Holy Mary, Mother of the lost and forsaken, and so Mother of sorrows, pray for us. Your hands were the very first paten on which the Son of God was offered to the Father, through the priest, in the temple at Jerusalem....

Luke 15;1-32 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time September 15th, 2013

The parables of the Gospel today, the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the prodigal son, are all very familiar to us. The parables of the lost sheep and prodigal son are so popular that you can see in many people’s homes pictures of Jesus with a sheep on his shoulders or the Father receiving the prodigal son. We have read some fairly difficult Gospels the last few weeks on discipleship- topics like humility two weeks ago, and last week's taking up your cross each day, are not easy ones.

In light of the seriousness of these topics, certainly, many of us have tried to respond anew, and with greater intensity to Jesus’ call, and have started to put into practice what he asks-like giving God the first part of our day making an act of adoration and prayer the first thing we do in our day. Perhaps you made a firm resolution to do this, and low and behold, you missed a couple of mornings. It is certainly hard to develop new habits or virtues, and we can easily become discouraged and disheartened. Even though in our hearts we long to follow Christ fully and to do the right thing, we know we are very weak and live in world where it is so very difficult to do the right thing. And so, it’s really easy to become discouraged in our efforts and say, “Oh, what’s the use- I’ll never get this right!”

Well today, through the readings, God speaks to our discouragement. He desires to help us to be faithful in our desire to be good and faithful disciples. He wants us to know that He is merciful God, a God who is patient and kind. He is a generous and understanding God; quick to forgive those who are contrite of heart. He is a God who never keeps score or tallies our iniquities. No, He is not a scorekeeper but a promise keeper. Being well aware of our human weakness, He prefers not to condemn us; after all He has presented us with his greatest gift imaginable, the gift of His only Son, who he offers to us in and through all the Sacraments of the Church, especially the Holy Eucharist because it is Jesus in the flesh.

In each of the parables in the Gospel today, the central figure is then God Himself. He is God who is on a “search and rescue” mission. He is a God who does everything He can to recover those of His children who have succumbed to temptation and so have separated themselves from Him and His love for them.
God is in fact, the Good Shepherd who misses the sheep gone astray by sin, seeks it out in order to bring it back to the fold. Once he has found it, He carries it on His shoulder, since it is trembling and weak from its disobedience and the great burden of its sins. God also seeks us, similar to the actions of a woman who having lost a coin of great value, lights a lamp and searches the whole house diligently and patiently until it is found. As well, God is a loving father who longs for the return of His son, going out daily, scanning the horizon to see if His son is coming so that as a Father He can run to His returning son and throw His arms around him and cover him with kisses.

Yes, these beautiful images of God are given to us to encourage us in our daily struggles. But at the same time they are given to us as an example to follow in our discipleship. They let us know that discipleship involves nothing less than taking into our hearts the qualities of God Himself-we are called to be God-like through divine grace.

We are to have a merciful, forgiving heart like God, a heart that desires that none be lost, that all be found and saved. And if we are to take on the qualities of the Father's heart, our discipleship then, includes a sharing in God’s own mission, which again is a search and rescue mission. It is a sharing in the mission of the Father, through, with, and in the Sacred Heart of the Son, of finding the lost sheep and bringing them back into the one fold, His one true Church.

The Second Vatican council applies the image of the Good Shepherd, and so this search and rescue mission, especially to priests when it states: “They (the priest) should be mindful that by their daily conduct and solicitude they display the reality of a truly priestly and pastoral ministry both to believers and unbelievers alike, to Catholics and non-Catholics; that they are bound to bear witness before all men of the Truth and of the Life, and as good shepherds seek after those too who, whilst having been baptized in the Catholic Church, have given up the practice of the sacraments, or even fallen away from the faith.”

But the Second Vatican council doesn’t limit this rescue mission merely to priests. It reminds us that we have all been the lost sheep at some time in our lives. And because we have all been searched for and found by the Mercy of our God, we are now all call to imitate God in His search and rescue mission by answering the call to faithful discipleship from our Lord. With full, active, conscious and fruitful participation we are to seek out the lost, and rescue them by our lives of holiness bringing them the light, love and life of Christ alive in us.

Our sharing in God's search and rescue mission for lost souls is known as the apostolate. This is what Vatican II said is the true role of the laity, the role of the apostolate. And this role of yours begins and has its source and summit here at Holy Mass. All of us are called to take a full, active, conscious, fruitful participation in the Sacred Liturgy of the Holy Mass. What does this mean?

Well it doesn’t mean just to sing or say the responses louder, although we should do that. It doesn’t mean that we have to become Extra-ordinary ministers of Holy Communion or to bring up the gifts more often. But what it really means, is that we are to participate with full mind, heart, body and soul, and with our whole strength and being in the once and for all sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ the High Priest to the Father which is made truly present here on the sacred altar through the Sacred Priesthood.

In other words, we are to participate in the perfect act of adoration of Jesus to His Father, which is perfect because it is the adoration of God by God. How do we do this type of participation? By an act of our will in which we place our self as a victim of love on the paten, as an offering to God the Father; so that along with the bread that will be change in to the Divine Victim of Love, the very Person of Jesus, His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, we too can be offered and so transformed, changed through holiness, into another Christ for the renewal and salvation of the world.

Here at Holy Mass all of us are to understand (conscious participation) that we are to offer our whole self, both as individuals and as a parish family (full participation) by an interior act of our will (active participation), to the Father, in union with the Son, by the Power of the Holy Spirit. In this act of sacrificing of ourselves to God, (not to be destroyed, but to be one with Christ, the body united to the head), we offer the Father perfect praise and adoration in Christ through the Holy Spirit. We then become more and more in union with God, one with God, and are transformed more and more into His image and likeness and become, not just channels of grace for the world, but reservoirs overflowing with grace for the world and so for souls (fruitful participation), to bring them to the Father and His love for them. In other words, by our actual participation at each Mass we become more and more divinized; we become more fully "other Christ's, active and full members of His mystical body," who are empowered take what we have been given, literally the love of God, God Himself alive in our hearts through Holy Communion, out into our sinful world to the lost and forsaken sheep.

The truth is, is that it is only the Holy Mass offered properly according to God’s ordinance, which can save the world and the souls in it. Because the Holy Mass is first and foremost the action of the Head, Jesus Christ offering perfect adoration, through the once again offering of His life to the Father for us, the Mass is the primary source of all the grace that comes into this world. In fact no grace, none, comes into the world except through the Holy Mass. But this infinite grace, the grace of each and ever Holy Mass by God’s ordinance, can only flow out into the world through the Mystical body of Christ, that is through us, if we are open to it by joining fully, actively, consciously in this same self-offering of Jesus Christ to the Father. This is the universal call to holiness. Holiness is not just for ourselves, but it is to be fruitful that is, our personal holiness, brought about by our true participation at the Holy Mass, is to be the very means by which God desires to seek and rescue and so to save lost souls and renew our world which is being destroyed by the sins of mankind.

In the Holy Mass, through the Son in the Holy Eucharist, the Father embraces each of us in love and covers us with His kisses; but then He calls us to go out and bring other sheep to Him here at the Holy Mass, so He can embrace them as well with His divine Love and Life. The result will be great joy, because our brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and now has been found.'" We will be with him celebrating and rejoicing here, in praise and adoration of our God, at this sacred feast, the Holy Mass where heaven and earth unite, eternity breaks into time, and Man begins to share already in that for which he was created, sharing in the Oneness, in the Love, in the very Being of the Blessed Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the glory of God, man fully alive.

Let us turn to the Blessed Mother for help:

Holy Mary, Mother of the lost and forsaken, and so Mother of sorrows, pray for us. Your hands were the very first paten on which the Son of God was offered to the Father, through the priest, in the temple at Jerusalem. Today may your hands present us as well, at this Holy Mass and every Holy Mass, placing our hearts on the paten to offered up by the priest to the Father in union with the Son for the salvation of the world. Help us to make this sacrificial offering of ourselves fully in love and so without fear; obtain for us the grace to be empowered to live this life-offering out in all aspects of our daily life, so that we may glorify our Father by being fully alive, thus becoming the means for others to live in the Joy of His Holy Will which is love and mercy itself. Amen.