Thursday,
November 07, 2013
31st Week in Ordinary Time First Reading: Rom 14: 7-12
Gospel Reading: Lk 15:1-10
Tax collectors and sinners were seeking the company of Jesus, all of them eager to hear what he had to say. But the Pharisees and the scribes frowned at this, muttering. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So Jesus told them this parable:
“Who among you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and seek out the lost one till he finds it? And finding it, will he not joyfully carry it home on his shoulders? Then he will call his friends and neighbors together and say: ‘Celebrate with me for I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you, just so, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine upright who do not need to repent.
“What woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one, will not light a lamp and sweep the house in a thorough search till she finds the lost coin? And finding it, she will call her friends and neighbors and say: ‘Celebrate with me for I have found the silver coin I lost!’ I tell you, in the same way there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the
Assimilated Life
Experience)
The Pharisees tried to pull back Jesus’ soaring public image by highlighting the bad reputation of the people seeking him out. Most of these people wanting his company were outcasts like tax collectors and public sinners. Jesus took the occasion to clarify the nature of his mission. To the disappointment of the self-righteous Pharisees who thought that by their austere practices in observance of the Law they held front seat tickets to heaven, Jesus minced no words in declaring that he came for sinners not for the self-righteous ones. The parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin left no room for ambiguity in his message.
God’s ways haven’t changed. Today he still seeks out sinners. But sinners must not be complacent. In the parable of the wedding banquet the king invited the poor and the lame. But when he noticed that one of those who had come to the banquet was improperly dressed for the occasion, he ordered him thrown out of the banquet hall into the darkness to wail and grind his teeth. While God invites sinners to his kingdom he expects those who honor the invitation to shape up. The very act of honoring the invitation commits the sinner to new life in the Spirit.
Salvation then is a meeting of a God actively reaching out to lost creatures, and sinners who are willing to repent. God has done his part. Salvation is now a matter of repentance. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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