causes suffering to the God who loves us. Jesus speaks of the lost sheep, but he says of the love of the shepherd who sets out to find the lost sheep. The shepherd suffers that his sheep cannot partake of the good things he has prepared for them. Imagine a father whose child leaves home. He despises the parental home. Will the father stop loving the child? No! He will only be satisfied when the child returns.
An interesting incident is narrated in the story.
A girl left home and started working in a night establishment abroad. She earned money with her body. When her father found out about the place – where she was working – he decided to take action. After much prayer, he received such inspiration. He went to the establishment where his daughter worked and taped her picture on the door with the words, “Come home; daddy is waiting for you!” When the girl read these words, something shook her. She no longer entered the establishment where she worked. She went back to her temporary apartment. It had been a hard night; it had been a hard struggle. She returned home.
Today Jesus speaks to us about mercy. God does not stop loving us. Even now, he says to each of us to return home to God, to leave sin, to leave the way of evil, to renounce things, and illicit desires, to leave sinful acquaintance, to confess our sin, and again we will experience peace of soul, pure joy, again our eyes will shine…

After each parable, Jesus concludes with the words “Rejoice.” “Rejoice with me, for I have found the lost sheep” (Lk 15:6). Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I lost” (Lk 15:9). Finally, the Father says to the son who was angry with the brother who had returned, “It was fitting to feast and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead, and has come back to life; he was lost, and has been found” (Lk. 15:32).
We are equally aware of the importance and the need to be able to rejoice at the return of the prodigal son or daughter, at having found the meaning and purpose of our life again, at having not hesitated to do everything to help someone get back to God, to the Church.
Let us be strengthened in our union with Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Let us remain in the number of the ninety-nine sheep that were not lost. God loves us no less than the one He took on His shoulders when He found her and was coming back. God loves me, and I do not want to hurt Him by sinning.
We know that God is the one who helps us overcome sin. We understand that the drachma could not have come to light on its own, found when it was lost before. The voluntary behavior of the sinner who responds to God’s mercy is the opportunity offered to the sinner. God, who loves us, awaits our acceptance of his love. We realize that God’s mercy is a gift given to us by God. We must not; we do not want to despise this gift. After all, God is a just Judge who both rewards and punishes. We live in time. We do not know the day or the hour.

God is merciful. Let us pray to a merciful God that we may know and be able to respond consistently to his love.