Gospel Reflection 2021/2022

The losing and the finding.

Throughout our entire life, we tend to lose things.

We can relate to the frantic moments when we were going around, searching high and low, and leaving no stone unturned – to find the lost item. The feeling was odious: the overwhelming sense of anguish, desperation, hopelessness, and perhaps guilt.

However, when we finally found the missing item, exploding joy gripped us and filled us, dispelling the cloud of gloom and darkness that was hanging over our heads. Such is the joy of finding: jubilation, triumph, gratitude and relief.

The three parables of ‘lost-and-found’.

On the 24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus, in response to the criticism of the Pharisees and scribes, tells us three parables of ‘lost-and-found’:

✝️ THE LOST SHEEP,

✝️ THE LOST DRACHMA (coin), and

✝️ THE LOST (PRODIGAL) SON and THE DUTIFUL SON.

The first Parable: THE LOST SHEEP.

Jesus begins His parables with a challenge, “What man among you with a hundred sheep, losing one, would not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the missing one till he found it?” [Lk 15: 4]

Indeed, it is a mind-boggling and mind-blowing one. It defies human logic and human reasoning. It is commonly said that, “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush.” No human person, in the right mind, would ever leave or risk the ninety-nine sheep that he has, to go after the lost one.

Yet, ‘God is love’ [cf. 1 Jn 4: 7-21]; and love defies human logic and human reasoning. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who knows every one of His sheep [cf. Jn 10: 11-18] and calls each one of us by our names [cf. Jn 10: 3]. Out of love for you and for me, Jesus lovingly goes out of His way in search for us. Since He is the Divine Shepherd, ‘He sets out in search of what is lost while still keeping what He had left in place and He finds what had strayed without losing what He has under His protection.’ [St Peter Chrysologus, Doctor of the Church (c 400-450)]

God’s mercy is as foolish as a shepherd who would abandon ninety-nine (99) sheep to save one (1). Such is the infinite love and immeasurable mercy of God!

The second Parable: THE LOST DRACHMA.

The second parable was a woman who had lost one of her ten drachmas. Drachma is the Greek silver coin equivalent to a day's wage for a worker at Jesus’ time.

According to some bible scholars, the ten drachmas could possibly be the woman’s dowry, and therefore was her future security as a married woman. Some other bible scholars suggest that the lost drachma might have been part of her jewellery, a part of the head band that the woman would wear for her upcoming nuptial.

In either case, the lost drachma is no ordinary coin: it might not of be of great value to others, but it is very precious in the eyes of the woman. Without the lost drachma, the dowry is incomplete; without the lost drachma, the jewellery would be imperfect.

So are we in the eyes of God! Saints or sinners, we are all precious and important to God. We are like the tiny little pieces in God’s jigsaw puzzle. If there is a missing piece, God’s jigsaw puzzle of our salvation would be incomplete and imperfect. For God, we are not mere numbers, each one of us is important. Just as He searches for the lost sheep and the lost drachma, He attends to us - individually and personally – so that eventually all may be found and saved.

The third Parable: THE LOST SON and THE DUTIFUL SON.

(1) The younger son, i.e., the tax collectors and sinners.

As the Parable is fondly known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we naturally direct our focus on the younger son, who while his Father was still alive and kicking, demanded his share of inheritance, went away to a foreign land, squandered everything he had on a life of debauchery. He thought he could live without his Father.

Look at the ‘hell’ of a mess the younger son got himself into: he had squandered everything (human tragedy); a severe famine struck (natural tragedy); and he was starving, suffering and in great sorrows.

In many ways, are we not like the younger son? We are blessed by God abundantly. Yet, intoxicated by our own arrogance, we think that all good things come from our own merits, we think we are Gods and we are able to live without Him! In doing so, we are choosing hell over God!

Later, the younger son came to his senses, he repented, left the foreign land, and embarked on a journey of conversion back to his Father. As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has pointed out [The CTS New Missal, 2012, p.212], “They (the tragedies) must be opportunities for reflection, in order to overcome the illusion of being able to live without God, and to reinforce, with the Lord’s help, the commitment to change our way of life.”

Did the younger son change his crooked ways? Yes, he did. He picked himself up, left the foreign land, and returned to the Father. Whenever we are sinking into sin and evil, we need to – with God’s help – pick ourselves up, turn away from sin, and return to the Father. Even though our repentance and conversion might be half-hearted, half-way and half-baked, God the merciful Father runs to meet us and embrace us where we are.

(2) The older son, i.e., the Pharisees and scribes.

When the older son was returning from his labour in the field, the news of his younger brother being welcomed back to the household reached his ears. He became so jealous, indignant and furious that he refused to enter the Father’s house. He thought that he had been unfairly treated. He thought that the Father owed him for his many years of service and obedience. Even though the older son was with his Father all this while, he had not known the Father’s loving heart.

Like the older son and the Pharisees and the scribes, perhaps we have been coming for Mass, frequenting the Sacraments, consistent in our daily prayers, and serving in various ministries, yet our hearts could be far from God – we do not know Him and we do not know His loving heart!

We think we are good, holy, just and righteous – never in need of God’s forgiveness. And because we are so good and worthy, God always owes us something. We judge, label and discriminate others. Since we are not motivated by God’s love and joy, our hearts are filled with anger, resentment and hatred. Pope Francis [Angelus, 15 Sep 2013] explains that, “If in our heart there is no mercy, no joy of forgiveness, we are not in communion with God, even if we observe all of His precepts, for it is love that saves, not the practice of precepts alone.” Truth be told, we need repentance and conversion as much as the younger son.

(3) The real focus: the merciful Father.

The real focus of the third Parable this Sunday should be on the merciful Father: the Father who excludes no one, the Father who throws nobody away, and the Father who seeks out everyone. Whether we are the younger son or the older son, it is the Father’s desire that all His children should share in His merciful love and outpouring joy.

And Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has this to say [The CTS New Missal, 2012, p.217]:

“This passage of St Luke constitutes one of the peaks of spirituality and literature of all time. After Jesus has told us of the merciful Father, things are no longer as they were before. We now know God; He is our Father who out of love created us to be free and endowed us with a conscience, who suffers when we get lost and rejoices when we return. The two sons represent two immature ways of relating to God: rebellion and childish obedience. Both these forms are surmounted through the experience of mercy...”

All the three Parables: GOD’S LOVE AND MERCY.

All the three Parables of Jesus point us to the infinite love and immeasurable mercy of God – the amazing Heart of God – that defy all human logic and human reasoning. Our God is a ‘wasteful’, ‘prodigal’, lavish, extravagant, generous, bountiful and magnanimous God who loves to give His all and His best to us. If we truly know His loving Heart: we will not be fearful of God or jealous of others. And as Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI beautifully sums it [The CTS New Missal, 2012, p.217], “Only by experiencing forgiveness, by recognizing one is loved with a freely given love, a love greater than our wretchedness but also than our merits, do we finally enter into a truly filial and free relationship with God.”

Let our fervent prayer be:

“Lord Jesus Christ, let me know Your loving Heart.”

Let us also pray that God’s justice, peace, truth and love may prevail in Ukraine, Sri Lanka and Nicaragua.