The Pharisees in our Lord’s time had a vast knowledge about Jewish law and traditions. As was to be expected, our Lord should have been carefully scrutinized by them. Our Lord’s teaching and behavior was often criticized by them. In today’s gospel they criticize the Lord because he did not avoid or reject the company of public sinners such as tax collectors. This criticism is what gives rise to our Lord’s telling of the three beautiful parables we read about today.

I believe the three parables need to be read at the same time because they are a clever way to make a point. My view is that what the Lord tells the Pharisees is the following: To you who believe that I am wrong to show understanding and compassion toward sinners I say three things. The first thing is to rejoice with me (parable of the lost sheep). The second thing is to again rejoice with me (parable of the lost coin). The third thing is one more time to rejoice with me and see yourselves in the mirror as the older son of the story (parable of the prodigal son).

We all scrutinize people’s lives and of course sinners are those of whom we have more to talk about. I cannot even escape from this in my conversations with my siblings. In my conversations with them, our other siblings’ lives often come in. And we always know exactly what they need to do. What is incredible, and sad, is that our clear understanding of someone else’s life is not clear at all regarding our own life.

It seems as if the Lord tells the Pharisees that it is always wrong to scrutinize other people’s lives. He repeats over and over again what we need to do instead, namely that we must rejoice with God for every person, especially for those who are the recipients of God’s mercy.

The bad example of the older son in the story is a warning to those who believe they are in the grace of God and do not realize they still have much work to do. The older son, though living in the house of his father, was not in sync with him; he was not in that communion of mind and heart with his father. He felt himself as a slave, mad at his brother and envious of his father’s generosity and mercy. What he needed to do to be in harmony with his father was to be in constant amazement before the love and mercy of his father, rejoicing for his blessings and those of others. In a word, he needed to be in constant admiration of his father’s love and never appropriate that love as if it was of his own making and because of his own merits. The Lord’s message for the Pharisees is also his message for us today.

Let us ask the Lord to grant us his grace to always rejoice with the blessings of others, especially those we often criticize or are envious of.

On a different subject. This Wednesday September 14^th will be the 47^th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. Pope Saint Paul VI declared her a Saint of the Catholic Church on September 14^th, 1975. The 50^th anniversary of her canonization will be in three years. Two weeks ago I mentioned that the 150^th anniversary of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton’s birth will be in two years, August 28^th. That means that there will be twelve months between the 150^th anniversary of her birth and the 50^th anniversary of her canonization. I would like to propose that the parish should celebrate the year of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton all those 12 months. We could do many things around these two joyous occasions.