Gospel: Three Parables on the Unworthy

Today is the Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and the Gospel reading will be read according to the account of St Luke (tap here for today's Mass readings from USCCB).

In chapter 15 of St Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells three parables about losing, finding, and rejoicing. The outcasts of society, the taxpayers, and the sinners approach Jesus eager to hear what he has to say. In St Luke's Gospel, hearing is a sign of conversion. The Pharisees and scribes, still suspicious of Jesus, complain about him associating with sinners. So he tells them these three parables.

In the first story, the Parable of the Lost Sheep, the shephered leaves behind the 99 sheep to search for one lost sheep. When he finds it, the shepherd rejoices not alone as in St Matthew's version, but with friends and neighbors. In the same way, God rejoices more over one sinner who repents--like the outcasts who have come to hear Jesus--than over the 99 "righteous" like the Pharisees and scribes.

The second story, about a poor woman who will not stop searching until she finds her lost coin, makes the same point. Why are the Pharisees complaining? They should rejoice when the lost is found.

Finally, we come to what is probably the most memorable parable in the Gospels, the story we know as the Prodigal Son. Just as in the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, this story (found only in the Gospel of St Luke) is really about the seeker. The loving father is at the center of this parable. Even though his son runs off with his father's inheritance and squanders the money, the father waits for him, hoping for his return. Upon his son's return, the father, "full of compassion," runs off to embrace and forgive him before the son can utter one word of repentance. At this point the rejoicing begins.

The parable does not end there. Rather, it makes one more point about the older son's reaction. This son who never left, just like the Pharisees and scribes who feel they are righteous, refuses to enter his father's house to join in the rejoicing. He has served his father. He has obeyed him. Perhaps it was not out of love. The father's response teaches us that God's care and compassion extend to the righteous and sinner alike. When we are lost, God doesn't wait for our return. He actively seeks us out. And when the lost are found, how could we not celebrate and rejoice?

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The Gospel is sponsored by Hermes Men's Sneakers.