Have you ever played one of those picture games with children where you show them two identical-looking pictures and ask them to find what’s missing in one? Or, have you told children the same story several times and, as you tell it again and again, you learn which words to emphasize and repeat for the full effect of the story? You also learn not to leave out a familiar detail or keyword because the children will spot that right away.
The gospel stories are like that: while they may narrate the same event, each synoptic varies the details to suit the author’s intended message. While the stories may be very similar, they differ; some details are omitted while others are added. It depends on the evangelist’s intentions and the needs of those to whom he is addressing the narrative.
Today we have three parables from Luke. The preacher has to decide whether to proclaim and preach from all three, or just the first two, the “short form.” But if we were to look at all three stories and play a children’s game, “find the repeated words,” we would discover that a key to interpreting the stories lies in finding what’s repeated in each of the parables. Is Luke such a pedestrian writer that he lacks imagination and a broad vocabulary and resorts to repeating the same words in three different parables? Far from it!
While they are three different parables they come around to the same message. Imagine these parables posted in a department store’s “lost and found department? Yes, that’s what binds them together in Luke, they are lost and found parables.
One sign of their close linkage is a repetition of the same or similar words in each parable. In each: something is “lost” and then is “found.” Upon the finding there is “rejoicing.” Then there is a community celebration when the lost are found. “Rejoice with me because I have found….” Or, as the father tells the older son, “But now we must celebrate and rejoice because your brother was dead and has come to life again, he was lost and has been found.”
One of the marks of Luke’s gospel is its repeated pronouncement of God’s mercy. Today’s parables, which comprise the whole of chapter 15, are a good example of Luke’s theme of mercy, suggested in the connecting words “lost,” “found” and “celebrate/rejoice.”
A shepherd foolishly leaves 99 sheep in the desert to go look for the one lost. A woman searches throughout her home for a lost coin. A father puts aside his dignity and reputation among his peers when he spots and rushes out to greet his lost son returning home.
It’s hard not to draw parallels between the focus characters in the parables and God. It is also bold and risky to do it. But Jesus does and so shall we. The central figures lead us to conclude that God foolishly takes risks for us, persistently searches for us and overdoes generosity, forgiving us and welcoming us home. God not only lets us in the house, but warmly embraces us and throws a feast on our behalf.
Jesus spoke from his intimate experience of God. The parables reflect his knowledge and experience of God and God’s ways, which he is anxious to share with us. He proclaims the good news to us not only in parables and teachings, but by his own example. Jesus faced strong criticism from the religious establishment for behaving like the characters in his parables. He went out looking for sinners, showed them compassion and welcomed and celebrated with them at the feast of his table. Jesus never turned away from a sinner who came to him.
Paul describes Jesus’ presence among us: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Jesus was a parable of the reign of God to all whom he met: his words and actions reflected the parables he told. Some people accepted his parabolic ways, while others rejected them.
In some ways Jesus became like the prodigal son for us. The Letter to the Hebrews (4:15) reminds us that he was “tempted in every way we are, yet never sinned.” Still, he lived in a sinful world, went to “a distant country” and knew firsthand the misery sin causes. Jesus was abandoned, rejected and killed in this “distant country.” He became one of us so that we would know that when we turned back from any wanderings we may have chosen we, like the prodigal son, would be welcomed home.
The ways and values exhibited in the parables are contrary to those of the world. The values of the world clash with what the parables reveal about God’s ways of treating us. We who have heard Jesus’ parables of mercy and acceptance can respond to what we have heard. We are called to live parabolic lives: to be models of mercy and compassion, forgiveness and welcome to those who have gotten lost and are seeking to return.
We spend time teaching our children about our faith. We also make sure they attend catechetical instruction in our parish. While these are important means to convey our faith, the most powerful and effective method for passing on the faith to our children, and others, is to live the parables of mercy, kindness and welcome: to live and act on the faith we profess.
When some people heard Jesus’ parables they probably just scratched their heads and said, “I don’t get it.” But others heard the stories, entered into them, looked around and said to themselves, “I like it here. It feels like home and I feel welcome.”
People who want to learn about our faith will ask questions about our beliefs. We will answer them the best we can. Yet, who among us doesn’t need to learn more about the faith? Today is Catechetical Sunday and the year’s theme is “Open the Door of Faith.” The bishops have made materials available on their webpage to help catechists and teachers better understand our faith (see below). The free resources will also help parishes celebrate and teach the faith throughout this “Year of Faith.”
What might stir questions about the faith in others is that they experience God’s love and mercy in us. Knowledge of God comes not so much from books but from living witnesses of faith; people who have heard, accepted and digested the parables. Indeed, strive to become the flesh and blood parables of the kingdom in our world.