4th Sunday of Lent Year C
Readings: Joshua 5:9-12, 2Cor. 5:17-21, and Lk. 15:1-3,11-32.
“God Loves Us and is Ready to Always Forgive Us.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
1. Jesus Christ in today’s gospel passage, reminds us how powerful God’s love for us is. Jesus indicates to us how God treats us when we fail or when we sin. Jesus always loves us so does God the Father. The Scriptures testify to the loving nature of Jesus. A few cases we can cite are:
- Jesus’ encounter with Peter. Peter denied him but his love for Peter never changed. He denied him in weakness. Jesus never rejected him nor deprived him of the leadership role he had entrusted to him because of the denial.
- Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the Well (Jn 4). He took time and educated the women, who eventually became the bearer of the Good News. He never gave up on her ignorance.
- Jesus’ encounter with the Senior Tax Collector, Zacchaeus, the one that the entire community rejected. ‘Today I will stay in your house,’ Jesus had told him.
- The Good Thief on the Cross. Master, remember me when you get to your Kingdom. Today by 3pm you will be with me at Paradise, he was told.
- Jesus’ prayer for his executioners: ‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.’
- Jesus’ encounter with Mary Magdalene, from whom he drove out demons, seven times etc.
2. God sent Jesus to us and asked us to listen to him. (Matt. 17:5). Some years back I taught the students explaining to them the loving nature of God and His ever readiness to forgive. One of the students protested and told me that I was cheapening God’s love and mercy (forgiveness). I opened the Gospel passage we have just listened to and read it and explained it to them. The introduction to the Gospel text today reads: “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and the Scribes began to complain saying, ‘this man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” In reply to this accusation, Jesus told them the story of the merciful God. When we try to compare ourselves to others, things do not go well with us. It is never a fulfilling game, and God makes clear that worldly signs of success are not signs of God’s favor. It is far more fruitful to strive to understand that we are journeying to God together and that God wants to bless all of us with full and abundant life. Do we hunger for God’s mercy? Do we taste and see that the Lord is good?
3. There are several lessons we can learn from this story. The first is that God does not force us to love Him. God loves us but we are each free to respond to God’s love, follow His ways, do His will or not. The Father couldn’t force the boy to stay back with Him when he opted to leave. This younger son demanded his share of the inheritance before the father is even dead! How do you inherit from one who is alive? The Father allowed and respected the boy’s choice to go. When you choose to go away from Him, you choose misery, to opt for life without purpose, without meaning, an unfulfilled life.
4. The boy we are told traveled to a far away country, wasted the money, disgraced the family, ended up lonely, miserable and even starving. At this point, he thought of home and His Father – the good Father He has been. He decided to go home and to say sorry to His Father and begged to be allowed to be a servant in His Father’s House since he is not worthy of being called a son. He set out for home. Home sweet home. Those who stay away or back from joining us here aren’t better, fulfilled, or happier - they all miss the consolation and the joy that radiates from the Liturgical Assembly, the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries, the source and summit of Christian life.
5. The story relates that ‘the Father sees His son while he was still a long way off.’ This means the Father was watching out for the boy, hoping he would return. He was missing the boy and stood at the door each day, looking down the road. Then one day he saw him and what did we hear? “His Father saw him and was moved to pity.” If we are to ask, ‘Does God love us when we sin/fail Him?’ The answer would be this “The Father sees the boy tired, worn out, dirty, with ragged clothes and He is ‘moved to pity.’ He is moved to pity, not anger, judgment or condemnation but pity.
6. Next, the Father ran to the boy. The Father runs down into the road to welcome the boy. We would not expect this in any culture. God comes down to welcome the sinner. Only God can do this. No human being can fittingly do this. At their meeting the son is trying to make excuses, but the Father seemed not listening. This is because He understood that the boy is back because he is sorry. He immediately organized the feasting asking only for the best for his son – best robe, the ring on his finger, sandals, some music, kill the fattened calf, the feasting is ongoing.
7. Very few human fathers would act this way if any at all. The normal thing would be to ask the boy to explain maybe with the aid of several diagrams why he did what he did. He would be reminded of his failure, and the new term of relationship would be drawn between them. When we sin and come back to God, we are given what we need namely love and healing-forgiveness. We cannot measure the love of God neither can we measure the forgiveness of God. When He forgives, He forgets completely. We are expected to live good lives. Such a life isn’t of essence the one lived without sin but lived in admission of guilt and asking for God’s grace in everyday endeavors. Before this season of Lent runs out, do a thorough examination of conscience and make a good Confession. God will forgive us and give us what we need – love and healing. To God be the glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.
Fr. Anthony D Lawir,
Pastor, St. Agnes and Our Lady of the Snows Parishes, Pittsfield and Dexter.