Twenty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time C. September 12, 2004. Our Lady of Grace 7:30, 11:30, 6PM. Exodus 32: 7-11, 13-14. 1 Timothy 1: 12-17. Luke 15: 1-32

Have you ever watched a trapeze artist fly through the air, turn several somersaults, and then come to rest safely in the hands of another trapeze artist you didn’t even notice hanging on another trapeze across the ring? I read an article lately in which an observer told the somersaulting acrobat that he was the star of the show. The high flying expert responded, “I am not the most important person in our trapeze act. The most important person is my partner, the catcher, who must reach out his arms and catch me out of the air.” He said, “In fact, I do the easy part. My partner must be there at precisely the right moment to catch me wherever I am, or I will fall to the ground. When I am through with my somersaults I stretch out my arms and wait to be caught. If I grab at the catcher I may break his wrists or mine. No matter what is happening or how I end up the catcher’s job is to catch me, and my job is to relax and let myself be caught.”

The younger son in the parable of the Prodigal Son was a high flying artist of another kind. He demanded his inheritance from his father early and wasted it on loose living and a good time. He flew high as he spent his father’s hard earned money on reckless thrills, prostitutes and idle living. He was spinning out of control and spiraling toward disaster when he decided to return home and beg for mercy from his father. The father didn’t need to hear a plea for mercy. The father understood the meaning of parenthood and the miracle of a parent’s love. When the young man was still a long way off the father saw him coming. The old man was filled with compassion for his son and he reached out his arms to catch his son and bring him safely home. No matter how many moral and financial somersaults the young man had made, the father was the catcher, and the catcher’s job was to be wherever the son was and to catch him in his loving arms and bring him home.

Once, when I was preaching on the parable of the Prodigal Son I got tears in my eyes as I realized how hard I was on myself about the somersaults and weakness in my own life, at the same time that I was hearing about the tender love God has for each of us. A few days ago someone gave me a cartoon that brought all of this back to mind. In the cartoon a dog is sitting in front of a mirror looking at himself and yelling “bad dog”, “bad dog” at the image in the mirror. Today’s gospel assures us that God is watching and waiting to catch us and bring us safely home, not to bark words of condemnation at us.

Our Lady of Grace parish shares in the compassion of God as God watches and waits to catch people and bring them safely home. The many ministries of this parish are a wonderful testimony to the love and compassion of God. It is our privilege and our duty to reach out to the unborn, the young, the teen, the stressed, the poor, the sick and the dying with the compassion of God. The ministries of this parish are the loving arms and the safety net reaching out to hundreds of people in the ups and downs of life. On this Ministry Sunday I thank you for being a miracle of compassion and goodness through the ministries you do for thousands of people.

God is always waiting with outstretched arms to catch us and bring us safely home. I encourage you to join one or more of the many ministries of Our Lady of Grace which are in fact the outstretched arms of God to those around us.