THE CAUSE OF HEAVENLY JOY

THURSDAY, THIRTY FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Phil 3:3-8; Ps 105:2-7; Lk 15:1-10

The Rejoicing over One Repentant Sinner

We may not fully know or understand the cause of heavenly rejoicing over a repentant sinner because the mystery of God also enters into this area. God’s mysterious will is very difficult for fallen human nature to discern. What we consider good and pleasing to the Lord is often far removed from what God wants of us. Saint Paul is a good example. He was raised in Judaism by virtuous parents. He knew the Law of God and applied himself to it without reservation. But he was revealed to be a sinner through and through when the light of Jesus Christ came to him. His self-judgment as righteous and religious, according to external observance of the Law, could not win him a place in the presence of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. “If it came to relying on physical evidence, I should be fully qualified myself. Take any man who thinks he can rely on what is physical: I am even better qualified. I was born of the race of Israel and of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrew parents, and I was circumcised when I was eight days old. As for the Law, I was a Pharisee; as for working for religion, I was a persecutor of the Church; as far as the Law can make you perfect, I was faultless.” This was a great self-testimony for Paul, but he could not present it before God. He was as sinful as any tax collector before God.

He was walking the external or physical way, which opposed God’s will. Anyone who intends to please God must walk the interior or spiritual path to the Saviour’s mountain, where God has prepared a rich banquet for all. Each of us is lost and remains lost as long as we walk the physical path with the world. We are lost because we are not headed to the divine banquet prepared on the Lord’s mountain. We remain lost until we are washed and clothed with the Saviour’s garment of grace. We walk the way of perdition if the Holy Spirit is not guiding us on the path of salvation in Jesus Christ. The Israel of old would have lost their way in the wilderness without the pillar of fire and cloud guiding them by night and by day to the Promised Land. As Moses circumcised them and led them to the Land of Canaan, so has the Son of Man circumcised us by his Gospel and is guiding us to the divine banquet through the indwelling Holy Spirit, pillar of God’s fire of love. “We are the real people of the circumcision, we who worship in accordance with the Holy Spirit of God; we have our own glory from Christ Jesus without having to rely on a physical operation.”

God and his angels will not rejoice when we lead ourselves down the path of self-righteousness, which we presume to be the Christian path. Rejoicing will happen only when, and as often as, we acknowledge and confess our sinfulness and misery without Jesus Christ. The Church encourages us to do this every day, when we come to celebrate the Eucharist. We sincerely confess our sins and ask for God’s pardon in Jesus Christ before we join the angels in the banquet of eternal life. We would remain lost in sin and in the world if we seek our own things outside the things of Jesus Christ; if we do not seek his presence everywhere, as the tax collectors and the sinners. “The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said, ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” An attitude like that of the Pharisees and scribes shows we are still lost on the physical path that leads to nowhere. If our predominant attitude toward others is judgment of them as inferior or sinners, then we are not aware of Christ’s presence and salvific work for us and among us. One who knows Christ’s grace among us praises God as the psalmist. “O sing to the Lord, sing his praise; tell all his wonderful works! Be proud of his holy name, let the hearts that seek the Lord rejoice.” When we truly seek God, we will enter into the Lord’s joy and rejoice with the angels over our conversion to God.

Let us pray: Almighty and merciful God, by whose gift your faithful offer you right and praiseworthy service, grant, we pray, that we may hasten without stumbling to receive the things you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.