From Our Pastor's Desk
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From Our Pastor's Desk
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My dear brothers and sisters, today, all three readings have the same theme. In the first we see a God who forgives the people of Israel though they had returned to the worship of idols. His forgiveness is without conditions, he does not wait to see if they are going to deserve his forgiveness. He is led only by love. The gospel says the same thing: what could the little sheep have done to merit the attention of the shepherd? Nothing. It had just got lost, that’s all. The example of Paul proposed in the second reading completes today’s catechesis. Some may say that Paul was wrong without knowing it (1 Timothy 1:13); the people of Israel had reverted to paganism because of ignorance; the little sheep had gone astray by mistake…That is why the Lord was so good and understanding of them. But I say, is there anybody who sins in any other different way?
A story is told of a father who has two sons and who loses them both. One son is lost in a far country, and the other is lost in the wilderness of his own hostility. One leaves home in the fond hope that he will experience happiness in the unfamiliar, only to discover it is found at the heart of the familiar. One stays at home but is such a stranger to the love and acceptance which surround him that he might as well be an alien in a foreign land. They are a mixed human family in which tenderness and selfishness and hostility vie with each other for possession. The young son yearns for a life different from that at home. He leaves home and soon discovers that his promised land is barren. He experiences failure, but his failure is not unimportant: through his failure he comes to himself. It appears that the younger son has gone on a fruitless journey to end up where he started; but if he ends up in the same place, he is different. At journey’s end he is a man of new insight. The elder son does not leave home, but staying at home has not led him to hospitality. When he returns from the fields, with the sweat of the slave on his brow, he hears music and dancing. Rather than hurry in to join the party, he reacts with anger. Unlike his father, he does not have the generous instinct to rush to meet the younger brother. The elder brother refuses to move. He sees himself as a slave: “All these years I have slaved for you…” His own anger immobilizes him. Now, it is he who is far from home. He is “the separated one” who cannot move to except his brother and rejoice with him. But the father loves both of his sons and he lives in the hope that they will love and accept each other. The father's attitude reflects the generosity of Jesus’ way of dealing with sinners. May we encounter this love in the sacrament of reconciliation and may we put it into practice. Kay the Lord bless us with peace and love. In the name of the father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Fr. Paschal Chester, SVD. Comments are closed.
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