St. James' Church Bushypark Galway

He welcomes sinners and eats with them. Two types of people welcomed by Jesus: one, the younger son who had gone away, squandered his life and returned empty.

Those times of life we knew were wasted and were wrong, use of people or wealth or life just for ourselves, failure to look after those in our care or neglect of God and the things of God. Jesus offers always the bread of acceptance and forgiveness, the invitation to make always a new start, the insight that the future can bring new beginnings. A welcome to the wasted and battered sides of life, in his mercy and forgiveness.

And a welcome for the elder son: the one who had done everything right, but could not say ‘I have sinned’, who had always tried to be faithful, who had practised his faith, but seemed to do so in isolation, for he could not welcome with compassion the brother who returned home.

A welcome to for the sin of uninvolvement, of caring first for self and not for others, and an invitation to join all at the celebration of reconciliation and forgiveness. For God is the one who can give all, to the one who returns to his embrace, and to the one who was always in his embrace. For he welcomes sinners and eats with them.