Reflection for September 11, 2022

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 | Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19 | 1 Timothy 1:12-17 | Luke 15:1-32

The readings remind us in so many ways that reconciliation and repentance are a communal responsibility and a personal one. What unites the readings for this weekend and makes it powerful is the abundant love of the Father.

After two years of splitting up with her longtime partner, Gail excitedly told her friends a  chance encounter with her ex-boyfriend who cheated on her. "Hey, today was great!" She said. One of her friends asked, "What happened?" "I ran into my ex today!" She answered. Another friend asked, "You are not getting back together, are you? "We never exchanged numbers or anything, we weren't even friends for the longest time." She said. Another friend asked, "So what is so great about running into him again?" "O Well...I was in my car!" She exclaimed.  

The Lord had just, quite spectacularly, brought God’s people out of Egypt. While God and Moses were conferring on the mountain, the Israelites threw a party and fashioned for themselves a golden calf, which is an image of false god Baal of Peor. God reacts to the people’s sin passionately. They have violated the first and most fundamental of the commandments, the one that binds them to the LORD in a relationship of exclusive loyalty: “You shall have no other gods before me”. “Moses!” Effectively disowned the Israelites, "Moses," God said “Go down at once to your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, for they have become depraved!” God had had enough of this kind of behavior. “I’m going to destroy them,” God promised, “and make another nation.” But Moses interceded. “What do you mean, my people? Lord, these are your people that you brought out of Egypt. I know you’re angry, but think for a minute about how much you love them. Would you really have brought them out of slavery just to destroy them?” And the Lord relented, because despite the stress, disappointment and rejection, God did love them, and had just shown the world how much by entering into history to rescue them from bondage, an act the Jewish people remember to this day. The text raises questions like, Does God need to be forced to remember past promises and oaths? Is God insecure and worried about what the Egyptians might think and say? Is Moses more merciful than the Lord? That's not what the writer of Exodus meant to point out. Instead, the dialogue was a narrative device for portraying the consequences of loving. In love, you have to be prepared to get hurt and cry. Like many other spiritual writers, Fr. Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen’s huge body of writings have touched me deeply and have played a significant role in my own formation. In one of his reflections, he lamented on the paradox of love. “Every time we make the decision to love someone, we open ourselves to great suffering, because those we most love cause us not only great joy but also great pain." People we love can hurt us because we gave them the power to do so by deciding to love them. When this happens, it would be extremely painful. God was a loving father to the Israelites. He God enters into relationship with humans and thereby into the suffering that love entails. That’s what we are supposed to see.

There’s a practice that originated many years ago in Japan called Kintsugi. In our experience, when we have a teacup with a broken handle or something similar, we might get out the super glue and try to repair it as seamlessly as possible, hoping it will look like it was never broken. But Kintsugi does the opposite. It acknowledges the brokenness, and actually ends up articulating and highlighting it. It repairs the broken and chipped pottery and ceramics by putting back together, but not in its original form. Instead the restoration process involves the use of pure gold to mend the divides and heal the fissures. The broken vessel is put back together in such a way that it is stronger and more beautiful than before it was broken. 

In 1878, Thomas Alva Edison, America's greatest inventor, was working to perfect the long-burning incandescent light bulb. It took a whole team of men twenty-four straight hours to put just one together. When Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. You probably guessed what happened by now; that the poor young fellow dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs. It took the entire team of men twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, tired and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. He gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. He gave him a second chance.

Does it mean that we who made mistakes in the past can be part of Jesus’ mission? Our passage in First Timothy celebrates the mercy of God towards sinners. Using his own life as an example, the apostle gives thanks to God for choosing him to be an apostle though he used to be a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. “I am the chief of all sinners.” Overwhelmed by mercy, Paul expresses his gratefulness to Jesus for the call he received to preach the Gospel. He was deeply aware that he was a sinner since he persecuted the Christians. Therefore he had all the more reason to be grateful for the grace that united him to Christ and made him a minister of the Gospel. He recognized that the grace of our Lord overflowed in him with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Divine Mercy brings good out of human folly. God loves to use plain and even broken vessels for His glory. By His grace, light shines brightest through our cracks. 

One night I was pulling the covers up over Jill, my 11-year-old daughter, so that she is warm and snug. I told her about the Parable of the Two Sons. We discussed how the younger son had taken his inheritance early, left and spent it all on living it up and partying until he had no money left and had to work on a pig farm where he couldn’t even afford to eat what the pigs ate. He remembered his father and went back home to ask for a job and forgiveness. His father welcomed him home with much joy! After we finished the story I asked Jill what she learned and she immediately said, “Never leave home without your credit card!”

In the Gospel of Luke, we learn that the scribes and Pharisees are not happy with Jesus because he was hanging out with sinners. Their grumbling prompts Jesus to tell the Parable of the Two Sons. A younger brother, a wastrel, who returns repentant after dissipation and an elder brother who is loyal yet angry and unforgiving. On the one hand, the younger brother represents the Gentiles and all like them who had been away long enough and wanting to "come home". On the other extreme, the elder brother represents the Jewish people and all like them who while obedient to the Law, demonstrate resentment in God's interest in the sinners and the lost. Jesus is telling us what God the Father is like. He loves us so much that he is overjoyed to see us turn away from sin and come back to him. He is always ready to forgive us and take us back. The father in the story ordered a fatted calf so the entire village can celebrate with him. This meal is a sign of reconciliation. God shows deep and constant love for us no matter what we do so long as we admit being wrong and sincerely want to change. God is the loving, compassionate Father who reaches out to both the loyal and the lost son. Just the same, we are all invited to go back home and celebrate those who found their way back home. In this Season of Grace, we are called to come home. We are called to reconciliation with God, the community of faith, our own families, and one another.  He is waiting for you to come back home. Come home soon. <enrique,ofs>