Sep 9, 2013
Exodus
32:7-11, 13-14
Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
The episode in today's First Reading has been called "Israel's
original sin." Freed from bondage, born as a people of God in the
covenant at Sinai, Israel turned aside from His ways, fell to
worshipping a golden calf.
Moses implores God's mercy, as Jesus will later intercede for the
whole human race, as He still pleads for sinners at God's right
hand and through the ministry of the Church.
Israel's sin is the sin of the world. It is your sin and mine.
Ransomed from death and made His children in Baptism, we fall prey
to the idols of this world. We remain a "stiff-necked people,"
resisting His will for us like an ox refuses the plowman's yoke
(see
Jeremiah 7:26).
Like Israel, in our sin we push God away, reject our divine
sonship. Once He called us "my people" (see
Exodus 3:10;
6:7). But our sin makes us "no people," people He
should, in justice, disown (see
Deuteronomy
32:21;
1 Peter 2:10).
Yet in His mercy, He is faithful to the covenant He swore by His
own self in Jesus. In Jesus, God comes to Israel and to each of us
- as a shepherd to seek the lost (see
Ezekiel 34:11-16), to carry us back to the heavenly
feast, the perpetual heritage promised long ago to Abraham's
children.
"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," Paul cries in
today's Epistle. These are the happiest words the world has ever
known. Because of Jesus, as Paul himself can testify, even the
blasphemer and persecutor can seek His mercy.
As the sinners do in today's Gospel, we draw near to listen to Him.
In this Eucharist, we bring Him the acceptable sacrifice we sing of
in today's Psalm - our hearts, humbled and contrite.
In the company of His angels and saints, we rejoice that He has
wiped out our offense, celebrate with Him - that we have turned
from the evil way that we might live (see
Ezekiel 18:23).