God’s Love, Patience and Mercy
24th Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year C
God’s patience is like a thick cord connected tightly to us. God never tires of our weakness or of us. Like the Good and Merciful Father of the Gospel, God takes us into His Loving Arms and forgives us.
With which brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son do you most identify: the younger or older son?
The younger son liked to have a good time with his friends, drink, spend money, and sin. Yet, despite his sinful choices, the younger son recognized his fault and returned to his Father, who waited patiently for him for many years. The older son, on the other hand, was a “good son” in the sense that he did what he believed his father expected of him, while likely neglecting developing any personal deeper relationship with his father. Even though the older son was obedient, he did not understand his father’s love, mercy, and patience. The difference between the older and younger sons is not that great. Both of them wounded the father, and the father loved both of them immensely.
Whether you identify with the older son or the younger son, I would like to reassure you that God has the same patience with each one of you. What the younger son shows us, however, is the importance of returning to God whenever we fall.
For, in this return, we encounter the mercy of God the Father, discover His Love more deeply, and from there begin to develop a deeper, more trusting relationship with the God the Father, which seemed to be absent in the life of the older son. God is waiting for you. What are you waiting for?
Yours in Christ,
Father Arthur
Readings for the Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Lectionary 132
Tags: #fatherarthurmarat, #frarthurmarat, #love, #mercy, #olwparish, #patience, #prodigalson, #reflection
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