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HE WAS LOST, AND IS FOUND

(A biblical reflection on the 4^th Sunday of Lent, Year C – March 10, 2013)

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

First Reading: Josh 5:9-12; Psalms: Ps 34:2-7; Second Reading: 2Cor 5:17-21

Scripture Text

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So He told them this parable: “There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.”’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heasrd music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!’ and he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’” (Lk 15:1-3,11-32 RSV)

How important – and how difficult – that we understand our poverty before God! We do not like to admit that we need to be saved from ourselves. It can seem ironic that, in His desire to draw us closer, God will even allow us to resist Him and turn away. He knows that this may be the only way we will learn how much we need Him. The wonder is that when we do “come to our senses,” He always welcomes us home.

In the parable, the father gave his son all that he requested, knowing he did not yet know how to handle it. The man could only hope that his son would eventually return to him and accept his care. When the son did return – poverty stricken, having lived in conditions far worse than his father’s servants – this is exactly what happened. By stepping outside of the circle of his father’s protection, he subjected himself to far more pain and isolation than he expected.

We can be so like this young man! We do not like to acknowledge our poverty or our opposition to God. We “strike out on our own,” thinking all will be well, only to return to God later, begging for His touch. God allows this to occur because He wants us to know the poverty of life apart from Him. He wants us to know that only by His grace can we have freedom and peace.

Every time we separate ourselves from God and go our own way, we see what a life without His mercy is like. As we run out of our resources – spiritual, emotional, physical – we get a glimpse of the judgment we deserve. Let us turn back to Him so that we can rejoice in our Father’s embrace as He cleanses us with the blood of Jesus and fills us with His Holy Spirit.

Short Prayer: Heavenly Father, we come to You today, weak and in need of Your life. Purify our hearts, fill us with the Holy Spirit, embrace us with Your love. You are wisdom and love, and only You can fill our needs. Amen.

A Christian Pilgrim

GOD’S ‘CRAZY’ LOVE

(A biblical reflection on the 4^th Sunday of Lent, Year C – 10^th of March 2013)

First Reading: Josh 5:9,10-12; Psalms: Ps 34:2-7; Second Reading: 2Cor 5:17-21; Gospel Reading: Luke 15:1-3,11-32

Once there was a man who had a wife whom he loved very dearly until one day she ran off with another man and became his mistress. When the man got tired of her, he sold her into slavery. One would think that her husband gloated over the misfortune of the unfaithful wife. No. He hears of her plight as a slave, buys her back – and makes her his wife again.

“Crazy,” you might say. But as a married friend of mine once, said, “To be in love, you must be a bit crazy.” (Difficult for a celibate like me to understand!). But the man’s insane love is true. You can find his story in a most unlikely book – Old Testament: on the forgiving love of the prophet Hosea (Hos 11:1-9).

From Hosea’s hard-school of experience, the poignant message dawns on him, albeit painfully, that if Hosea could be so forgiving, how much more with God.Hosea’s personal experience is, of course, a prefigurement of God’s “crazy” love for sinners as depicted in the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15:11-32).

Many Bible scholars have said that the Parable of the Prodigal Son is a misnomer. It should be called the “Parable of the Father’s Love” or of the “Prodigal Father” because the whole point of the story depicts the overwhelmingly, lavish love of the father on his errant son.

This kind of love is shown when the father reluctantly gave in to the wish of his son who insisted on his freedom by getting his inheritance and breading away from home. Although the father knew the danger that lay ahead, he let him go. This gives us an insight into God’s love: for love to be true it must be freely given; it cannot be forced.

After the profligate son had spent all his patrimony in “loose living,” He was despondent, broken, abandoned by his good-time friends.How true it is in life. As long as the money holds out, we’re surrounded by “friends.” But when the “wells run dry,” we’re left on our own.

In order to keep body and soul together, the impoverished lad had to work in a piggery feeding swine. Now this has some interesting symbolism. For the Jews pork is forbidden. Hence, to be reduced to the job of feeding swine and eating the “husks the pigs ate,” means you’re scraping the bottom of your existence.

“Then he came to his senses,” the story continues. For the first time he realized what a big mistake he had made. He says to himself, “I will arise and go to my father.” So he did. While he was still a long way off, his saw him and had compassion.”

Did it ever occur to you that the father saw him even though the boy was at a great distance? It must have happened because the father had always spent a good deal of time looking down that long stretch, hoping that he would catch sight of his boy returning. Otherwise he never would have seen him until he actually had arrived and knocked at the door.

What did the father do? Did he first reprimand him to this effect, “After making a fool of yourself, you return? That should teach you a lesson, you ingrate”! Nothing of that sort. The father ran and threw his arms around him and fell on his knees and kissed him (despite the stinking smell!).

When the boy began the speech which he probably had rehearsed, the father must have covered the boy’s mouth with his hand so the words would not come out. The father would not enjoy the humiliation of the son. He cried out, “Bring quickly the best robe and put on him; and put a ring on his finger …” The ring symbolizes his son’s reinstatement to his former filial position.

The loving father in the story represents God and the wayward son is every sinner – us. Christ is saying that after even the most stupid of mistakes, the most degrading of sins, God will be looking for us and, with open arms, will take us back.

All that is needed is: awareness and acceptance of our sinfulness. Repentance and sorrow followed, and he resolved to make that journey back to his father.

Lent provides us the best opportunity to do just that – return to our “Prodigal Father.”

Note: Taken from Fr. Bel San Luis SVD, WORD ALIVE – REFLECTIONS ON THE SUNDAY GOSPEL – C CYCLE 1998, Manila, Philippines: Society of the Divine word, 1997 (second printing), pages 40-42.