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 Jesus? He is a God of encompassing 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 think and reflect about your own sinfulness and the many
offenses that you’ve done that created distance between you and Jesus. Heal
that distance by humbly asking for His forgiveness. This you can do best if you
would humbly submit yourself to the healing Sacrament of
Reconciliation/Confession.
Are you
humble enough to submit yourself to the Sacrament of Confession? – Marino J.
Dasmarinas
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