24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) Sept. 11 (Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14; Psalm 51; 1 Timothy 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32)

Fickleness and ingratitude are unfortunate human characteristics that have always been with us. God had done so much for the Israelites. He had liberated them from Egypt with mighty signs and wonders, as well as providing them with food and water in the hostile wilderness. But they asked the age-old question: what have you done for me lately?

There’s a haunting text in the Book of Revelations where poetic image, for all its beauty, can be dangerously misleading. The author there writes: “So the angel swung his sickle over the Earth and cut the Earth’s vintage. He threw it into the great winepress of God’s fury.”