OMELIE / Omelie EN

15 set 2019

15/09/2019 – 24th Sunday in O.T. Year C

15/09/2019 – 24th Sunday in O.T. Year C

Reading 1 EX 32,7-11.13-14 * Psalm 50 * Reading 2 1TM 1,12-17 * Gospel LK 15,1-32

“In the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense”! This prayer from the psalm could summarise the message of the three readings: the man is a sinner, God is merciful; the man ruins his own life with his own sins, God wants to relieve him of the consequences of his faults; the man tries to elude God, who is looking for us because He is mindful of His goodness and knows that we are incapable of saving ourselves.

To Moses, God shows the seriousness of the people's sin: there is nothing else to do in order for him to realise it, rather than getting to know that it makes the destruction of the people itself deserved. Moses, receiving this revelation, shows he takes into account his God’s mercy: in fact, he intercedes for the people, and, reminding God His old promises, begs Him for forgiveness. And God listens and forgives!

But, does sin exist? This word nowadays is not used anymore. Nowadays, we use the words “negativity” and “positivity”: the man would find himself in good and bad situations without any responsibility. This mentality finds its roots in oriental spirituality (Buddhist) and in New Age groups. Here God is not recognised as a Person able to speak and listen, but He is considered some kind energy, and the man part (a piece!) of such a divinity. In the man the divine powers would be still hidden, so he needs to make an effort to discover them and develop them through specific exercises (yoga, breathing exercises and meditation). In these beliefs there cannot be place for the word <<sin>>: in fact, this is an action or a behaviour that is against the love, the will and the teaching of God the Father. He who does not know God's love, of the God who revealed Himself to Abraham and his descendants, cannot define as sin any of his actions. The fact that this word <<sin>> is not used, is a sign of lack of knowledge of the Father and the Son, a sign of absence of the light of the Holy Spirit.

Today we can hear Moses talking about sin, the cause of the evil that has befallen his people; then the psalm is asking for mercy for the offense, that is creating too much suffering. Lastly, Jesus in three parables describes how sin works, its consequences and the only possible remedy. He is heard by “sinners” and spied on by those who think they are fine, without sin. His words include a message for both: the sinners need to convert, reply with love to God’s love, but also he who believes himself fine need to convert: he needs to welcome in his heart the same love that God the Father has for everyone, even for whom might seem lost. The man who does not have this love inside him cannot be pleasant to God, cannot be in communion with Him!

Jesus describes sin for us as the behaviour of the beloved son asking for the father’s possessions to go living as he pleases, satisfying his own instincts and his own passions, a son imposing himself in order to live his own life, leaving the communion with all the other members of the family. Sin is this desire for independence, the independence of whom does not want to listen to God and live in communion with the others! This independence ends up generating an unbearable solitude. In fact, the goods of this world, seeked forcedly from the Father, have limited duration and they cannot take the place of His love, nor they can create communion among men.

The solution? The man does not have it. Or better, the solution, the only possible one, is going back to the Father and His family. The solution is to remember His boundless love, go back in ourselves, recognise our mistake, plan to return with humility and firmness, to look for the meeting. The Father is capable of solving this, nay, with all His heart He desires to fill the son's solitude. He rejoices then at the son's return, as the shepherd rejoices for the found sheep and as the woman rejoices with her friends when she recovers the the coin lost.

In order for us to find the way to come back, the Father sends the Son Jesus to meet us halfway! Today we look at this desire of the Father’s, we let ourselves to be attracted by the feast He knows how to prepare for each one of us, we find His love again. With greater understanding we profess our faith in a God who is neither an Idea nor an Energy, but a living person, attentive, looking forward to having us as friends and companions at the table, a person who runs towards us to hug us! We profess the faith in the Father who is waiting for us: He has given us life and He values us so much He chose us for taking part in His eternal love, destined to every man in the world. He loves us so much He wants to overcome the obstacles we put in front of Him through our sin. The confidential opening up of Saint Paul in the second reading is encouraging us to desire this meeting with the Father, to want it with all our strengths!