Homily for the week of September 12, 2010

Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2010

Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14

Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Luke 15:1-32 or 15:1-10

Every newspaper has a lost and found column. Today's paper listed a black male dog found on the Chazy Lake Road, and 2 lost kittens, one only 3 months old. Each of us at one time or other have lost something that means a lot to us. The loss becomes an obsession. Everything else is put aside. Any many of us may have felt loss at one time or other. Jesus today tells us the story of a lost sheep, some lost coins, and a lost teenage boy.

A devastating kind of experience is the loss of a loved on. Today the TV news programs have been replaying the events of September 11, 2001 and the stories of the loss of loved ones killed in the violence of that day.

Yes, we can identify with these experiences, but can't we also realize that God and Jesus also have an obsessive longing for those who have left him, and then have returned? The first two stories are straightforward. Jesus has come to bring salvation to those who are lost, not because of anything bad they did, but just because they were lost. After all what wrong can coins do? What sins could a dumb sheep commit? And how could a dime be sorry that it rolled under the carpet, or what would a sorrowful sheep look like? Some people worry about the 99 left in the desert while the shepherd is off searching for the lost one. Jesus’ original audience would have known that a flock that size would have had more than one shepherd, and the 99 are not left untended. All are precious and are in the divine care. The coin and the sheep are not responsible for getting lost, nor is the that dog at Chazy Lake.

The longer story, commonly known as the story of the Prodigal Son, brings in another consideration. Yes, the young teenager was lost. But unlike the coins and the sheep, he could chose to run away or to stay home. He chose to leave to sow his wild oats. But there came that day when he realized that he had lost all he had including his dignity. It was in that dark moment that he realized he was still the son of a caring father. He then decides to take the long way home. What made the son hesitate to return? Was it shame, fear, hopelessness? How can hitting bottom be the best thing that can happen to someone who is deeply into a sinful, destructive lifestyle? Does someone have to hit bottom to know where things are heading? “Hitting bottom” is often used in recovery groups to denote a point when someone realizes, “I can’t go on like this.” The teenager had reached this point.

Pop singer Brittany Spears says she “hit rock bottom” after several years of addiction to drugs and gambling. She recovered and resumed her career through the support of many friends and thousands of fans. Few people are that lucky.

If these are such wonderful and human stories, and images with which we can identify, why is it that the Pharisees rejected Jesus? Closer to home, why is it that we refuse, or do not take seriously, the love God wants to give us? The answer to both questions may be the same: we refuse to see Jesus as the Prodigal Son. We want to be givers and saviors, rather than receivers in need of God's forgiveness. We would rather not think of ourselves as sinners dependent on God asking for forgiveness.

We must recognize that God lives within us. The the compassion of the father lives within us, too. When we recognize that God is indeed all around us, then even the simplest of experiences becomes an opportunity for joy. This week come home to your best self. Remember

that you are loved. Give and receive hope and compassion. Embrace each day and each other with gusto, and you will be embraced back.

Shepherd, woman and father are all equally good images for God, who expends great effort to procure the return of the lost and who hosts an exuberant celebration in their honor.

As Catholics it is in a church at a Mass that we come back. Because it is only here that we can seek forgiveness and share the same communion at the one table. We come here to be found. We come here to be filled with the love of Jesus. And we leave here, going forth to bring Jesus in all the places of our life and world.