20180303
WELCOMING SINNERS
03 MARCH, 2018, Saturday, 2nd Week of Lent
Readings
at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Micah 7:14-15,18-20 ©
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Have pity on us one more time
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With shepherd’s crook, O Lord, lead your people to pasture,
the flock that is your heritage,
living confined in a forest
with meadow land all around.
Let them pasture in Bashan and Gilead
as in the days of old.
As in the days when you came out of Egypt
grant us to see wonders.
What god can compare with you: taking fault away,
pardoning crime,
not cherishing anger for ever
but delighting in showing mercy?
Once more have pity on us,
tread down our faults,
to the bottom of the sea
throw all our sins.
Grant Jacob your faithfulness,
and Abraham your mercy,
as you swore to our fathers
from the days of long ago.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 102(103):1-4,9-12 ©
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The Lord is compassion and love.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
all my being, bless his holy name.
My soul, give thanks to the Lord
and never forget all his blessings.
The Lord is compassion and love.
It is he who forgives all your guilt,
who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave,
who crowns you with love and compassion.
The Lord is compassion and love.
His wrath will come to an end;
he will not be angry for ever.
He does not treat us according to our sins
nor repay us according to our faults.
The Lord is compassion and love.
For as the heavens are high above the earth
so strong is his love for those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west
so far does he remove our sins.
The Lord is compassion and love.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Lk15:18
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Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
I will leave this place and go to my father and say:
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’
Glory and praise to you, O Christ!
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Gospel
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Luke 15:1-3,11-32 ©
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The prodigal son
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The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of
Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained.
‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this
parable to them:
‘A man had
two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the
estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property between them.
A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a
distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.
‘When he had
spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to
feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put
him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly
with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he
came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more
food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and
go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid
servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.
‘While he
was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to
the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to
be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the
best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a
feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to
life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.
‘Now the
elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the
house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked
what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your
father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and
sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to
plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have
slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me
so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of
yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his
women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”
‘The father
said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only
right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and
has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’
WELCOMING SINNERS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [MICAH 7:14-15, 18-20; PS 103:1-4,9-12; LK 15:1-3; 11-32 ]
“The tax
collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what
he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they
said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” How would you like
to be labelled as the religious leaders did of Jesus? Would you
be proud to be identified as one who mixed with wrong company and people with
dubious characters? Would you be embarrassed to let your reputable
relatives, friends and colleagues know that you hang out with such
people? And would you even dare to be anywhere near the pubs and
brothels? But that was what Jesus actually did. He welcomed
sinners, tax-collectors, adulterers and prostitutes. No wonder the
religious leaders were scandalized as His reputation as a Rabbi did not go well
with the company He was with.
That is the
way and heart of God. God is always forgiving. He does not wish to see us
fall or hurt ourselves. He is not out to take revenge or see us
suffer. On the contrary, He wants us to repent and be reconciled, not so
much for His sake but for ours. This is because He loves us deeply and
unconditionally. This is the experience of the Israelites when the
Prophet Micah said, “What God can compare with you: taking fault away,
pardoning crime, not cherishing anger forever but delighting in showing mercy?
Once more have pity on us, tread down our faults to the bottom of the sea throw
all our sins.”
In the gospel, we
have Jesus manifesting the mercy and compassion of God for sinners when He ate
and drank with sinners. The story of the forgiving
father in the gospel captures succinctly in a dramatic way how much God loves
us and forgives us every time when we sin. He does not take
account of our past. When the prodigal son returned, the father did
not demand an explanation or lambasted him for being so irresponsible or
condemned him as deserving of such a tragedy. On the contrary, the
father, in spite of the humiliation and insults he suffered from the younger
son who demanded a share of the property even before his death, did not take
the past hurts into account. All he thought of each day was when his son
would return. We can be sure that the father was on the lookout for him
each day because we read, ‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw
him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and
kissed him tenderly.”
Secondly, all
that God desires is that we be restored to fullness of life and love. Thus before the son could
even act out his rehearsed speech, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your
paid servants”, the father interjected before he could complete the last part
of the sentence. He said to his servants. “Quick! Bring out the best robe
and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the
calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a
celebration because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was
lost and is found.” By giving back his robe, he gave the son back his
honour; by giving him a ring, the son received back his authority; and by
giving a pair of sandals, it was an indication that he was not a servant or
slave but a member of the family.
Such a God of
mercy and compassion is too hard to believe. Deep in our hearts, many of us
cannot believe that God would really forgive us. That is why many
penitents in spite of going for confession still do not feel forgiven because
they doubt that God could ever forgive them their horrendous and unspeakable
sins against Him and their fellowmen, especially their loved
ones. Most cannot forgive themselves or believe that they
could be forgiven by those whom they have hurt. Hence, some of them never
come back to God.
Why is it so
difficult for us to accept the mercy and forgiveness of God? This is
because we are like the elder son and the religious leaders in the
gospel. Firstly, we believe in merits only. We do not believe in
grace. What we sow is what we reap. Therefore the only way to gain
acceptance and appreciation is through sheer hard work and slavery. This
was the attitude of the elder son. He said, “Look, all these years I have
slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me
so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends.” Although the
younger son was a slave to sin of the flesh, he was, as he admitted, a slave of
pride and self-righteousness. Pride has made us intolerant of others who
cannot do what we do.
Secondly, we
are revengeful. The elder son felt unjustified because he was the one who
put in all the hard work in the fields. As far as he was concerned, his
younger brother did not deserve anything since he had taken his share of the
property and left. So he was not entitled to anything from the
family. We can imagine how hurt and indignant he was when the
father restored his sonship and all the rights as well. In the same vein,
we cannot forgive fellow sinners because we feel they deserve the punishments
for all the pains they have caused us and all the sufferings we have gone
through because of their selfishness, greed, lust, anger and
irresponsibility. Can you forgive someone who has caused you to lose your
life’s savings? Can you forgive someone who has broken up your
family? Can you forgive someone who has betrayed you whether in business
or in friendship or at work?
Thirdly, we
cannot welcome sinners because of the need to protect our reputation. We do not welcome
sinners because we do not wish to tarnish our reputation or be misunderstood by
righteous people. We want to be thought of well by others and have a good
reputation in society. So by getting involved with sinners, we might be
ostracized as Jesus was by the religious leaders. This was the same
reason why the religious leaders stayed away from sinners because they might
contaminate them ritually or discredit their office. It was much safer
that they had nothing to do with them, least of all to be their guests or even
have them as guests. Staying away from them was the safest thing to
do.
So if we were
to welcome sinners today, what must we do? We need first and foremost to
recognize that we are all sinners in our own ways. We also have our fair share
of mistakes in life. As fallen creatures, we grow and purify ourselves
over time. We are called not to be saints but saints in the making.
So if we were to forgive and be compassionate with fellow sinners, we need to
forgive ourselves. I always feel that those who are harsh and lacking
compassion are that way because they cannot see themselves as sinners and if
they do, they cannot forgive themselves and are ashamed of their past.
They have not yet come to integrate their mistakes and sins with the grace of
God at work in their lives. So if we were to welcome sinners like Jesus,
we must be aware of our own sinfulness and the mercy of God in our
lives. This is a pre-requisite.
Secondly, we
must realize that there are different degrees and types of sinners. In Luke chapter 15,
the evangelist first told the story of the lost sheep followed by the lost coin
and lastly by the prodigal son. Although all these stories speak
about being lost and found, yet the way they were lost were different. The
lost sheep lost its way by ignorance, just like many of us.
Because of ignorance, we fall into sin, often deceived by the half-truths and
illusions of the world, power, glory, food and possessions. This
explains why on the cross, Jesus could pray for His enemies, saying, “Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they were doing.” Jesus knew
that our ignorance, often the result of pride, arrogance and fear lead us to be
blind to what we are pursuing for ourselves.
Thirdly, the
lost coin got lost through no fault of its own but it was lost because of the
carelessness of others. Some sinners are such simply because of their upbringing
and the wrong company they fell into. Often, irresponsible parents,
because of family squabbles, adultery, gambling and violence, destroy the peace
and unity at home. They drive their children to seek consolation and love
outside the family. So for such people who have fallen into wrong
company because they are so desperate for love and happiness, they should be
pitied, not blamed.
Finally, we
have sinners like the prodigal son who deliberately choose to go that way. Even for such people,
the Lord said something so beautiful about them. “When he had spent it
all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the
pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on
his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with
the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to
his senses.” For many of us, we are not ourselves. To come to
our senses means that we come to realize who we are. The son forgot that
he was called to be a child of God, not a servant, not a slave and much less a
pig, an animal held with contempt by the Jews, the most degrading kind of
animal one could become. So the Lord also forgives such people because
they have lost their senses! They have forgotten their real
identity. They wanted to live without God, but left to themselves, they
are led to self-destruction and slavery.
Today, let us
turn to the Lord of mercy and compassion. With the psalmist we
pray, “My soul, give thanks to the Lord all my being, bless his holy name. It
is he who forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of your ills, who
redeems your life from the grave, who crowns you with love and compassion. His
wrath will come to an end; he will not be angry forever: He does not treat us
according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults. For as the heavens
are high above the earth so strong is his love for those who fear him. As far
as the east is from the west so far does he remove our sins?” This
is our God and following Jesus, not only must we be bold to turn to Him and ask
for forgiveness, we must lead others back to Him so that they too can
experience joy and peace again.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
