Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, C

            Exodus 32: 7-11, 13-14

            Ps. 51

            I Timothy 1: 12-17

            Luke 15: 1-32

The connecting link of the readings today is found in God’s desire to have mercy.  The First Reading depicts God’s anger with the Children of Israel for their behavior with the golden calf (Exodus 32).  Moses, pleading for his people, persuades the Lord to relent; the Lord has mercy on his people. In his standing between God and the people and pleading for them, Moses is seen as a type of Jesus, who will plead on the cross, “Father, forgive them.”   The Responsorial Psalm, while certainly about forgiveness, is less tied to the First Reading than it is pointing toward the Gospel of the Day; in fact, its refrain is taken from Luke 15:18, “I will rise and go to my Father.”  The Gospel presents three parables:  (1) the lost sheep, (2) the lost coin, and (3) the prodigal son.  The third parable was read on the Fourth Sunday of Lent in this lectionary cycle, without the first two parables.  When it is heard alone, the emphasis falls on the repentance of the prodigal son.  When heard in the context of the two preceding parables, it more clearly demonstrates the prodigal forgiveness of God, who goes in search of the sinner, rather than waiting for the sinner to return on his own. 

“O faithful, let us discover the power of the divine mystery!  The Prodigal came back from his sin and returned to his father’s house; in his loving-kindness, his father came out to meet him and kissed him.  He restored him to the glory of his house and prepared a mystical banquet on high.  He killed the fatted calf so that we might share in his joy; the joy of the Father who offers with love, and the joy of the Lamb who gives Himself for us; for He is Christ, the Savior of our souls.”  (sticheron from Psalm 140, Sunday of the Prodigal Son; Byzantine Lenten Triodion)

The Second Reading, from the First Epistle to Timothy, is almost a case study for God’s unbounded forgiveness, as Paul applies it to his own pre-conversion life as a persecutor of the church.  Identifying himself as “the first of sinners,” he has nonetheless “received mercy” from God through Jesus Christ, “who came into the world to save sinners.”

This hymn is based on today’s Readings:

When Israel, depraved, had bowed

An idol to adore,

The Lord decided to destroy;

‘His own’ they’d be no more.

But Moses prayed the Lord and begged

His people to forgive;

So God repented of His plan

And let His people live.

Thus Jesus taught the gathered crowds:

Our Father loves us so—

Like shepherd, searching out the lost

From wastelands where they go,

Like housewife, lighting lamp to find

The coin which she had lost;

In heav’n, rejoicing shall be great,

With no one counting cost.

As prodigal, with endless love,

Christ Jesus came to save

The sinners, those who knew him not

From all their evils grave.

In mercy God has dealt with us,

That we His love might sing.

To Him, our King, immortal God,

Our praise and thanks we bring!

            CMD

            suggested tune:  Mozart