Thursday of week 31 in Ordinary Time

This story which Jesus uses to explain to the Pharisees why he welcomes sinners and eats with them fills me with a sense of hope and possibility. When I sin I am not outcast forever but embraced with love. The angels celebrate when I repent. This image gives me freedom to learn from my mistakes and to strive to do better. And rather than waiting until I completely pull myself together before I feel worthy of God’s love, I know that God loves me at all times and I can always rely on that love.
It is very humbling to know that God loves me when I gossip, when I forget to put God at the center of my life, when I serve my own needs and ignore the needs of others, when I focus on achievement at work at the expense of others, when I worry about money. This list goes on and on. Yet I do not want to invite a sense of despair. Repentance means reflecting upon ones actions and striving to do better.