24th Sunday OT year ’C’
"The tax collectors and sinners, however, were all crowding round to listen to him,and the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying ’This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’.
We ask for the grace to discover the tender mercy of the Heart of our God and we ardently beg God to become merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful.
This is a very long road to have to journey on and we contemplate God in his Infinite Mercy!
The parables reveal to us the tenderness of the Heart of God.
The One takes the little lamb on his shoulders is the forgiving Lord. It is Jesus from the top of the Cross who will say ’Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’
This small lamb saved by Jesus is each one of us. He takes us tenderly into his heart whereas we are poor sinners. In his joy this father manifests how this lamb is his True Happiness. When he finds him, he is all joyful, an overflowing Love resounding to the heavenly angels.
"Jesus said ’There was a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father’ Father, let me have the share of the state that will come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.
When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch.."
This is how the Gospel puts us on the top of the mountain of mercy.
The son who asks the father for half of his goods and the father who gives him the half of his goods is another sign!
Having gathered up his heritage the son goes off, leaving the father wounded by his departure. His father will follow him with his gaze until his silhouette disappears, this small point on the horizon ends up breaking his fatherly heart.
Every day he will have a glimpse here and there on the horizon of his suffering. This open heart, which remains a call to this son, will do its work.
One day, this small point on the horizon will reappear. So the father will rin to welcome his son.
This return of the prodigal son is the fruit of a long journey in the human heart. It is also the path of God’s people to whom is manifested the tender mercy of God. For this path of conversion towards the Lord is a personal path, it is also the path of God’s People.
"So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!
I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’
So he got up and went to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him
what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
"When we are forgiven by the Lord, we realise just how great our misery is. Bathed in the Infinite Love of the Heart of Christ, I shall gradually be transformed.
’Christ Jesus came to save sinners and I the first am a sinner’ says the apostle Paul.
He is a model for us for the hope of being aware of his poverty is something which will pursue him right to the end.