The Father of reinvention

A recording of today's gospel and blog can be accessed here.

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Today’s gospel (Luke 15: 3-7) relates for us again the parable of the Good Shepherd. The comparison is simple: which one among Jesus’ listeners would not have gone in search of a lost sheep in order to bring it home? Sheep must have been prized livestock in the culture of the time, useful for milk, for wool, and of course for meat. There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, concludes the Lord, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

This parable speaks to us about the heart of our God who comes in pursuit of us, the divine sheepdog after the sheep, the very hound of heaven, in order to bring us home when we wander. But if there is one thing we might question in this gospel, it is why there should be more rejoicing over the return of one sinner then over ninety-nine people who never went astray. Of course, we cannot be jealous of the redeemed sinner; we are all redeemed sinners in fact. But we might, along with the elder brother of the prodigal son, wonder why the Father rejoices more at the return of the son who hurt him most.

This paradox is sometimes called the “happy fault”, and it is happy not only because it can be repaired, but because it reveals more of who and what God is than if the rebellion had never taken place. What would we know of God's mercy, what would we know of His loving kindness, His condescension and compassion, were it not for how He has responded to His wayward children? Perhaps this is one of the reasons why self-knowledge is so important in the spiritual life; for by knowing ourselves, even in our very worst moments, God teaches us who He is himself, the one who loves us and deals with us not only according to our needs but also according to the depths and heights of His own mystery of love and compassion. He casts on us the eye of a Creator whose work has been spoiled by another’s hand; and now we see not only His redemptive generosity but also the extraordinary inventiveness of the One who invented everything, clawing back from the destructive forces of sin a rediscovered beauty with the preciousness the Japanese accord to broken and mended pottery.

May we all be yielding, receptive clay in the hands of our beloved Creator, and the Son His very image, the merciful and good Shepherd sent to redeem us from sin.