Homily for the
4th Sunday of Lent
March
27, 2022
Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.
“This man welcomes sinners and eats
with them” (Luke 3: 2).
So the Pharisees and the scribes
complain about Jesus. In doing so, they
summarize the Gospel, the Good News of our salvation.
In response to their complaint, Jesus
illustrates God’s love for sinners by telling 3 parables. The 1st 2 precede today’s parable in Luke 15
but aren’t included in our lectionary passage.
In the 1st, a shepherd seeks diligently for a lost sheep and brings home
it lovingly (15:4-6). In the 2d, a woman
searches diligently thru her house for a lost coin and rejoices to find it (15:8-9). I sure can identify with that woman’s search
because about once a week I misplace something in my room or work space. Jesus concludes both of these parables with
the same refrain: “I tell you, in just
the same way there will be rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents”
(15:10; cf. 15:7).
The longest parable is that of the lost
son, a parable we usually call “the prodigal son.” In it there are actually 2 lost sons, and
it’s the father who’s prodigal—with his wealth and his forgiveness.
The father must have been deeply hurt
when his younger son told him, “I can’t wait till you die. Give me my inheritance now, and I’m outta
here.” A typical Middle Eastern father
and probably most Western fathers would respond, “You’re outta here, all
right! Get out! And I’m not giving you a penny.”
This father, however, is far more
patient. He grants his arrogant son what
he asks and watches him depart.
How many weeks, how many months, how many years did that father watch—watch for his son’s return! “While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion” (15:20). He didn’t search for him in the same way that the shepherd searched for the lost sheep or the housewife for her lost coin. But he watched with longing and hope for the return of his wayward child. Even so does God love us sinners and long for our return to where we belong: at his side.
The 2d character in the parable is the
wayward son, the son filled with pride, the son who wastes his father’s gift,
the son who wastes his father’s love.
He’s a sinner—like the people whom Jesus deals with, receives, and forgives. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with
them.”
After a long time, after falling into a
degraded condition, he begins to repent.
His contrition isn’t perfect.
It’s desperate. But it’s
contrition, and it brings him home to his father, where he’s forgiven and
welcomed unconditionally. So it is with
us sinners when we come back to God, when we approach the Father’s mercy,
whether our motive is love for one whom we’ve offended or merely dread of God’s
punishment. In the eyes of Jesus, it’s
enuf that we want to come home. He
“welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
In fact, in the Holy Eucharist we come
to Jesus’ sacred supper to feast with him, and by his mysterious power to feast
on him. We come to him as
sinners, confessing, “Lord, I am not worthy”; but we come repentant and
resolved to try to put way our sins, confident that he “will say but the word
and my soul shall be healed.”
The 3d character in the parable
receives the least attention. That’s the
older son. He is, truly, the most
pathetic of the characters, the one who remains lost at the end of the
parable. We don’t doubt that he
represents the scribes and the Pharisees who resent Jesus’ merciful treatment
of sinners. He resents his father’s
merciful reception of his younger brother—whom he won’t even acknowledge as his
brother, calling him instead “your son” (15:30). “All these years I served you,” he objects
(15:39); all these years I’ve slaved for you.
He hasn’t stayed with his father out of love but out of duty, or
perhaps, worse, only out of expecting his eventual inheritance. It’s sad.
It’s sad like the situation of so many people who witness the goodness
of God acting in Jesus but who won’t accept that goodness and join in it.
Even today many Catholics resent the
mercy of God offered to sinners. When
Pope Francis teaches that the name of God is mercy and tries to make all of us
sinners welcome in the Church, he’s scorned and even called a heretic. The Holy Father isn’t redefining sin, not
saying that sinful behavior is no longer sin.
He calls himself a sinner. He is,
rather, reminding us that God, like the father in Jesus’ parable, is very
patient with us and continues to love us—as the father continues to love and
pursue his 2d wayward, arrogant son, the one who refuses to come into the
party. God desires that we turn toward
him, even imperfectly.
The parable ends with the older son
still outside the celebration. Will he
come in? You and I will finish the
parable by how we respond to God’s pleading for us to accept his forgiveness,
to come into the celebration: the
celebration of the sacrament of Reconciliation and the banquet of eternal life
that begins at our altar here.
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