Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday Mass - Sep 11, 2016 - Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Scott Donahue
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Homily Video

Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily Transcript

Many years ago, when I had far less gray hair, I had the privilege of serving in the Archdiocese of Chicago as certainly a priest in a parish, but I was also the director of seminarians, also known as the vocation director here in Chicago. And I really enjoyed that ministry for a number of years working with our seminaries, in our seminaries and the faculty.

Every year there was a national organization of vocation directors who would gather together for a conference and I can remember, it may be the first conference I went to or the second conference I went to, I met a young priest from the Diocese of Cheyenne in Wyoming. The Diocese of Cheyenne is the whole state of Wyoming. His name was Father Mike Hellman and in our conversation, as we were sharing a little bit about our history, he told me that all through his high school days and his college days, how he would earn money in the summertime was being a shepherd. He was a shepherd who oversaw a flock of sheep and I was fascinated by that. He told me how he lived in the wilderness with the sheep, how he lived in a tent and cared for the sheep. It was fascinating.

And then I talked a little bit more about, “What was that like, the experience?” And he said, “You have to know three things about sheep.” He said, “First of all, sheep are very stubborn.” He secondly said that sheep are pretty stinky, and lastly he said, “Sheep are sort of dumb.” I thought wow, stinky, dumb, stubborn. And then we have the image of the Gospel of Jesus as being the Good Shepherd, which makes us the sheep. Think about it.

Jesus tells us wonderful parable about God’s love for each of us. It’s a beautiful parable and it would have made the listeners, as he was telling this parable, sit up and listen even more carefully because what Jesus was saying in this parable was in so many ways simply outrageous. What shepherd in their good mind would leave 99 of his sheep to go after one? What shepherd in his right mind would risk the whole flock for the sake of one?

Those who lived in the time, in the culture and understood what Jesus was saying, it just wouldn’t make sense. No shepherd in their right mind would risk everything for one, and that’s the point of the Gospel. That’s what Jesus is trying to say about God’s great love for us, about God who welcomes back and invites the one who is repentant, that God’s love is so great for us that He is the hound of heaven, always chasing after us and drawing us back into the fold with His divine love, His divine mercy and with His divine embrace.

How blessed we are as the children of God? How blessed we are that a God who calls us each by name? How blessed we are that our God calls us home to Himself, and on this day around the table of the Lord to celebrate Eucharist?

Readings

First Reading:

Exodus 32:7-11,13-14

Second Reading:

Timothy 1:12-17

Gospel:

Luke 15:1-32

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