Every now and then it is worthwhile asking ourselves the question “What is the point of being a Christian?” You can hear and see me giving this Homily on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wOIcVvueps
I was shocked and saddened the other day when I heard of someone saying that their reason for being a Christian was to avoid going to hell. How sad that the teaching of the Pharisees, the very people Jesus opposed; the teaching that says that unless you believe and live the way we do then you are damned; how sad that teaching like that should have crept into the thinking of even one Christian! Yet sadly I hear again and again of people who have been brought up as Catholics to fear God rather than to rejoice in his love. Indeed, I have heard such views from other Christians too.
All three of our Readings today stress the love and mercy of God rather than his wrath. In our 1st Reading (Exodus 32:7-14) we hear Moses struggling with two ideas of God, one of a God of wrath in which he hears God say “Leave me now, my wrath shall blaze out against them and devour them.”; and the other, that wins out, of the God who loves and saves his people despite their imperfections. In our 2nd Reading (1 Tim 1:12-17) we hear how Paul considered himself a dreadful sinner saying, “I used to be a blasphemer and did all I could to injure and discredit the faith.” ; and yet God has shown him “Inexhaustible patience” because, as he says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Finally, we have three great Parables from Jesus, all saying the same thing, that God’s whole loving purpose is to search out and save us poor humans stuck in the mess we have made of his world, and so offer us a new way forward.
For me, there would be no point in being a Christian, of belonging to the Church, if it was a religion of fear, excluding people from God’s love for one reason or another. Of course, people can exclude themselves, they can be so tied up in their own self-importance that they have no sense of the need to reach out in love to others and thus to God. This is precisely why what the father says to the other son in Jesus’ story, the one who stays at home, is so important. This son objects strongly to the father welcoming home the sinful son; but the father tells him to rejoice. Indeed, if the son had seen what the father had just done, he would have been even more shocked; for the father runs to greet the son even before he has arrived home to say sorry. For we hear that ‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity.” There is however one critical word missing here, because in all other translations we actually hear Jesus looking at the disapproving faces of the Pharisees, and then contradicting them with the word “But”. So what he actually said was But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity.”
Imagine for a moment what the Pharisees expected. They expected the father to behave the way they thought fathers should. The father should have stood there waiting for his wicked son to come up to him and fall at his feet and say and show how sorry he was ; and then the son would have had to accept the role of a servant rather than a son, just like the son had anticipated. Jesus knows that this is what the Pharisees are thinking, so we need to imagine a long pause in the story, as he lets them think about it and imagine how tough they would have been. And then he hits them with that “But” – and the shocking story of forgiveness is told.
This is why I am a Christian, because Jesus has shown me a God who is like this, a God who is love and compassion far beyond anything any human being can show; a God who cares for every single human being that he has created, even though we all have many faults and make many mistakes. And I am a Christian because I want to be as close as I can to that God, that power of love and goodness; and because I believe that the best way to do this is in and through Jesus, as a member of his family, the Church. And I want people to know that this family is open to all, and particularly that we’re a family who do not think that we have exclusive rights to God’s love, who do not think that no-one else is allowed God’s love unless they join us and behave in the way we want them to.
But we also need to remember that none of us are - either the son who stays at home, or the one who goes off the rails. We are both at the same time. As the son who stays at home, we need to hear the message reminding us not to take for granted the love of God that we proclaim at Mass and in our prayers. But as the son who goes off the rails, we need to become aware, as he became aware, of our need to admit our mistakes and return to our loving Father, remembering that he will run to meet us, just as the father did in the story, and pouring out his love and grace will save us from our sins. But we need to remember too that the sins he will save us from are not just our own personal failings, but the sin we are immersed in as members of the human race.
It is so easy to blame others for all the world’s problems. It is so easy to blame the leaders of the nations for so much that is wrong with the world. It is so easy too to blame the over rich business leaders for their part in all this. But we are part of this too, and so we have to ask ourselves whether if we were politicians faced with so many problems, we would be any better than them, whatever their political persuasion; and if we were rich businessmen, whether we would resist the larger pay packet and the bonus that would make us feel safer in a troubled and turbulent world? You think you would be better than them? Beware, because that will make you sound like a Pharisee, who thinks he is better than other people and knows how to solve the world’s problems; and we know what Jesus said about them. Far better to admit that we are no better than others, and turn to God for his mercy and love.
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