WHAT MAKES GOD HAPPY? (Homily for Thursday of the 31st Week in ordinary Time, Year B.)

Bible Study:  Romans 14, 7 to 12. And Luke 15, 1 to 10.


Given that we are made in God’s image and likeness, it means that God is capable of anger as well as joy. If certain things could make God angry with us, it also follows that there are certain things that makes God very happy and that which makes God dance because of us is REPENTANCE.

Jesus said to us in our Gospel passage this morning: “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” This is not to say that righteousness by itself does not bring happiness to God, rather the point is, the happiness God gets over one sinner who repents from his evil ways is greater than the happiness of so many righteous persons combined.

In other words, the best gift you can ever give to God is to bring a sinner back to him. If you can succeed in making a person repent, renounce his former ways and start living righteously, then I tell you there would be a lot of dancing in heaven because of you. God is not happy when we become stuck in sin, he is not happy when we keep turning our backs away from him. His invitation is ever sure, no matter how far we have walked away from him, today, he is ever ready to receive us like the father of the prodigal son and there would be feast in heaven the very day we take that decision.

St. Paul says to us in today’s first reading, “None of us lives for himself and none of us dies for himself…”. This means that we only deceive ourselves when we try to push God aside or assume that we live only for our stomachs. We all came from God and we shall all return to God after our earthly life and as such we cannot say God does not have a right to dictate to us how we should live our life. God is fully in charge, the very life we live even is a borrowed one, we took breath from God on the day we were conceived and one day we shall stop breathing and appear before God to give account of what we did with this borrowed life.

The fact that our very life does not belong to us but to God is the reason why God is interested in how we live. As much as he does not force us like robots, he is very happy when we decide turn away from things he does not like. And turning away from sin should not make us condemn other people. Since no one’s life belongs to us, we lack the capacity to fully understand the circumstances behind a person’s behaviour. Only God who owns the person’s life has what it takes to judge. So, our attitude towards those we perceive as sinners should be love not disgust. We should look at them as potential sources of happiness for God, we should see God’s image in them and try to bring them to the light.

When they come to church, we shouldn’t have a Pharisaic attitude by pushing them out or begin to wonder what business they have with Jesus. Instead we should see them as sick people coming into a hospital for treatment. Jesus himself is the doctor while we are mere health workers, our job is to ensure that they see the doctor. Knowing that we ourselves are not immune to sickness, we handle the sick with gentleness and love. We look forward eagerly to their recovery. We shouldn’t look at them like corpses waiting for their death or like people or are not even worthy to associate with the master doctor – Jesus.

Let us Pray:
Lord Jesus, my very life belongs to us, help me to use it well knowing that I borrowed it and would someday have to return it back to you, grant that I may learn to treat people with respect rather than condemnation. Amen.


Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. 

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