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11th September 2022

Homily for 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

READ: (Ex 32: 7-14; 1 Tim 1: 12-17; Lk 15: 1-32)

REFLECT: God privileges the lost and the least

We all want to be privileged people. Whether we wish to be privileged or not, by the fact that we are created and cared by God, we are all privileged people. Because God loves us all, even if we sin against God and end up life in misery, God’s mercy overshadows us.  Today we need quality and qualification in all areas of life; quality for life and qualification for profession and study. Be it a profession for job or an institution for study, the quality and qualification is considered important. The quality of us as persons and qualification for a career will determine our identity. Each one of us qualifies depending on each field we are interested in or we chose to be with its own capacity based on our expertise or professionals’ standards.

But God does not look at the standards as humans look for or evaluate, because God can qualify the disqualified and disqualify the qualified. This could be one perspective and there is also another perspective where people are not worried about quality but quantity. We look for quantity (how many) and not quality (how well). But for the standard of living to be physically, morally, spiritually, intellectually sound and good, we need quality of life. The quality of life will determine who we are, where we move towards to and who we have as the backbone for life’s Journey. In all ways, it is God who qualifies and makes life as a privilege to one another on earth. So based on the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you three points of reflection as how God qualifies and makes people fit to serve Him and his people on earth.

1. God privileges Israel:

The Book of Genesis traces Israelite origins back to Abraham and particularly to his grandson Jacob (Gen 32:29), also called Israel, and later his twelve sons, the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Israelites were under the Egyptian slavery, mourning and bewailing for redemption (Exo 2: 23-25). It was God who heard the cry of Israelites and sends Moses to give release to them from the severe bondage that they were experiencing under King Pharaoh (Exo 3). In the course of their movement towards the promise land, they have failed miserably to be faithful to God and his words. But God has been always considerate and kind, pardoning their iniquities and granting them liberation. So one such passage we have in the first reading from the book of Exodus today.

The people of Israel have corrupted themselves by making a golden calf, worshipping and offering sacrifices to it, giving credit to other gods as one’s  who brought them out of Egypt. The Lord wanted to destroy them but Moses pleads for the people, to keep the promise that God had made to make their offspring as many as stars in heaven. It would not have even taken a fraction of second for God to bring wrath on the people of Israel, but God qualifies the state of their living and gives them the privilege of adding extra days and years of life. The sinners or offenders deserve punishment by law but God always finds a way out for his people, who at times by ignorance or stubbornness sin against God and one another. We are also part of the same story in the history; we sin against God, our brothers and sisters by way of insincerity, laziness, denial, hatred, jealousy, lack of moral standard or moral courage, gossip etc but God always gives a chance to grow and gives us a privilege to be called as his children and live like his children. So let us allow the Lord to qualify us as his children and let us not lose sight of the privilege that God gives us as his children.

2. God privileges Paul:

We all of us know the origin of Paul and his earlier mission as Saul before he could become Paul (Acts 22: 3-4). He wished to persecute Christians and over throw them all (Acts 8: 1-3). But Jesus qualifies him to be a lover of Christ and Christians. On the way to Damascus i.e., the light of Christ as the ray of light flashed which transforms Saul to Paul to be a loving missionary for Christ.  In today’s second reading we hear from Paul in his first letter to Timothy, how Christ made use of Paul for his glory and for the works of mission.  That’s why, St. Paul thanks Jesus who judged him faithful, appointing him to God’s service though he was a blasphemer, persecutor and insolent opponent.

It reveals that How St. Paul lost himself but Christ finds him and makes use of him for God’s work. God qualifies St. Paul in such a manner that whether, whips or hardships, peril or persecutions; he does not fail proclaiming Christ. Because, St. Paul was completely gripped onto God owe can say St. Paul never let God go out his mind and sight. He was constantly working for the glory of God in the midst of oppositions and persecutions. Today we also like St. Paul might go through a hard process of change or recovery from unhappy state to a happy state; from what we love to do to what God loves; from what we need to what God needs; from what we plan to what God plans… yes that’s the privilege given to St. Paul to be an instrument and channels for God’s work of missions. St. Paul thought to himself that persecuting and killing Christians was a privilege but God makes him realize that loving Christ and Christians is a privilege. So let us not be dissuaded by people, places and times that threaten us or feel too much elevated for things which will never be ours rather let us allow the Lord to make us privileged like St. Paul and to work for the mission of God and serve his people in all that we can. Today many of us hold our selfish desires and plans as privileges but the real privilege is that which God gives us.

3. God privileges the Lost and the least:

Today the lost and least of the society are cared and loved less, wanted and appreciated less. They are considered as burdensome, as people without quality of life and are not given significant recognition. The world according to its standards and principles weighs one’s quality of life based on power, position, qualification, profession but rarely on interior motifs, the quality and character. But God always sees interiority of the self, the quality and character. For God it is not one among many or many among one and so adjust, but for God even the one is equally important as many and valued more.

It is with such attitude that God gives privilege to his children; although we are not worthy receive such a privileged state because of our misery and a mistaken identity in the world. Today the gospel present before us rather three parables put together; the lost sheep, lost coin and lost son. In each parable God privileges the lost more significantly, giving each their due than the sheep, coins and son present in the parables. God privileges the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son in a unique way. 

The quality remains the same for everything and for everyone in the sight of God. In the three parables presented by Jesus, in fact he gives more importance and a greater value to the lost and not what is already there available. Among hundred sheep, the one sheep that’s lost is more valuable, among ten coins the one coin that is lost is more valuable and among two sons the son who is lost is more valuable. So Jesus qualifies the importance and the value of the lost ones. I am sure it is a privilege as usually the lost or the least is not considered by many of us or we just ignore. But in God’s sight, the lost and least are more valuable, important and privileged. Because, it is the lost one that needs more grace. It shows the preferential option for the poor, the lost, the least, which is the priority for Lucan Gospel of Jesus.  It is like where the sin is increased the grace of God is more abounding (Rom 5:20-21). 

More the sin, more the grace God gives, more the weakness more the strength God grants to overcome. There are times we have made others to feel that they are lost, last and least or we might have been made to feel as lost, least and last by others. In all these we are more advantageous, because grace abounds in us more and God comes close to us to accompany us.  So instead of taking it negatively that we are lost, last and least, let us be positive to consider it a privilege that God gives us to enrich life, change life and allow Jesus to come closer to us, animate life and give quality to life.  

RESPOND:

What is my privilege as God’s children? On what grounds do I consider others as God’s privileged children? Is it on the basis of the world standard like profession, expertise, power, talents and position? Is it on the basis of God’s standards like Mercy, Justice, quality and good character?

Do I allow the Lord to qualify ourselves as His children? Or do I still feel that I am lost, last and least with a pessimistic attitude?

So Let us pray to God to make us his privileged people like the people of Israel and St. Paul to work for his mission and realize that although we feel that we are lost, last and least yet God gives us a privilege, values us and gives us importance more than the others. Amen.

“Since our misery is the throne of God’s mercy, the greater of misery, the greater should be our confidence in God.” (AE VI 22, Conf.2, SC I, p.3… taken from spoonful of Honey-III, p. 98)

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