Sept. 15, 2013: 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Recently, I was at a women’s prayer group breakfast in Baton Rouge to hear a mother give a testimony of her faith journey. She titled her talk, “Memoirs of a Monica.” Some of you may know that St. Monica was a wife who suffered much with a husband who was unfaithful and a son named Augustine who led a very pagan and sinful life. She earnestly prayed for the conversion of her prodigal son, Augustine, over 20 years before he was baptized and became a Catholic. It was due to his mother’s persistent prayer that St. Augustine became a saint and a Doctor of the Church. At the beginning of the talk, the speaker asked us to close our eyes. She then asked, “With your eyes still closed, those of you who are a mother, a father, a grandmother, a grandfather, an uncle, or an aunt of a wayward child, please raise your hands. If you were a wayward child, please raise your hand. If you were affected in anyway by addiction by a family member or a friend, please raise your hands.” She explained that despite her and her husband’s best efforts their teenage son struggled with addiction. He became a prodigal son who was defiant and selfish to everyone. The son’s addiction tore the family apart. As much as the mother wanted to help pull her son out of the dungeon, he dug himself deeper and deeper into the hole. But she was a mother who did not give up on her son. For her, her son was the most precious gift from God, and she did not want to lose him.
In order to understand today’s parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son, we need a key. The key is knowing how Jesus feels about us, how Jesus values us. Mother Teresa explains it this way, “Jesus wants me to tell you again…how much is the love He has for each one of you—beyond all what you can imagine…. Not only He loves you, even more—He longs for you. He misses you when you don’t come close. He thirsts for you. He loves you always, even when you don’t feel worthy…”
Why would God go after His prodigal son who refuses to be saved? The same reason why a heartbroken mother would spend her life savings trying to rehabilitate her son from self-destruction. I don’t think we can begin to appreciate why Heavenly Father would go the extreme of sacrificing His own Son to save us. What does this say about how important we are to Heavenly Father? We are not just a number to Him. We are not just one among the billions. Nor does God want us to be tempted to treat others that way. Mother Teresa understood this. She said:
Near the end of the talk, the mother with the wayward son showed us a slideshow of his photos--his cute baby photos, his boy scout photos, and yes also photos from his social media uploads of himself under the influence. But the most recent photos show a young man who is a university student with a beaming smile and filled with joy. This young man, now filled with love, wrote his mother and told her that he was like Augustine who was transformed by his mother’s tears and sacrifice.
Do we know how many tears are being shed for us at this moment by Heavenly Father? Can we hear from the deepest part of our hearts, Jesus saying to us, “I thirst” for your love? God seeks persons who can be vessels and heralds of his peace. Let us pray that he will not find our hearts closed. Let us strive to be active heralds of his peace – in the world of today.
