In the readings today at Mass, what is impressed upon us is how this Person, Jesus Christ, changes everything! Worldviews, attitudes, hopes and fears, promises and reality—all of it changes, with the dawning of Christ on humanity.
Our Lord so loved the world, that he set about to change it forever through the Incarnation, lowly and humbly submitting to the Father’s will to be sent as our Light to lead us home.
Saint Paul acknowledges that in his own personal life, things have changed because of Christ. In his own words; “…whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”
The goodness of Christ impels us to re-examine who we are, what we stand for, and where we’re going. Jesus becomes for us the impetus to look at our past, learn from our mistakes, and plough straight ahead in this field of opportunity which he has set before us. Opportunity, in that each day we are given the blessing of working and applying ourselves in his vineyard, the Church, for the good of our brothers and sisters making the same journey.
Just as he has given us renewed strength by the mercy he showed us when we were in sin, so too, he invites us to extend that mercy to others, offering them hope and confidence to continue making their own journey towards our heavenly homeland.
In today’s Gospel, taken from Luke, we hear about this mercy. In fact, the Gospel of Luke itself, is known in theological circles as the Gospel of Mercy. This is because it is only in Luke that we find specific parables that were used by Jesus to teach us something important about mercy.
His persecutors are bemoaning the fact that Jesus went to eat with “sinners”. Their phobia of what is unclean overpowered their lack of moral courage when it came to God’s mercy. And how many times do we sit idly by when we just know something or somebody, especially the most vulnerable need our attention? How many times are we morally weak when it comes to standing up for certain issues, and showing people the correct path? We can be conduits of God’s grace which spurs someone on to lead a new life, and life to the fullest when it is lived in and for Jesus.
Jesus sits with the tax collectors and the prostitutes and other sinners, because he needs to take the opportunity to show them that there is a better way for them. It’s not merely about forgiving their sins. It’s about showing them how to move forward and inviting them to the freedom from sin which will make it possible for them to do so.
Hence, Jesus is continually offering us the same thing: not only his mercy, but the freedom to be able to move forward.
Let us ask ourselves what is holding us back from making progress in our spiritual lives. Let us take it to our Lord in prayer and remember, that you are his special child, treasured for all eternity and he is with you.
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