Homily for the
Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
15 September 2013
15 September 2013
We
have a wonderful reflection in our Gospel today on how God rejoices when one
sinner returns to His loving embrace. The mercy and persistence of God in
waiting for us and in calling us back to Himself is something that we expect to
discover throughout our lives.
But
the well-known story of the Prodigal Son is brought to life not just through
the constant vigil of the Father, but even more so in the decisions of the
Younger Son. Because like the Younger Son, we have chosen to leave the life given
to us by the Father . . . We have walked away from the good life that has
become so ordinary for us, and we choose to pursue the fleeting pleasures of a
mediocre life that we believe will fulfill us.
Yet
we know and we have experienced those moments in our lives where, like the
Younger Son, we see how miserable our lives really are, and we choose to return
back home to the Father to experience His mercy.
However,
that’s the catch: It has to be OUR choice.
That’s
what we reflect upon in our Responsorial Psalm. Our singing the words of, “I
will arise and go to my God,” isn’t just a bunch of words to go with a pretty
melody. Those words need to be for us the resolution by which we choose to
leave our lives of false promises behind and, by our thoughts, words and
actions, choose to walk toward the mercy of God.
Again,
though, this choice has to be OUR choice. God continues to call us to become
closer to Himself. God, like the Father in the Gospel, keeps a constant vigil
for us to come home to Him. But like the Younger Son, we must recognize how –
in one way or another – our lives need to experience the merciful and loving
embrace of the Father.
We
cannot fully experience the mercy of God if we choose to keep our distance from
Him. Now, this does not only mean staying away from Him through not coming to weekly
Mass, or keeping ourselves away from the Sacrament of Reconciliation because we’re
afraid or embarrassed, but also includes the ignoring of the mercy of God daily
through failing to be Christ-like to others or by neglecting to take those
final moments of the day in performing a daily examination of conscience.
My
brothers and sisters, our lives are not truly complete if we don’t allow
ourselves to experience the mercy of God; our lives are not truly complete if
we fail to experience the loving embrace of the Father. We must be courageous,
though, to seek God’s mercy and compassion in recognizing that our lives are
really dependent on our relationship with God.
“I
will arise and go my God.” My brothers and sisters, don’t allow these words to
be just simply something pretty to sing at Mass today. Rather, these words
ought to be our resolve to embrace the constant transformation of our lives.
These words are that invitation the Church gives to us to run to the Father so
as to know that pure mercy which turns into pure joy.
The
Eucharist that we celebrate today is that foretaste of the complete mercy and
complete joy the Lord wishes to give to us. The gift of the Body and Blood of
Christ that we receive and share today opens us up to be that courageous
disciple, choosing for ourselves to place our relationship with God as the
first thing in our lives.
Today
. . . Here . . . Now . . . This is the time for us to choose God’s mercy. If we
want to secure peace in our lives and in our world, we’ll turn from the false and
fleeting pleasures of this life, and like the Younger Son, we shall arise and
go to our Father.
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Enjoy the journey . . .
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