Homily for 4th Sunday of Lent

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Lent

March 30, 2025
Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
Scouts NYLT, Putnam Valley, N.Y.
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

Return of the Prodigal Son (Palma Giovane)

“Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’” (Luke 15: 1).

It’s a proverb that you’re known by the company you keep, for better or for worse.  St. John Bosco constantly advised youngsters to choose their friends carefully.

So the religious leaders in Israel complain, repeatedly, about the company that Jesus keeps.  Pretty much no one likes tax collectors, and in 1st-century Palestine they were oppressive and often corrupt, and they worked for the Romans.  “Sinners” was a broad category—those who flagrantly violated moral norms, obviously, but also those who didn’t observe all the fine details of Jewish law, like diet, purifications, and ritual prayer.

Jesus kept such company, not because he was like them but because he wanted them to know that God loves them and cares about them.  If God doesn’t care about sinners—people who commit sin, big sins or little sins, all of which stain us before God—then all of us are in trouble.

To drive home the point of God’s care, Jesus on this occasion told 3 parables; our gospel reading was the 3d one.  The 1st concerned a lost sheep, the 2d a lost coin, both of which were diligently searched for and brought a lot of joy when they were found.  If you listened to the gospel just now, you realize that both sons were lost, and their father had to search for both of them.  He was incredibly happy when the younger son returned—was found; we’re left hanging at the end about the older son, who’s reluctant to return, to come into the party, to be part of the family happiness.  We don’t know what he finally did.

All of us are like both sons at different times.  The younger son really dissed his father—basically telling him, “I can’t wait for your death; give me my inheritance now”—and then led a wild and self-centered life.  Notice that after he’s spent everything on wine, women, and song (as the older son would have it), and he’s destitute, he hasn’t a friend or anyone willing to help him out.  He’s desperate even for pig food.  Self-centered people are lonely and lost.

And all of us act like that sometimes— rude, arrogant, greedy, selfish, wasteful.

The older son doesn’t seem to have a good relationship with his father; he feels like little more than a slave in the house—“all these years I served you”—some translations say, “I slaved for you” (15:29)—and he resents getting little recognition for it.  He’s furious about his younger brother, probably going all the way back to the division of the family estate, and certainly now that “your son” (not “my brother”) has gotten a warm welcome and a big party, and all’s forgiven, even if the younger son will never get any more of the family fortune.

But don’t all of us sometimes resent the good fortune of others or how bad people seem to thrive, or pass judgment on people as to who’s good and who’s bad and think we ought to be in charge?  How ready are we to give people a 2d chance after they’ve really made a mess of their lives, or offended us?  Are we ready to rejoice when God is generous and forgiving, or do we prefer to complain, condemn, and stay out of the party that God wants to give for Jesus’ friends, whoever they are?

The point of Jesus’ parable, however, is that we ought to act like the father in the parable.  What’s he like?  Tho insulted and abandoned by his son, he continued to love him and to long for his return, as God continues to love sinners and long for their return.  The father forgives and is supremely happy when his lost son comes home, even in a wretched state—as God is when we sinners come home to him.

That’s why Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them” (15:2).  In fact, shortly we’ll dine with Jesus, who nourishes us sinners with his own Body and Blood.  The son in the parable protested to his father, “I no longer deserve to be called your son” (15:21).  We’ll protest, “Lord, I am not worthy” to receive you.  Nevertheless, he invites us; he welcomes us; he wants us; he calls us his friends, as he called the apostles at the very 1st Eucharist (John 15:15).

“Now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found,” the father explains to his older son (15:32).  Jesus wants nothing more than to bring us back to life, to pardon our sins and guide us from being lost to sin in the future.