Our readings today are particularly instructive in highlighting the essence of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Every person is important and loved by God their creator. That love expressed through forgiveness is greater than all the constraints human and social in the secular world. Yet for that love and forgiveness to be manifest, like the younger son, we who yearn for that love expressed in forgiveness must “come to our senses.” Mercy is not an endorsement of sin; it is acknowledgement of need for conversion.
Forgiveness and mercy are in short supply in our day, as is the understanding that we must come to our senses, own up to our mistakes and open up ourselves to change. Jesus in response to the religious leaders’ hardened hearts offered three parables that do not make sense to our culture. Who would leave 99 sheep at risk in the desert to search for only one lost? Who would so intensely search the house for one small coin when others are likely available? Who would offer a feast in honor of someone who turned his back on family and wasted his inheritance on sinful living?
But what if we were the one lost sheep, if we were the one thing of value like a coin, if we were the sinful son? Then it all makes sense for us and gives us hope. These parables powerfully declare that the searching shepherd, the motivated woman and the forgiving father reflect the sacrificial love of Christ for us all. It is the call of the new evangelization to reach out to those who have wandered away from the Church, to those who are hidden in the shadows of worldly lures, and to those who wonder if forgiveness and healing can be theirs, or ours?
I have raised up before these true and consoling words of hope spoken by Betsie Ten Boom in a Nazi death camp: “There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.” She insisted that the horror of her experience which reflects the evil men can do to one another should not turn us to despair. God is deeper still. That simple though profound thought gives hope when we reflect on the horror of war and terror, the anxiety from economic uncertainty and injustice, the angry taunts which are so much a part of political dialogue and the emptiness of personal failings, sickness or loss. God is deeper still.
All our readings remind us of how deep is God’s love and mercy. In the Book of Exodus, the chosen people of Israel, despite having been saved from pestilence and persecution and having been led to freedom by Moses under God’s guidance, fell into a pit in which they worshiped pagan gods. Yet the Lord did not reject them, but rather offered them an opportunity for repentance and a new beginning. Pagan gods are worshiped in our secular culture today – drugs, sex, violence, power, celebrity, money, work. Yet God is deeper still.
St. Paul in our 2nd reading describes himself as one of the worst of sinners, a blasphemer and a persecutor filled with arrogance. Yet, he noted with awe,” the grace of the Lord has been granted to me in overflowing measure. You can depend on this: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” In the Gospel, we are told that there is great rejoicing among the angels in heaven over even one sinner who repents.
We all need forgiveness; we all are called to forgive. Sin and the lure of evil is an equal opportunity threat. Yet forgiveness is an equal opportunity gift from a merciful God. Though to take advantage of this gift, we must like the prodigal son own up to our errant ways. The Church can help us through the sacraments and the guidance of Christ’s moral teachings. Every time we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we are reassured that God’s love is deeper still. So we can live with hope even with our human frailty. God never gives up on inviting us to be with him, to repent and be lifted from the pit of sin, despair and loneliness.
Five year old Bobby was lost in the mountains of the northwest. His parents were frantic. Rangers and citizens searched the mountain. Night came and snow began to fall covering the countryside. Bobby was nowhere to be found. The next morning his father, bone tired from worry and searching, kicked against what seemed like a log. When the snow fell from it a small boy sat up, yawned, stretched, and exclaimed, “Oh, Daddy, I’ve found you at last.”
Christ invites us to find him. There will be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over 99 righteous people who have no need to repent. We all have need to repent. It is not too late for there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still. He welcomes sinners and the angels rejoice when they, when we come home.