I vividly recall when I arrived at St. Joseph Parish in July of 2008 a parishioner at the 10:00 AM Mass told me she arrives at 9:30 AM in order to sit in the last pew in church! (Isn’t it interesting we come early to get the last.) She then went on to say she has been sitting in this same pew for 53 years. For the last two weekends as she and her daughter were on a trip to Italy, those two seats have been vacant in church. I guess “pew protocol” is once you’ve been long enough -- it’s like you have squatter’s rights. No one’s going to argue with you. As a parish priest we take comfort in seeing people sitting in their same spot week after week. Just like everyone in a family sits at their spot at the kitchen table, so too, at the house of God everyone gathers at the Lord’s table. But there are no assigned pews; the only passport to entry is that we are a sinner.
Jesus invites us to His table of forgiveness because we are precious and valuable. God’s grace finds us and brings us home and gives sinners new life. In the epistle of St. James it states, “The person who brings a sinner back to his way will save his soul from death and will cancel a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). Jesus is not content just to love the human race as a whole. Jesus loves each of us as an individual. He desires that none ever be lost.
Jesus invites us to His table of forgiveness because we are precious and valuable. God’s grace finds us and brings us home and gives sinners new life. In the epistle of St. James it states, “The person who brings a sinner back to his way will save his soul from death and will cancel a multitude of sins” (James 5:20). Jesus is not content just to love the human race as a whole. Jesus loves each of us as an individual. He desires that none ever be lost.
We are more important to God than we can possibly imagine. We often think of the Prodigal Son but we don’t usually think of a Prodigal God. The dictionary defines the word “prodigal” as “recklessly extravagant” and “lavishly abundant”. The shepherd leaves 99 to seek the one, thus recklessly extravagant. A woman holds a party for friends and neighbors over one found coin -- lavishly abundant. And a father welcomes back a son -- all showing that God is lavish, extravagant and profuse in love for each one of us. Our God is a God of unlimited mercy, grace and forgiveness; always open to seeking and finding the lost.
Each Sunday celebration is a homecoming to reclaim our chosen identity as God’s children.
