This Sunday our readings convey a common set of themes, which are the Love of God comprised of Mercy and Forgiveness.

In our first reading from the Book of Exodus (Chapter 32), we can extract from it the idea of a “collective Prodigal Son” story, which we will hear in today’s Lukan Gospel. Israel has turned from God and begins to worship idols, a golden calf. This is symbolic of a turning inward or away from God and seeking direction, truth or whatever from earthly, material items: wealth, power, prestige, etc. But God calls them back, and through Moses, He forgives them and calls them to truth. Moses listens to the people, hears the concerns, meets them where they are in faith and them leads them back to God (Truth), for their own good. This is the search for the excellence of the other—which we hear often in our Catholic theology.

In the second reading from St. Paul (1 Tim), he tells us that the reason the Lord came to us is this: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost. But for that reason I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life.” So that our Lord Jesus Christ came not for the perfect—the ninety-nine—but for the “one” sinner(s). So, we who are sinners, we who stumble and fall, are the ones the Lord Himself wishes to save. How does that make me feel now? Pretty good, huh? I am not a loser. I am not forgotten or abandoned. I am an adopted son/daughter of God, a brother and sister to Christ. And God desires me (us).

In the Gospel today from Luke (15), we hear three/four parables/stories about the mercy and love of God being found in the ordinariness of everyday life. God dines with sinners (and the tax collectors), the most disliked people of the day. Then God goes after the one sinner, leaving the ninety-nine in the fields; He goes after the one lost coin, and He searches for the Lost son even though the “good brother” is working hard at home. Theologians tell us that these are examples of God’s mercy being bestowed in the ordinary happenings of everyday life, not in-and-through grandiose settings or royal situations, but rather in the midst of everyday life—the house where things are lost, abandoned or forgotten; outside in the fields where danger lurks around the corner, yet God takes a chance on the wanderers, and in the midst of strained familial relations, where God wants to heal and make whole.

So how do “I” know God loves me. He offers, over and over again His Forgiveness. Why would He do that if Love were not the answer? And a special kind of Love it is. Agape: the most distinctively Christian form of love. Used by Christ to describe the love among the persons of the Trinity, it is also the love he commanded his followers to have for one another (John 13:34-35). It is totally selfless love, which seeks not one's own advantage but only to benefit or share with another."(Source: Catholic Dictionary) The search for the excellence of the other, from God to us.

Now knowing of God’s Love for us, what are we called to do. Along with loving the others as He taught us, we are also called to love ourselves, that is to search for our excellence—meaning the safety and purity of our noble souls—by seeking God’s healing and merciful love in our own lives. In a nutshell, forgiveness through the Sacrament of Confession. Now I know a lot of folks haven’t been to Confession in years, decades perhaps. And so this is not a “thou shall not…” speech but rather an informational note that says “okay,” but know that our God does not look through us and into our past to hold us guilty of our sins, but rather our He wishes to forgive, to heal, and to turn our hearts toward Him in-and-through our own personally search for the excellence. And that can and does happen in Confession. When you go into the confessional, it’s not about being hit over the head with a mallet or being told “I told you so…you are a sinner…” it is about being welcomed, telling our sins, asking for forgiveness, amending our ways and doing our penance—AND—in being forgiven, loved and healed. That is, after all, God’s goal.

Remember the Prodigal Son, the Lost Coin and the One Sheep. No matter what is going on in your life, no matter what your sin is, no matter how many times you have been tempted, God loves you. He wants and desires to heal you. He calls you home and into the Confessional not be given a guilt trip but toe xperience His Love, Mercy and Forgiveness. So, why not “try it again for the first time,” to quote the commercial. Here at St. Catherine, confessions are Monday nights, from 6-7, and Saturdays from 4-4:30 before the 5 p.m. Mass, or by appointment. Or, you may call and go to any Catholic priest in any parish. God gave us the 7 Sacraments in His Catholic Church because He knew we’d need them, and they are meant to help—not hinder—us. Healed, renewed and brought Home, that is the Love of God in all of His Seven Sacraments of the Church.

Amen