Sunday March 27, 2022

Fourth Sunday Of Lent

 

A Father Prodigal with His Love

Can you imagine that, when half-heartedly sorry for the stupidities of your sins, you tell God that you come back to him, he embraces you and prepares a feast for you? It is almost like a hero’s welcome! A God prodigal with his love waits for us; the past belongs to the past. Let us join in the feast of forgiveness.

 

First Reading: Joshua 5:9-12

God said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt.” That’s why the place is called The Gilgal. It’s still called that.

The People of Israel continued to camp at The Gilgal. They celebrated the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the plains of Jericho.

Right away, the day after the Passover, they started eating the produce of that country, unraised bread and roasted grain. And then no more manna; the manna stopped. As soon as they started eating food grown in the land, there was no more manna for the People of Israel. That year they ate from the crops of Canaan.

 

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21

We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

 

Gospel: Luke 15:1-3,11-32

By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, “He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends.” Their grumbling triggered this story.

Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’

“So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any.

“That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father.

“When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’

“But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time.

“All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’

“The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’

“His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”

 

Prayer

God with a big heart,
when we have lost our way,
when we seek fake happiness
in the dark land of sin,
you send your Son to search for us
and to bring us back home to you.
Let us feel deeply that you are looking forward
to welcome us with joy
and to restore us in your life and love.
Give us the humble courage to return to you,
our God and Father for ever.  Amen.

 

Reflection:

Called to be children, not slaves

Judaism taught that God granted his pardon to those who had sincerely repented and expressed their desire to be converted through fasting, penance, torn clothes and prostrations. But the Image of God brought to light by Jesus was a very different one – a God who sets a banquet for those who do not deserve it and invites sinners to his feast, without checking if they are repentant. He embraces them without asking any questions.

What prompted the younger son’s return to the father was not repentance but hunger. He tried to survive even by eating what was given to the pigs ate. He would not have returned if anyone had offered him food. Fear of death brings him back. He is willing to be a servant in his father’s house provided he has food to eat. He might leave again if he has a possibility to survive elsewhere.

But the father does not care whether the son is repentant. He embraces him. Through the parable, Jesus reveals the true face of God the Father who loves everyone, always and without conditions. The young boy represents many youngsters of our times. They believe that they have no freedom in their own house in the presence of their parents. Many people leave the Church today because the Church has too many rules to follow, and feel that there is no freedom.

The elder brother follows all the commandments of the father. He attempts to remind the father: “I have not transgressed any command; I have always served you faithfully….” He then makes his complaints to the father, “… but when your son returns….” He refuses to admit that this “son of his father” is his younger brother! He is the perfect portrait of the scrupulously law-abiding Pharisees, who would say to the Lord in the temple: “I am not like other people, grasping, crooked or adulterous. I fast twice a week and give the tenth of all my income” (Lk 18:11-12).

Does he sound familiar? We attend the Sunday Mass without fail, pray the novenas and litanies faithfully, observe the lent with utmost care. But we refuse to forgive and love that brother or sister who wronged us! Were all these done to obtain some favours from God? Do we get annoyed when people with “lesser” qualifications or “bad reputations” are accepted and recognised in our communities? The eldest son would still go in to attend the banquet for ‘his brother,’ because he wants to obey all the commands of the father, but with a grumbling heart. Yet the Father patiently awaits the return of his two sons to celebrate life together.

Are we joining the banquet of the Father because we want to fulfil all the rules and regulations of the Church, but with anger and hatred towards our brethren?

 

Video available on Youtube: Called to be children, not slaves