But now we must celebrate and rejoice!
How often do we celebrate God’s love and mercy?
When, having circumcised all of the men and thus removing the reproach of Egypt from them all, Joshua leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land, the people celebrate! Covenant has been restored between the Lord and his people through this clear transition in identity, and God’s goodness and love are revealed in the bountiful produce of the land, which the people eat in the form of unleavened cakes and parched grain. They can now, as Psalm 34 suggests, taste and see the goodness of the Lord! The psalmist himself knows that he has been redeemed by God’s goodness and proclaims his faithfulness to God by glorying in the Lord and inviting all others to join him: Glorify the Lord with me, let us together extol his name, he sings. The psalmist celebrates God’s care and grace, radiant with joy!
In Luke’s Gospel, when the father of the prodigal son has his servants bring the finest robe, a ring for his son’s finger, and sandals for his feet, he is in essence reinstating his son in the family, restoring him to relationship through forgiveness and mercy. Notice that the father doesn’t even let his son finish the statement he has prepared, Father, I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers. Rather, filled with compassion, the father forgives the son the moment he catches sight of him; he does not wait for him to grovel and be penitent. In spite of all of his son’s transgressions, he father celebrates and rejoices, because this son was lost and has been found!
Like the compassion of the father for his son, God’s forgiveness reaches out to us when we turn in his direction; as soon as we begin to move back towards him, God’s compassion can reach us. Jesus, through his death and rising, came to reveal a love greater than any we can imagine. Jesus wants God’s love to be accessible to us. He wants all of us to know how much God loves us. We are therefore, as Paul tells the Corinthians, called to be a new creation through our baptism in Christ. Whatever we have been, we can leave behind, that we might be reconciled to God, for God reconciled the world to himself in Christ, that we might be the Body of Christ in the world. Behold, new things have come! Let us rejoice!
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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