Commentary for Sunday: XXIV Ordinary Time

15 September 2019. 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time. C.

“Punishment of God”. “If you do that…, God will punish you”. There are still people who think this and say these things. Nothing is farther from the heart of God. It is possible that this mentality of ‘God, the Judge’ is rather common. This comes from the mentality of the Jewish people in the Old Testament. But with the coming of Jesus, he has shown us the true image of the Father God. If God intervenes in the life of individuals, it is to go a find them, to show them his closeness, to offer his pardon. Never threatening with punishment; this is human thinking. The parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, the prodigal son, with those that Jesus tells us is like the Father, that show us the greatness of the love he has for us, always despite our own badness. We should always have this clear image of God to continually go to the embrace he offers us.
From all these parables it is perhaps the prodigal son that we know best and in which we are more able to see ourselves reflected, because it shows the attitude of the Father faced with our egoism and sin. We tend to see in ourselves the attitude of the younger son, but we should not forget to whom the parable was directed: the scribes and pharisees who were murmuring against Jesus because he welcomed sinners and ate with them. Those who, like us many times, we believe ourselves to be better than the others and it is difficult to admit the love of God without conditions.
Is it difficult for me to forgive? Do I look down my nose at those I consider “worse than me”? May we be capable of recognizing our lowliness and go out in search of the love of the Father.

Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf

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