24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C

Exodus 32:7-11.13-14

Psalm 51

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Luke 15:1-32

LOST BUT FOUND 

Today’s readings present to us the drama of our relationship with God. We are sinners and often get lost through our sinful actions. But God is a merciful, loving and forgiving father. In effect, he relented from his blazing wrath, when Moses pleaded on behalf of the people of Israel who had turned from him by making a golden calf and worshipping it. Thus, he revealed himself to the Israelites as a God who forgives. In the second reading, St Paul expresses his gratitude to the Lord for his wonderful mercy and inexhaustible grace. He acknowledges that he acted ignorantly when he did all he could to persecute the Church of Christ and discredit the Christian faith. But God showed him mercy making him a minister of the Gospel.

The fifteen chapter of Luke’s gospel account has been known as the “gospel of the lost”. It presents three parables of Jesus as a response to the Pharisees and scribes who were accusing him of being in the company of sinners and tax-collectors: the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin and the parable of the lost son (or prodigal son). They give different images of God, but their message is the same: God is a Father who can go to any length to bring the sinner back to a loving relationship with himself. He goes out to look for the lost, for he loves everyone and wants everyone to be at home. That is why he would go out looking for the lost, bring him back home and celebrate his return. 

Thus, one thing is certain: no matter how sinful I am, God still loves me. Though I go wayward and distant myself from him through my choices, he comes looking for me. He forgives me and welcomes me home. None of my sins is greater than his mercy. His outreaching love and unconditional compassion remain unchanging. Nevertheless, I must not take God’s merciful love for granted. The assurance of his mercy, compassion and forgiveness cannot become a “sinning license”. I must always recognize my sinfulness and misery, and seek reconciliation with God through genuine contrition and conversion. May he grant us the grace to celebrate this Sunday Eucharist with grateful heart as a forgiven sinner, as a lost but found. Amen