The Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time is one of the richest in the liturgical year, presenting Luke's fifteenth chapter—the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son. These three stories reveal the heart of God who seeks and saves the lost.
Tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to Jesus, and the Pharisees grumbled:
"The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, 'This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.'" — Luke 15:2
In response, Jesus tells three parables that reveal why he welcomes sinners—because God rejoices when the lost are found.
A shepherd with a hundred sheep loses one. What does he do?
"'Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing." — Luke 15:4-5
The shepherd's joy overflows into celebration with friends and neighbors.
A woman with ten silver coins loses one. She lights a lamp, sweeps the house, and searches carefully until she finds it. Then she too calls friends and neighbors to rejoice with her.
The third and longest parable tells of a son who demands his inheritance, squanders it in dissolute living, and finally comes to his senses in a pigpen. He returns home expecting to be treated as a hired servant. Instead:
"'He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him." — Luke 15:20
The father throws a feast, for "this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."
The Twenty-Fourth Sunday invites us to see ourselves in these parables—as the lost who have been found, as those welcomed home by a Father who runs to meet us. It also challenges us: do we share God's joy when sinners return, or do we grumble like the older brother?