This gospel-reading has several parables about the lost being found and rejoiced over when they return or are returned to their proper place, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald. The fact that we are told that Jesus welcomes outcasts and even eats with them is a statement of God’s magnanimous love expressed in and through Jesus. But being welcomed and forgiven calls for repentance on the part of all who accept Jesus’ invitation to be at home in his company.

By virtue of our Baptism, Jesus invites every single one of us to follow him in the way of discipleship. Today’s readings offer us insights into how we might accept that invitation from Jesus and what’s required of us when we do accept it, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald.

Today’s gospel-reading contains more than an indictment of mindless consumerism, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald. It’s a challenge to each of us to give some thought to how we use things, to the power resources we squander as we use our home appliances, to how we operate the vehicles we drive and the lawnmowers we push, to the value we attach to the stuff we have accumulated. Side by side with those challenges is an invitation from Jesus to audit our lives and examine the things with which we clutter them.

If today’s gospel-reading succeeds in doing nothing more than reminding us that we can slip into mindless recitation of the prayer with which we are most familiar, it has been worthy of our reflection, writes Christian Brother Julian McDonald. However, if it has helped us to look with new eyes at the prayer that Jesus left us, then it will be a worthwhile step towards changing our hearts and giving new meaning to what is involved in being disciples of Jesus.

Jesus has urged everyone of us who have dared to be his disciples to bring a message of peace wherever we go, reflects Christian Brother Julian McDonald. From our own experience of ourselves and others, we know that peace comes into our lives when we are affirmed and encouraged, when our broken and strained relationships are mended and we are reconciled with those from whom we have become separated and distanced, when we are treated with courtesy and respect. Such experiences give us and others the hope that we all need to keep on keeping on.