Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

24TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (September 16, 2007)

Suggested Emphasis

"The Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened."

Salesian Perspective

Today's scriptural readings pull no punches in describing the sorry lot of sinners. The people upon whom God has showered his preferential love have become "depraved and stiff-necked," turning from the worship of the one true God to that of a molten calf. Before the puny creation of their own hands, they bow in worship and sacrifice.

The author of Psalm 51 readily admits his guilt and sin before a God of goodness and compassion. St. Paul speaks bluntly of the way he was and the manner in which he lived his life before coming to faith in Jesus. He was, he candidly admits, a blasphemer and a persecutor of God's holy people. His was an unparalleled spiritual arrogance. Finally, the Gospel relates the familiar story of a profligate younger son who squanders all his inheritance in a reckless and dissolute life and, in the process, breaks his father's heart.

What is the point of this litany of sin, guilt, human weakness and failure? It is the dark side of gospel good news, the bleak background against which the bright beauty and sheer graciousness of Jesus' redemptive deed shines out in all its splendor. It is the humble acknowledgment of one's total powerlessness and loss as the result of having sinned against a good and compassionate God. This humility, this truth about ourselves, is the necessary precondition for being able to hear the clarion call of the good news of faith and to receive in gratitude the healing power of grace.

We are too often hesitant to speak of sin today, especially of personal sin. We do not like to acknowledge that we have rejected God or have turned aside from the way he has pointed to us in Scripture, in the example and word of Jesus and in the teachings of his Church: yet, it is just such an acknowledgement, in humility and truth, that readies us for the freeing experience of God's tender and forgiving grace.

Saints are converted sinners. This is what is proclaimed loud and clear in the Scriptures today. Grace takes the weak and wobbly, even the hardened sinners, and transforms them into saints and heroes.

St. Francis de Sales had a great respect for the example of saints, but he wanted people to see the saints in a realistic manner, that is, as weak and sinful people who, through the transforming power of grace, had become heroes. St. Peter was such a hero for Francis. He was captivated by this man who, though often heroic and always well-meaning, was nevertheless frequently short on courage ("I do not know the man!") or weak in understanding what Jesus really stood for ("Get behind me, you Satan!"), and who more than once fell flat on his face. Yet, what a giant that man became through grace! In St. Peter, Francis de Sales found it spiritually useful to speak of a man with whose failures his people could relate, and of a saint whose holiness they could imitate. His hero had warts. In pointing them out, he was in effect, encouraging others in their quest for holiness.

Let us end with St. Paul's exuberant hymn of praise in today's second reading. It celebrates the triumph of grace over human sin and weakness: "To the king of ages, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is the Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.