Dear Friends, I am forwarding the mail received from Fr. Jude Botelho. Please take time to read and reflect. Love & Prayers Jennifer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- Dear Friends, All of us have had the experience of finding something that we had lost. It could be a precious object, a wedding ring, it could be something that we had earlier, a talent or quality which we have recovered or a friend whom we have found again. It is truly a joyful experience. Have we though of the joy God experiences when He finds one of us who was lost? I would like to reflect on God's attitude towards those who come back to Him. Have an reconciling weekend! I will be out for a break to Austria till the end of this month. Do keep me in your prayers. Fr. Jude --------- Sunday Reflections: 16-9-00- Twenty-Fourth Sunday of the Year The God of Mercy . Readings: Exodus 32: 7-11, 13-14 Timothy 1 Tim. 1:12-17 Luke 15:1-32 Today's readings are rich in meaning and insight and it would be too much to reflect one every one in detail. Even the Gospel has three parables each is a complete meditation in itself, hence I will dwell at length on the last part of the Gospel, the well known story of the Prodigal son. Someone has said that even if we lost the whole of the Gospels and had only the parable of the Prodigal Son, we would have more than enough of a revelation of the Good News. May the reading challenge us to become a little more like the God we believe in. The first reading from the Book of Exodus speaks of one incident of a provoked God forgiving his people. Right through the Exodus God's people grumbled and complained about almost everything. They complained about the Egyptians, about the journey, about the food, about their leaders and about the promised land. Now when Moses was on Mt. Sinai they complained that Moses had abandoned them.. This was too much and God announced that he would destroy his people so Moses appealed to Him to forgive. Because of His loving kindness God forgives his people. In the second Reading Paul will remind his readers of his own personal history: how he had persecuted God's followers and yet God not only forgave him but made him his chosen disciple. Paul is ever grateful, as we ourselves should be, not only for God's mercy, but also because God does not keep a record of our wrongs. He not only forgives Paul but appoints him to a responsible service in His Church. How very different from us is God's reaction to sinners! Doomed for life? In one of the episodes of the comic strip "Peanuts", Lucy has a helium-filled balloon which she gives to Snoopy saying "I'm going for lunch Snoopy. Hold this for me." She puts the string of the balloon in his mouth and warns him, "Whatever you do, don't let go of it!" So Snoopy sits there motionless, holding the balloon. It must have been a long lunch, because eventually he falls asleep, still holding on to the balloon. During his nap he yawns and of course, the balloon takes off. In that twilight zone between sleeping and waking he realizes what just happened and is suddenly wide awake in panic. In the final frame he is walking along railroad track in the moonlight, with his belongings in a sack tied to a pole on his shoulder, saying to himself, "Make one mistake and you are doomed for life!" Charles Schulz The Gospel has been jokingly referred to as the case of the Lost and Found Department as it deals with things and people who are lost and found! What is important is to note the underlining theme of joy at finding what one has lost. It should be called God's Joy in finding and forgiving sinners. These stories went against the tradition, which never conceived of a God who went out in search of sinners. The Pharisees in fact had a saying that "There is joy in heaven over one sinner who is obliterated before God." Maybe that is the way we ourselves think sometimes! The Gospel starts with the statement; The tax collectors and sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say and the Pharisees complained "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." We eat only with those we are very much at home with. We refuse food from a stranger, nor do we invite someone we don't like to share a meal with us. Jesus loved to share a meal with the sinners because he felt at home with them. This meal is a also a symbol of the Eucharist, which is given for us sinners, so nothing should keep us away from sharing in the Eucharist. After the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin comes the moving account of the prodigal son, more appropriately called the story of the Prodigal Father. While the sheep may have lost its way through carelessness and the coin was lost through no fault of its own, the son was lost because he chose to go his own way. We are responsible for being lost, we can't blame others, the devil, our genes, our God. We deliberately choose to get lost. The mistake of the Prodigal Father is that He loves his son too much. His first mistake is that He gives him the freedom to leave home even though He himself is hurt by His son's demands and departure. His second mistake is that He waits for the return of this son. While he was a long way off He goes out to meet him. He does not wait for his rehearsed repentance speech but embraces him. His joy is so great at finding his son, that his forgiveness is total and unconditional. There are many ways of forgiving. It is sometimes done reluctantly, holding back, conveying guilt to the recipient. "I'm going to forgive you this time, but look at the mess you've created, don't ever forget that!" Sometimes forgiveness is done as a favour. Worse, forgiveness can be a form of blackmail, "If you don't meet my conditions I'll reveal it all.!" With the Father forgiveness is total, treating the son as though his sins never happened. First he kisses him as a sign of acceptance, he then instructs his servants to dress him as befits his son, to give him a ring, a token of honour and authority, and put sandals on his feet, the mark of a free man as only slaves went barefoot. These signs emphasize the great joy of the Father on having his son back and his total acceptance of him. Besides the focus on the son who was lost and the Prodigal Father, the story also gives us a glimpse of the elder son, the 'good guy', who stays at home and does all the dirty jobs, and the extra bit because his brother has left home. Perhaps many of us would identify with him; we have not done anything really bad, by and large we have been loyal and we expect others to do their bit as well. This second son cannot accept the Father's acceptance of his wayward son. He is judgmental, and self-righteous and he wants his brother punished. How can he join in the celebration? Perhaps we have sometimes harboured similar thoughts. "How can God let evil people prosper? How can He permit thieves and prostitutes and lawbreakers go scot free? This is most unfair, God should punish them!" The story of the Prodigal does not tell us what happened at the end. We do not know whether the elder son did join the party. There is no ending because this is not just a story but really our story. It is a challenge to each of us. Will we go inside or remain outside? Will we celebrate with the father over his goodness to sinners or will we be petty minded at his generosity? We have to complete the story! Prodigal Daughter In Glasgow, Scotland, a young lady, like a lot of teens today, got tired of home and the restraints of her parents. The daughter rejected her family's religious lifestyle and said, "I don't want your God. I give up. I'm leaving!" She left home, deciding to become a woman of the world. Before long, however, she was dejected and unable to find a job, so she took to the streets to sell her body as a prostitute. The years passed by, her father died, her mother grew older, and the daughter became more and more entrenched in her way of life. No contact was made between mother and daughter during these years. The mother, having heard of her daughter's whereabouts, made her way to the skid-row section of the city in search of her daughter. She stopped at each of the rescue missions with a simple request. "Would you allow me to put up this picture?" It was a picture of the smiling, gray-haired mother with a handwritten message at the bottom: "I love you still...come home!" Some more months went by, and nothing happened. Then one day the daughter wandered into a rescue mission for a needed meal. She sat absent-mindedly listening to the service, all the while letting her eyes wander over to the bulletin board. There she saw the picture and thought, 'Could that be my mother?' She couldn't wait until the service was over. She stood and went to look. It was her mother, and there were those words, "I love you still...come home!" As she stood in front of the picture, she wept. It was too good to be true. By this time it was night, but she was so touched by the message that she started walking home. By the time she arrived it was early in the morning. She was afraid and made her way timidly, not really knowing what to do. As she knocked, the door flew open on its own. She thought someone must have broken into the house. Concerned for her mother's safety, the young woman ran to the bedroom and found her still sleeping. She shook her mother awake and said, "It's me! It's me! I'm home!" The mother couldn't believe her eyes. She wiped her tears and they fell into each other's arms. The daughter said, "I was so worried! The door was open and I thought someone had broken in!" The mother replied gently, "No dear. >From the day you left, that door has never been locked." May we celebrate His mercy every day of our life! Fr. Jude Botelho Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ********************************************************************** This mail is generated from JOYnet, a Jesus Youth mailing list. To unsubscribe, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For automatic help, send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] In case of any issue related to the mailing list contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] To know more about Jesus Youth, visit http://www.jesusyouth.org **********************************************************************
