24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

September 16, 2007

by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

There was a preacher who was fond of telling the story of the one Sunday when he had preached on the certain text in which Jesus said, “I am the Gate. Anyone who enters through Me will be safe.” A man in the congregation that day later came to the preacher and said, “I’ve been a church member all my life, but I’ve never felt closer to Christ until now. When I heard you preach today, something inside me clicked, and I felt that Jesus was very near to me. Listening to you preach about Jesus’ words, ‘I am the Gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe,’ I realized what my problem had been for all those years. I had been trying to enter through the wrong gate. I had been trying to enter through the saint’s gate, and I just couldn’t make it. You made it clear today, that I need to go through the sinner’s gate.”

If we come to church week-after-week to declare that we are perfect in every way; or we come week-after-week to echo the proud Pharisee’s prayer, “God I thank you that I am not like other men;” or we come here week-after-week and do not echo the humble prayer of the tax collector, “God, be merciful to me a sinner,” then we are not drawing close to Jesus, because we are trying to go through the wrong gate.

In the gospel today, when the Pharisee’s challenged Jesus with the question, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus replied, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the virtuous, but sinners to repentance.”

The point is that Jesus came to call everyone to repentance. There is not one of us who is completely well in this sense. We are all sick and in need of the Divine Physician. Not one of us is perfect. We are all sinners to some extent and in need of repentance – there are no exceptions.

If we consider life as a journey, then it is a journey in two directions – one going toward God, the other taking us farther and farther away.

The Israelites in today’s first reading had been rescued from slavery, given freedom by God and given the Law through which they were to grow closer to God. However, at some point in their journey they began to drift away from the demanding fidelity to God and to find comfort in a god of their own making; one who could easily be kept at arms length and away from their consciences; a god who made no demands on them, nor was involved in every aspect of their living and life. However, when they finally came to their senses and retraced their path to the one true God, they found not reproach, but renewed promises, and loving reconciliation and forgiveness.

In the second reading we heard how St. Paul’s life journey radically changed direction. Through the example St. Paul’s life experience, those who may have taken a wrong turn in their living and life are encouraged not to continue down that road. Whether the detour took place on purpose or accidentally, or like Paul, because of ignorance, we are assured that a new direction is always possible. And we are assured that every step of the way back to God, no matter how difficult, will be graced and blessed.

This is the experience of the younger son in today’s gospel story of the Prodigal Son. His journey began with a deliberate parting of the ways. He wanted to be on his own, away from the demands of home and family, so he severed his ties and headed out in search of adventure and freedom.

The older son in the story hadn’t traveled anywhere geographically, but was, in a spiritual and emotional sense, very distant from his father, who had forgiven and welcomed the younger son back home. This was because the elder son was self-righteous, full of anger and jealousy over the treatment of his younger brother, and totally lacking in forgiveness.

In today’s gospel Jesus gives us three stories. In each of them Jesus reveals God’s longing that those who are lost and those who have sinned, return home. God searches for us far more intensely than a shepherd seeks a lost sheep, or a woman a lost coin, or even a father a lost son. The message is totally clear: God loves everyone and wishes him or her to turn to him.

However, there are two elements in our relationship with God that need to exist.  The first element is God’s love for us. His love is absolutely unconditional. No matter what kind of person I may be, no matter what I may have done against God, against others, or against myself, God’s outreaching love for me is absolutely unchanging. He does not love me more if I am a saint, or love me less because I am a sinner. God is all love, and so, his whole self goes out in love, be it to a saint like Mother Teresa, or to the most vicious dictator or criminal. And, if anything, God seems to be more biased toward the sinner.

However, God’s forgiveness is something else. That is not unconditional. It is clear from the story of the Prodigal Son. The father deeply loves the younger son and bears no ill will toward him. This is clearly indicated by the father seeing him “while he was still a long way off.” But there can be no forgiveness in the full sense until the son makes that crucial about turn – the change of direction of his life – what the church calls “conversion” or metanoia experience. There can be no real forgiveness in the full sense until there is reconciliation. The wound of division needs to be healed. That is what takes place in the parable of the father and the wayward son, who expresses his deep sorrow, asks for forgiveness, embraces his father, and returns home where he belongs. This is what is needed when we confess our sins to God.

It is important for us to remember that allowing ourselves to be found by God is not a one-time event; it is a life-long process. We can certainly make a decisive choice to live a Christian life, but none of us is beyond the need for repentance. Jesus is indeed the sinner’s gate through which we sinners need to go, and for that reason we have in the sacrament of reconciliation, established by Jesus when he said to Peter, I give you the keys of the kingdom, and whatsoever you hold bound on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven; and we find it within the Church that he established, when he said to Peter, you are rock and upon this rock I will build my church. It is a beautiful means of making today’s three parables come to life in our own personal discipleship. For each time we go to confession, we are lifted high again on the Good Shepherd’s shoulders. Whenever we humbly confess our sins, the house of our heart is swept clean. And, when we receive the forgiveness of our sins, we are embraced again by the Father as his adopted son or daughter, as on the day of our baptism.

So let us not give up on ourselves. We don’t have the right to give up on ourselves. Yes, we are human beings who often make mistakes. Yes, we need forgiveness over and over again. But the truth is, God loves us and is always ready to give us a new beginning in our living and life.