24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
Exodus 32:7-11,13-14 | Psalm 50:3-4,12-13,17,19 | 1 Timothy 1:12-17 | Luke 15:1-32
Today’s Gospel speaks of the patient joy of God, as He waits for us to return to His loving embrace. There are few Christians would couldn’t recite from memory an abridged Parable of the Prodigal Son, yet our response to His call is almost always a deflection:
Not now, Lord, I have to care for my infirm parents. Wait till they pass on, then I’ll come back, OK?
Not now, Lord, I have to finish this work project, because there’s another one on my plate that’s now overdue. Wait till I retire, then I’ll come back, OK?
Not now, Lord, I gotta catch ’em all! Wait till I run out of Pokémon, then I’ll come back, OK?
We often forget that this world will make never-ending demands on our limited time. There will always be one more family issue to take care of, one more job we take on because we can’t afford to retire, one more game to play.
And we forget that there’s a different ending to the Parable of the Prodigal Son, one that may presage our own destiny:
Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.
But he was stopped at the immigration checkpoint to his home country; because he had not been in touch for so long, his passport had expired and his citizenship had been revoked. No amount of pleading with the border guards would move them; they forcibly ejected him, and he was left in the same dire straits as before, soon dying penniless and alone.
In the meantime, the father was left to take joy in his remaining filial son, whose many descendants paid him much respect as his son had taught them. Still, to his dying day, the father often wondered what became of his other son, and wished fervently but fruitlessly for one last family reunion.
Keep putting off reconciliation with the Lord till tomorrow, and there will one day be no more tomorrows.
Go back to Him with all our heart,
Don’t let fear keep us apart.
Trees do bend, though straight and tall,
So must we to God’s own call.
Long has He waited for our coming
Home to Him and living deeply our new life.
Amen.