{"id":885,"date":"2019-09-12T09:29:46","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T09:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=885"},"modified":"2019-09-12T09:30:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T09:30:57","slug":"15-september-2019-c-twenty-fourth-sun-day-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=885","title":{"rendered":"15 September 2019 (C) Twenty-Fourth Sunday of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A. <\/strong>The Bible as\nGuide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.\nReflection & Dialogue: <\/strong>Searching for the lost sheep and the\nprodigal son today<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A. <\/strong>The Bible as\nGuide in Life and Liturgy (Sunday Readings)<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First Reading <\/em>(Exodus 32:7-11\n13-14). The Lord relented and did not\nbring on his people the disaster he had threatened.<\/em> This passage is chosen\nfor today\u2019s liturgy to go with the Gospel reading with the parables of the\nsearch for the lost sheep and of the prodigal son. The passage speaks of God\u2019s\nconcern not to destroy his people, even after their sin of idolatry and\npractical apostasy. It is well to set this reading in its larger biblical\ncontext. After the exodus from Egypt God made a covenant with Israel and through Moses gave them\nhis law and the commandments. The first of these commandments was profession of\nfaith in the Lord God of Israel\nalone as God, an invisible God with a complete ban on any graven image or\nlikeness of god in any form. Then Moses spent forty days and forty nights with\nthe Lord on Mount Sinai, with a few chosen\npersons, while the people waited at the foot of the mountain, with Aaron,\nMoses\u2019 brother. Monotheism, worship of an unseen god, with or without images,\nis not easy at any time. It was much more difficult in the polytheistic setting\nof Moses\u2019 day. The people grew impatient at Moses\u2019 absence and asked Aaron to\nmake them a god, or gods, who would go before them, that is visible symbols of\nthe divine presence as in pagan idolatry, with which they would have been\nfamiliar. Aaron made them a molten golden calf, more precisely a young male\ncalf or young bull, which was a fertility symbol in the nature religions of the\nancient Near East. The Northern Kingdom of Israel would later erect such\nstatues, as symbols of the God of Israel at Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28). God\nthreatened to destroy Israel\nfor their apostasy, but relented due to Moses\u2019 plea and intercession on their\nbehalf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsorial Psalm <\/em>(Psalm 50[51]). I will leave this place and go to my father.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second Reading <\/em>(1 Timothy 1:12-17). Christ Jesus came into the world to save\nsinners.<\/em> For the next seven Sundays the second readings with be from the\nFirst and Second Letters to Timothy. These, with the Letter to Titus, are known\nas the Pastoral Letters, and this because they address matters of general\npastoral care. In this, and in many other ways, they differ from the other\nPauline letters. They differ in vocabulary, in style, in theology and in\nmatters of Church governance. They seem to reflect a situation in Church life\nrepresenting a generation after the apostolic age, and are probably from a\ndisciple of Paul rather from the apostle himself. They represent the heritage\nof Paul, the continuation of Paul\u2019s spirit and are written in his name, as if\nhe himself were still speaking and addressing his message to the Church in new\nsituations. In the verse immediately preceding the present reading Paul speaks\nof the \u201cglorious gospel of the blessed God\u201d with which he has been entrusted.\nHe thanks God for this and for the strength he has given him for his ministry,\nand for the vocation as apostle despite his early life as persecutor of the\nChurch. The grace of God filled him with faith, and with love for God and the\nChurch. Timothy and the early church would have been well aware of all this\nalready. Paul then introduces a statement he wishes to stress by a phrase which\noccurs four other times in the Pastoral Letters and nowhere else (1 Timothy\n3:1; 4:9; 2 Timothy 2:11; Titus 3:8): \u201cThe saying is sure and worthy of full\nacceptance\u201d, generally, but not always used before a dogmatic statement. The\nstatement in question here is that Christ came into the world to save sinners. To\nthis Paul adds that he himself is the greatest of these sinners. He can be\ntaken as a model for all generations of the sinner pardoned generously by God.\nJesus Christ had intended Paul the pardoned sinner to serve for all future\nbelievers as the greatest evidence of God\u2019s inexhaustible patience. This\nreflection leads Paul to a liturgical\u2013type of prayer giving honour and glory to\nGod.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gospel<\/em> (Luke 15:1-32). There\nwill be rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner. <\/em>The introductory\nverse gives the setting for these three parables. Jesus was known for his\nkindness to the marginalized, and for this reason his company was sought out by\nthe tax collectors (or more exactly toll collectors) and sinners. The sinners\nin question were most probably lapsed Jews, who paid little or no heed to the\nattitudes and regulations believed to be required for proper observance of the\ncovenant requirements. The tax or toll collectors were marginalized for a\ntwofold reason, presumed dishonesty in exacting over the required amount for\nthe own benefit, and cooperation in tax collection for a foreign power. These\ncame to hear Jesus teach and preach. It was also widely known that he dined\nwillingly with them. Dining at meals was an accepted way of manifesting union\namong the guests, and was for Jews a foretaste of the great expected messianic\nfeast. The guardians of presumed covenant values in particular were the\nPharisees and the scribes (learned in, and teachers of, the Jewish law). Their\nconcern about, or objection to, Jesus\u2019 practice from one point of view is\nunderstandable. Not from that of the heavenly Father or of Jesus, who in three\nparables makes the clear point that the heavenly Father\u2019s immense love and\nunderstanding goes far beyond their limited concerns. It was not a question\nthat the heavenly Father\u2019s love for the lost and prodigal meant that as a\nremedy \u201canything goes\u201d. All his concern was to restore to full communion with\nhimself, through ultimate repentance. The fact of being found, and the\nreturning, were in themselves repentance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                The\nparables are the finding, first of one out of a hundred, then one out of ten,\nand the return of one out of two. The parables are in good part\nself-explanatory. The drachma was equivalent to the denarius, a workman\u2019s daily\nwage.  The parable of the two sons, the\nlost (prodigal) and the dutiful mirrors the position of those to whom the\nparable is addressed: the lost (prodigal) the \u201csinners\u201d of the parable, who\nneglected the Jewish law and the narrow tradition of the scribes and Pharisees;\nthe dutiful son, who always obeyed his father mirroring the scribes and\nPharisees in their attention to the observance of the Law. The parable has as\nbackground a rather affluent farming family. The understanding father\nacquiesced to the foolish request or demand of the younger son and gave him his\nportion of the estate. The younger, prodigal, son squandered his money on\ndebauchery, and apparently also abandoned his Jewish religion, as he ended up\npenurious in pagan territory feeding pigs, animals forbidden to Jews. The\nchanged situation brought him to his senses, and to a recognition that the\ninheritance with his father which he had abandoned was preferable the situation\nhe had drawn on himself. He would say to his father that he had sinned \u201cagainst\nheaven\u201d, a popular  religious Jewish way\nof saying \u201cagainst God\u201d, omitting direct mention of the divine name. Stress is\nlaid on the loving concern of the father, who ignores all accepted niceties and\nprotocol to welcome his lost son home, in this mirroring the love of the\nheavenly Father. The reaction of the older son to these elaborate celebrations\nfor his fugitive brother\u2019s return is quite understandable, and is so recognized\nby the father of them both. The father\u2019s explanation mirrors that of the\nheavenly Father, recognizing his elder son\u2019s faithful service while noting that\nthere are occasions indicating that one should go beyond such legitimate\nconsiderations. The joy of the earthly father on the return of the lost son\nreflects the joy in heaven, the joy of God and of the angels, over the return\nof a single repentant person, a return to their true inheritance from a lost\nexistence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.\nReflection & Dialogue<\/strong>: Searching\nfor the lost sheep and the prodigal son today<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was once easy to identify \u201clost sheep\u201d\nand have a ministry to them. They were lapsed, or non-practising, Catholics. Certain\nzealous members of some Catholic organizations might seek them out and attempt\nto bring them back to the practice of there faith.  They might also be visited by preachers\nduring parish missions. Matters are notably different in our own day. Many\nCatholics give up the practice of their religion at an early date. Some are\njust \u201clapsed\u201d and go no further, remaining believers to a greater or lesser\ndegree. But together with these there is now a growing denial of belief in God,\nand a tendency to make this denial public, as if such belief were incompatible\nwith a truly human life. And with this goes denial of belief in any afterlife.\nThis explicit denial can be pronounced among the literati and learned class. It\nis not new, and has in history tended to accompany high points in physics and\nliterature. We have a good example of it in the biblical Book of Wisdom<\/em> (2:2-3), composed about 30 B.C., where the ungodly\nare made to say: \u201cthe breath in our nostrils is smoke, and reason is kindled by\nthe beating of our hearts. When it is extinguished, the body will turn to\nashes, and the spirit will dissolve like empty air\u201d. For believers, the loving\nFather in heaven continues to address his saving message to all these, and it\nwill be for believers to make this message known as befits each occasion.\nRejection, real or apparent, of the Church among the young can come about from\na variety of causes. With these in mind, it is good to pay attention to surveys\ndone on the attitude of the young towards the Catholic faith. Some of their difficulties\narise from an incorrect understanding of certain points of doctrine, such as\nthe real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, or in consecrated hosts. The task\nof bringing the message of God\u2019s loving concern to the many groups in our own\nday is a daunting one, but not one to despair of, since the chief agent at work\nwill be none other than God, the loving Father and Jesus Christ present in our\nworld in a variety of ways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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