The story of the Prodigal Son contains many lessons, one of which is that we all lose our way sometimes. Recall a time in your life when you were lost—or perhaps that time is now.

Today’s gospel speaks of the cost of discipleship.

"They were watching him,” we read of the Pharisees, who were eyeing Jesus as he dined.

“Strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees.” Whatever suffering you may encounter, God calls you not merely to stop there. Are difficulties a symptom of something wrong in your priorities?

At Masses around the world every day, millions of people, in the words of the gospel, “eat and drink” with the Lord—would Jesus disown any of them, the way the master does in the gospel story?

Scripture may offer no better definition of faith than Hebrews does: the realization of what is hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. It’s something of a paradox that what we hold most dear is at the same time “invisible.”

Do you feel some sympathy for the author of the Book of Wisdom? Have you ever thought that despite all the knowledge, skill, work, and worry you put into something, it still comes to naught?

This is how God loves: The presence of a handful of innocent people are enough to preserve the whole.

Though it was the heat of the day, Abraham moved quickly to welcome his divine guests. You have probably had the experience many times of being summoned from rest to attend to a need.

The commandments of God, Deuteronomy says, are not impossible and inaccessible laws humans have little chance to keep. No: God has given God’s human creatures the wisdom to understand divine commandments and the strength to follow them.