A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. The tax collectors and the sinners, notice how they're put together, were all gathering around to hear Jesus. At which the pharisees and the scribes, of course, they were the, you know, they were the deluxe. They were the elite. And really so.
That isn't said sarcastically at all, they were. At which the scribes and the pharisees murmured, they complained. This man welcomes sinners and even eats with them. Now remember, if you did that, according to the Jewish law, you were made unclean yourself. Remember that.
They had thousands of these regulations about clean and unclean. So the pharisees and the scribes complained that Jesus associated with sinners and even ate with them. And then our lord addressed this parable to them. Who among you, if he has a 100 sheep and loses only one of them, does not leave the 99 in the wasteland and follow the lost one until he finds it? And when he has found it, he puts it on his shoulders in joy.
Once arrived at home, he invites his friends and all his neighbors and says to them, rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep. I tell you, there will likewise be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over 99 righteous people who have no need to repent. What woman, if she has 10 silver pieces and loses one of them, does not light a lamp and sweep the house in a diligent search till she has recovered what she has lost? And then when she finds it, she calls in her friends and her neighbors and says to them, rejoice with me. I have found the silver piece that I lost.
I tell you, there will be the same kind of joy before the angels of god over one repentant sinner and this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit. Amen. As I read this, it's I hadn't intended to even touch on it or mention it, but as I was reading this, only one thought came to my mind, and that was the very recent execution of a lady somewhere. I haven't I don't have the details.
I only know that this lady, woman, was found guilty without any shadow of a doubt of several murders, and was duly tried and was found guilty and sentenced to death, and the death penalty was not reprieved. So the other day, she was put to death in one of the states of our union. Now, this is no fiction. This is I was with a group of people. Good people.
These are good people. I'm not talking about a these are good sincere Christians. And they were all in favor of her execution. So was I. Let's make that perfectly clear.
I have no problem with that at all. But what they couldn't understand was that she could have changed. You know the case I'm referring to because at the end, you know, she asked not to have any more legal legal action and that she had she had found the lord and and that she was reconciled to die and she had she was a reborn Christian. That's what I only know what I read and and that's what the paper said about. And I have no I'm not doubting this at all.
I'm not in the least doubting that woman's sincerity. But what struck me and startled me was that these good people wasn't more it wasn't just one who couldn't accept the fact that she had changed and was dying a good Christian. How do you figure that out? Not in the least minimize that. I would be, you know, some people say, well, now she's changed.
Let's not execute her. That's a lot of nonsense. The point I'm making is that she claimed that she had changed, was a reborn Christian, that she had that she realized what she had done was wrong and she was ready to die. And yet, some of these people could not accept the fact or the possibility of the fact that she was changed and was dying a probably a very good person. I have no problem with that at all.
How can any Christian have a problem with that? Now I'm not talking about this wonderful text of Saint from Saint Paul this morning to the Philippians. I remember, when you talk about the conversion of Saint Paul, you're talking about a minor change. Well, maybe it wasn't so minor. But the point is, if you heard what what was read here this morning, what Paul is saying is that I was a Hebrew of Hebrews.
I wasn't just a run of the mill Hebrew. I was one of the most enthusiastic Hebrews, and I kept the law. I was even a Pharisee. Paul was a Pharisee. Keep that in your mind.
Don't forget it. And then he says, I was so zealous that I persecuted the church. Why? Because he thought that this newfangled way, that's what it was called, the new way was opposed to God, was opposed to his law, was a contradiction of everything that he had held sacred. So he said, off with its head, and rightly so.
You see, I have a certain respect for an honest to God atheist who wants to eliminate the Catholic church. Why shouldn't he? Because if it if it's not what it says it is, it ought to be eliminate. Because probably nothing worse has ever happened to the world, if it isn't authentically priced. Now, we come back to this.
And when you talk about the conversion of Saint Paul, it wasn't a changed attitude towards God Almighty. It was simply a changed way of serving God Almighty. It's like you're wanting to go to New York or someplace and you find yourself on the wrong train, so you get on another train. Keep that in mind when you talk about the conversion of Saint Paul. Now when you come to the conversion of a person like this woman who was executed, you're dealing with something entirely different.
And there have been plenty of other instances of this. I remember one very striking one in Chicago years ago. And and it was the same thing. This man had a tremendous, horrible, repulsive record of crimes. And then lo and behold you, after he's found guilty and condemned to die, not so long before he was supposed to die, he had a priest come in and he was baptized and received all the sacred.
And some honest and I'm not exaggerating this. People that I knew from a being a kid who were solid Christians, they said, how can this be? That this man who lived his whole life as a renegade, as a murderer, as a thief, you name it. Now, all of a sudden, when he's got one foot in the in the hereafter, now he has a priest come in, he gets a sacrifice, and you tell me that he's going to be in the same place as with all of us who've struggled and sweated and bled. Yes, bled to lead a good life?
And my answer is, of course. That's what Jesus came for. Of course. Why should we be startled? Remember, there's only one instance in our lord's life where he guaranteed when he guaranteed with his own solemn promise heaven to anybody.
And that was to a thief nailed on a cross with him. That's mine. Now now the church is a very consistent institution. We don't say that a person who's turned over suddenly like that, the church never said this, is that they their acceptance into eternity is going to be identical with someone who's put in a lifetime of service. No one's ever said that.
That's why we have a place or a state called purgatory. Purgatory. Because you've got to be pretty perfect even to enjoy a direct knowledge of God. You cannot see God in an imperfect mirror because God is perfect. And we have to be brought to a state of perfection to appreciate, to even take in God almighty.
And that's what eternity is, whatever else it is. And so we come back to this matter of our lord and seeking the lost. There is absolutely no reason for any sinner. I don't care how how bad that is. With one exception, that's what we say, and our lord said himself, the sin against the holy spirit because that's the sin of despair.
And there is no hope for someone who's despaired. We have to turn to God and his son Jesus Christ. Conversion means to turn towards. And which of us can stand up and say, don't need it. I don't need it.
Who can say that? And so there are parts of this that I don't understand. And so, I mean, I can't imagine a a man out in Colorado with his whole flock of sheep abandoning the whole business in the wasteland going out to seek one. That doesn't make human sense. It doesn't make secular sense, does it?
No. It makes sense because Jesus Christ said it, and as he said, I have come I have come to rescue rescue sinners. And don't we find ourselves there? And that's our consolation. That's our joy.
There is nothing in the world today which so grinds people down as their sense of guilt, real or fictional. If it's fictional, see a doctor. But in many instances, we don't we know it's more than fictional. It's real guilt. And for a Christian, why should that be depressing?
Why, I ask you. When we have our blessed lord to turn to, to be converted to, he accepts us with open arms. And notice how our lord emphasizes that this that the shepherd takes the little poor old sheep after he'd been wandering around. He's all bruised. He's limping.
He's hungry. He has not had any water. He's in bad shape. And the good shepherd picks it up and carries it. And that's exactly what happens to us.
When we need it most, if we turn to Jesus, he picks us up and carries us. In the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. Amen.