Lk.15:1-32

24th Sunday of the Year – C

Who among us, in our childhood, has not played the enjoyable game of Hide and Seek?
There was so much fun in having our friends look for us hidden in what we thought a secret place really impossible to find!
But, when in fact, our companions did not find us, the game lost some of its suspense…
So, we made a sound, or shouted, so as to give a clue about our location because…
we wanted to be found eventually!

At the beginning of the Bible we are given the story of, perhaps, the most famous game of Hide and Seek!
In the Book of Genesis (Gn.3:8-9), we see the first human beings hiding from… God who is in search of them!
This is an amazing story and a fascinating scene giving us a message that we are still exploring to this day!
A message which is good to ponder once again on this Sunday.

The gospel text offers us three parables of something lost and later found (Lk.15:1-32).
It is the third one which calls us to reflection: a son has been lost but by his own choice.
He has taken the initiative to go away, to ‘get lost’.

In fact, his situation of being lost is more that of HIDING.
And, for a while, he does not seem too eager to be found…
Eventually, moved by a craving for food and, possibly too, for what he used to enjoy, he sets on the way.
Here again, it is God who does the searching!

And amazingly, this remains true for all our personal experiences of getting lost in this 21^st century!
God keeps searching for us.
The question facing us is simple: DO WE WANT TO BE FOUND?…

Life’s meaning is ‘hidden’ there!

Note: There is another reflection on a different theme in French at: https://image-i-nations.com/24e-dimanche-de-lannee-c-2019/

Source: Image: iStock Book of Mormon Central

24th Sunday of the Year, C

Speaking of God, calling on him, imagining his shape and his activities – all this is part of our efforts to come to know him. In their sophisticated language, Bible scholars speak of ‘anthropomorphism’ – in simple words it means lending to God some of our human attributes and attitudes. All through the Bible, we find such language telling us of God’s eyes, arms, ears, etc. Some texts speak of his anger, his jealousy, his tenderness, his faithfulness, his love.

We believe that God is a Spirit but this is not easy for us to understand, so we compare him to… ourselves! We even assign to him some human functions: he works, then, he needs to rest (Gn.2:1-2). The prophet Jeremiah speaks of him as a potter (Jer.18:6). Isaiah says that he plays with us as a mother with her infant (Is.66:12). Amazingly, he can regret having done something (Gn.6:6), and he is even shown as changing his mind!

The first reading of this Sunday (24th, Year C – Ex.32:7-11,13-14) describes him doing exactly that: changing his mind about the punishment he was about to bring on his people. Moses intercedes for the people of Israel and we are told that God relents and will not bring disaster on them.

We know well (or, do we?…) that God does not change his mind but… he waits patiently that we change ours!
We are the ones who need to change our minds and our lives. It is up to us to change the direction we had been following up to now – this is exactly what CONVERSION is about! This is the attitude of the ‘repentant sinner’ described in today’s gospel (Lk.15:1-32) over whom God rejoices. Yes, amazingly (in anthropological terms!) we can give joy to God.
2011-10-055-the-prodigal-son-1920x960
That very joy so well described by Jesus in the parable of the father welcoming his ‘lost’ son. The son changed his mind – the father did not need to do so, he had been waiting all along, checking whether the horizon would offer him the long-awaited sight… his beloved son on the way home.

Changing our minds… taking the way home where a Father will lavish on us more than we can ever dream of – this is ‘prodigality’ in its deepest sense.

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24th Sunday of the Year – C

24th Sunday of the Year, C

Source: Images: en.wikipedia.org www.lds.org