Gospel: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
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. So to
them Jesus addressed this parable. “A man had two sons, and the younger son
said to his father ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come
to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the
younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where
he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely
spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in
dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to
his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which
the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How
many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here
am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to
him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve
to be called your son treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers. So
he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his
father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son,
embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned
against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.
But his father
ordered his servants, ‘Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a
ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and
slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was
dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found. Then the
celebration began. Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way
back, as he neared the house he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called
one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him ‘Your
brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because
he has him back safe and sound. He became angry and when he refused to enter
the house his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in
reply ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your
orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But
when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him
you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me
always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because
your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been
found.
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Reflection:
What kind of God is
our God? He is a God of love, mercy and forgiveness, what does this mean? This
simply means that nobody is beyond reach of the love of God. No matter how
sinful we are and no matter how grave the sins that we have committed we are
still loved dearly by our God.
But there’s one
quality that we must have to experience God’s love mercy and forgiveness . And
this is repentance, we have to realize first our own sinfulness and have the
desire to walk away from our sinfulness and be one again with God.
After wasting his
inheritance to debauchery and sinfulness the younger son in our gospel parable had
a humbling experience. He had nowhere to go, he lived a life of a beggar so to
speak.
So different from his life of comfort when he
was still with his father. He therefore
said to himself, why not go back home and ask for forgiveness from my father?
So he did, and to make a long story short his father forgave him.
This season of lent
let us think and reflect about our own sinfulness and other offenses that we’ve
done that created distance between us and Jesus. Let us go back home to Jesus
loving embrace by asking for His forgiveness. This we could do best if we would
humbly submit ourselves to the healing Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession.
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