The 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year C) offers two alternative readings: Luke 15:1-32 or Luke 15:1-10. First, read the whole text of Luke 15 and use the rest of this page as a guide for reflection. Check out the following links for more help.
1. We all feel the need to defend what is right and what is just especially since what is right and just guarantees what we regard as "fairness". "Fairness" is equated with justice, i.e., to give to one what is one's due,e.g. a reward for a good deed, a punishment for a bad deed. Compare the older brother's idea of "fairness" to the father's idea of it in Luke 15:25-32. Whose idea of fairness is closest to yours: the father's or the older brother's?. If you have a journal, write your observaton about yourself in this regard.
- 2. Following up on the first question:
- -- Have you in your life been so zealous about what you though was "fair" that you have hurt someone or allowed him/her to be hurt? Take note of your answer in your journal.
- -- Let us turn that question around: have you been a victim of another's zeal for what is "fair"? Please review the circumstances of this last and take note of it in your journal
- -- In the answers you gave to the two previous questions, would you say that what is fair according to our personal estimates needs to be tempered by mercy and forgiveness?
- -- How many times have you been forgiving in your life? How many times have you been "fair" to the point of hurting others?
3. If you were the older brother, how would you answer the father's invitation in v.32?
