Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 12, 2010 - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14; i timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32]Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."
There is a gallery of mercy in today's scriptures! Before we get to the "triptych" of mercy in the gospel, we must look at the first two pieces from Exodus and Timothy, which both speak of God's mercy - first for the People of Israel and then for St. Paul as an individual!! Then we come to the "triptych" - the three-paneled work of the art of mercy! I will allow you some time to look at the first two before we speak about the triptych (Take your time!)........... Ready now? We now know that even idolatry and direct persecution of Christ are forgivable by God's mercy! The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees excluded a lot of different people. Shepherds were certainly among the excluded. Jesus slyly invites the audience of scribes and Pharisees to imagine themselves as shepherds! Since most people of the time would not have owned 100 sheep on their own, a shepherd would have been looking for a sheep that might not have belonged to him personally! The point is to restore the lost one to the herd - the wandering one to the community! The woman searching for the coin is likely to be looking for the ten percent of her personal wealth, which she would have worn like jewelry! It is altogether possible that the coin might have been Roman or Greek and thus unclean since it was from gentile sources! A gentile is just as valuable as anyone else! The shepherd and the woman tell us much about what we will learn from the story of the Merciful Father and his two Sons, which we unfairly call the Parable of the Prodigal Son! There are three major characters and the most important is the Father! Middle Eastern tradition required the heirs to use their inheritance to take care of their elderly parents! By asking for his inheritance and squandering it, the "Prodigal" is basically saying to his Father, "I wish you were dead!" Yet, the Father grants the request! When the "Prodigal" hits bottom, he realizes that the only resource he has left is his Father! He hopes to become a hired servant so he can work off the filial debt that he owes! Of course the Father will have nothing to do with such a deal. He restores the "dead and lost" Son to his graces and does it in front of the whole village. By ordering a calf killed, he's throwing one very big "welcome back" party! Enter now the older Son! Perhaps this parable could also be called the Parable of the Prodigal SonS - plural!!! The resentment expressed by the second son seems to have been boiling for some time. That means he was alienated while pretending to be the "good one." In any case, the Father does the same thing. He goes out to the son and invites him to the party. He invites him to be merciful just as his father is merciful! Uh oh! This is where we in the pew and pulpit get caught! How merciful are we? Is there an unforgivable sin in our way of thinking? What were we thinking about yesterday on September 11!!! What are we thinking about our child whose lifestyle is so offensive to us? What are we thinking about the bishop or religious superior whom we believe has treated us unfairly? Shakespeare captured the essence of Jesus' message about mercy when he has a character in THE MERCHANT OF VENICE say, "The quality of mercy is not strained....." If we find ourselves "straining" to be merciful, we need to pay another visit to the gallery of mercy soon! AMEN
config
view
logs
4096.0 KB
78 ms
4
