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.
Let us think and reflect about our own sinfulness and the many offenses
that we’ve done that created distance between us and Jesus. Let us heal that
distance by humbly asking for His forgiveness. This we can do best if we would
humbly submit ourselves to the healing Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession.
Would you submit yourself to the Sacrament of Confession? – Marino J.
Dasmarinas
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