LET MERCY FALL ON ME - 24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (9/11/2022)

24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
​September 11, 2022


​Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14
​Psalm 51
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-32

LET MERCY FALL ON ME

The lyrics of a contemporary Christian song seem to express this Sunday's readings: "Everyone needs compassion. Love that's never ending. Let mercy fall on me." We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (cf. Rom. 3:23). So, we all need God's mercy and compassion. Today, we are called upon to thank God for showing us his mercy and forgiveness.

EXODUS

Our first reading takes place as Moses is on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights to receive God's Law. The Israelites grow impatient and tired of waiting on Moses. The people persuade Aaron to make a Golden Calf - an idol that they could worship.

It is the Lord who tells Moses about the idolatry and sinful behavior taking place in the camp below. God tells Moses, "Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation."

Moses then intercedes for his people and asks God to remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel (Jacob) and his promises to make their descendants "as numerous as the stars of the sky, " as well as the land, and "descendants as their perpetual heritage." The Lord is persuaded by Moses' intercession and mercifully "relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people." The Responsorial, appropriately, is Psalm 51, the Miserere: "Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness."

GOSPEL

Our selection today is chapter 15 of Luke's gospel. Jesus tells three parables to describe God's extravagant mercy toward sinners as well as God's joy when "the lost has been found." These parables are The Lost Sheep, The Lost Coin, and The Lost (Prodigal) Son. The latter two are found only in St. Luke.

All three parables seem to bring out the idea of searching for that which is lost. The shepherd leaves the rest of his flock and searches for the lost sheep until he finds it. The woman searches diligently for her lost coin until it is found. Likewise, the father of the wayward son, although he allowed son the freedom to receive his inheritance early and squander it, never stopped searching the road, hoping to spot him returning. "While he was still a long way off, he caught sight of him."

And let us not overlook the aspect of great rejoicing present in all three parables - illustrative of heaven's rejoicing over one repentant sinner coming back home to God his Father.

1 TIMOTHY

In today's second reading, St. Paul gives his testimony to the mercy of God in his life: "I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief." Paul thanks the Lord that his grace has been "abundant," bringing to mind another statement in Romans: "Where sin abounded, grace abounded still more" (Rom. 5:20).

Here St. Paul states that "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these, I am the foremost." He cites himself as an example of a recipient of God's great mercy to encourage all those who will come to faith in Jesus.

This reading concludes with a beautiful doxology - spontaneous praise to the Lord for his abundant mercy!

MERCY: LOVE'S SECOND NAME

The theme of God's mercy is like a mighty river running through the Scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament. In more recent times, the Revelations of Divine Mercy given to St. Faustina have kept God's merciful love before our eyes. We have also been blessed with the ministry of Saint John Paul II, "The Great Mercy Pope," who wrote the powerful encyclical Dives in Misericordia: On the Mercy of God (1981), in which he said: "Mercy is who God is. It is love's second name." (DM7).

In the face of God's extravagant and overabundant mercy what else can we do except to praise and thank him: "O give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His mercy endures forever" (Psalm 136:1).