THE WORD
FIRST READING: Ex 32,7-11.13-14
The LORD said to Moses: Go down at once because your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way I commanded them, making for themselves a molten calf and bowing down to it, sacrificing to it and crying out, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are, continued the LORD to Moses.
Let me alone, then, that my anger may burn against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation.
But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, “Why, O LORD, should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’”
So the LORD changed his mind about the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.
SECOND READING: 1 Tim 1,12-17
Beloved: I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief. Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Of these I am the foremost.
But for that reason I was mercifully treated, so that in me, as the foremost, Christ Jesus might display all his patience as an example for those who would come to believe in him for everlasting life. To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
GOSPEL: Lk 15,1-10 or Lk 15,1-32
The tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to him, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them he addressed this parable: “What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you, in just the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one would not light a lamp and sweep the house, searching carefully until she finds it? And when she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’ In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
IN OTHER WORDS
She stopped going to Church. She believed she was beyond salvation and worth God’s wrath. Whatever misfortune she encountered, she would reason it out to be God’s punishment. This was her doctrine until that night when she had to accompany a friend to a certain Eucharistic vigil. She decided to come along as to satisfy her friend’s invitation.
At the mass and at the Eucharistic vigil that night, she felt that the whole liturgy spoke to her. It was not an accusing finger that judged her but a hand that gestured to her to take a step forward. All those years, she had wanted to come home but did not know how. Grace found her that night.
The first reading has God’s burning anger towards his sinful people. Moses reminded him of his great goodness towards Abraham and the people who came before. This stresses the power of
God to punish those who transgressed greatly but reveals at the same time, the greater power of His mercy. Paul, in the second reading, remembers the friends who left him in his sufferings as an apostle while Onesiphorus remained true and was merciful to him even as he was in chains. Paul prayed that the Lord grant him mercy as well. Mercy begetting mercy.
Jesus showed this mercy and was received greatly by the so-called sinners. This was puzzling for the Pharisees and the scribes because these merciful gestures seemed incoherent with how they think God would treat the transgressors of the Law. They must be punished. However, through the two parables, Jesus revealed what the sinners looked like through the eyes of God. In God’s eyes, the repentance of the lost son and daughter merits rejoicing. It is not the rejoicing over a fallen and punished adversary or a jubilation after a satisfied lust of revenge. It is the joy of seeing finally the face of a sorely missed loved one after not seeing him or her for a long, long time. It is such a great joy! Way back in the Novitiate, a frater then and now, Fr. Paul Bina, SVD, a classmate from Papua
New Guinea, wrote something that touched me so deeply. He did a little but a beautiful twist to the famous words of St.Augustine: “My heart is restless O God until it rests in You”. He wrote his own reflection, “Your heart is restless O God until You will nd me”. As the woman in my earlier story confessed after 40 years, I imagined how great the jubilation in heaven was for her. Truly, when she decided to rise and go to the Father, much like what the prodigal son did and as repeated today in the responsorial psalm, God’s heart rested.
- Fr. Ferdinand Bajao, SVD | Rome, Italy
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
