Hajja Salesjana November December 2016

32 An address Pope Francis gave some weeks ago before praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square: Dear brothers and sisters, good morning! Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke is considered as the chapter of mercy. It collects three parables with which Jesus responds to the grumbling of the scribes and the Pharisees, who are criticizing his actions, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (v. 2). With these three stories, Jesus wants to make us understand that God the Father is the first one to have a welcoming and merciful attitude toward sinners. God has this attitude. In the first parable, God is presented as a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to go look for the one that is lost. In the second, he is compared to a woman who has lost a coin and searches until she’s found it. In the third parable, God is imagined as a father who welcomes the son who had distanced himself; the figure of the father reveals the heart of a merciful God, manifested in Jesus. A common element in these parables is expressed in the verbs that mean rejoice together, make a celebration. Mourning is not spoken of; there is rejoicing, there is celebrating. The shepherd calls his friends and neighbors and says, “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep” (v 6). The woman calls her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost” (v. 9). And the father says to his other son: “now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (v. 32). In the first two parables, the focus is on the joy that is so uncontainable that it must be shared with “friends and neighbors.” In the third parable, the focus is on the celebration that springs from the heart of the merciful father and expands to the whole household. God’s celebration over those who return to Him repentant is intoned as never before in this Jubilee Year that we are living, as the term God’s Celebrations Over Repentant Sinners “Have you ever thought about how each time we go to the confessional, there is joy and celebration in heaven?” by Pope Francis