Readings:

Exodus: 32: 7-11; 13-14;
1 Tim 1: 12-17
Luke 15: 1-2; 8-11
 

Reflection:

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings today are rich in images but there is one message and that is that God is merciful and forgiving. Even though the Israelites had been led out of Egypt by Moses they had soon forgotten their God. God sees how headstrong and stubborn they are yet on hearing Moses pleading for them, the Lord relents. Paul in writing to Timothy acknowledges his own weakness and how mercy found him and turned his life upside down.

I am sure that there are many ways in which our worlds get turned upside down! The pandemic has turned many lives upside down, there has been loss, work challenges, disappointments, frustrations and separation from family. Having grown up in a subsistence farming community I know that losing one sheep from the flock is a great loss especially when it is a farmer’s livelihood, and in times of shortage a lost coin has consequences.

There are times too when our lives are turned upside down in ways that bring growth, unexpected joy, reunions after long separations. We come to realise that life is a mixture of experiences and God is always there to bring us through, to find us when we are lost and to find those whom we feel we have lost. Our lives are a tapestry of light and dark threads and we cannot yet see the complete weaving but let’s be assured God has the thread and it is held secure and so are we. D.H. Lawrence once said, ‘no one can fall out of the hands of the living God because they are so big and they cradle so much of a man/woman.’

Sister Brigid Murphy CP
Sisters of the Cross & Passion,
Melbourne