Homily Lent 4C: Learning God's fatherhood, our sonship and our brotherhood

Homily for 4^th Sunday of Lent Year C 2022

 Joshua 5:9a,10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3,11-32

Introduction

What a beautiful parable we have just heard!  It is perhaps the most famous parable in the gospels second only to that of the Good Samaritan.  We know it as the Parable of the Prodigal Son.  But a few other names have been suggested.

·        Some have called the "Parable of the Lost Son," coming as it does after the two parables of the Lost Coin and the Lost Sheep.

·        Others have called it "The Parable of the Merciful Father", focusing on the love and the mercy that the father shows to both sons.

·        And Pope Benedict suggested the name, "The Parable of the Two Sons."

For our reflection today, I would like to focus on the last two name, to show that this parable is really first about the mercy and compassion of the Father, and secondly about the sin, not just of the younger son, but of both sons.  And if we are honest with ourselves, we have at one time or other been each of these sons.

Scripture and Theology

We start by reflecting on the mercy and compassion of the father, who represents God’s mercy.  First, like the father in the parable, God is the kind of father who respects the freedom of his children.  Unlike some human fathers, the father in the gospel story does not use the inheritance to hold the younger son hostage; he lets him go.  He knows that every child reaches an age when he wants to be his own man, make his way in life, even making mistakes and hopefully learning from them.  Of course, by doing this the father risks being forgotten forever; but still, he does not stop his son from exercising his free will.  That is what God does to us.

Secondly, God is a forgiving father, who anxiously waits for his sinful children to return. And when they do, he rushes out to meet them and bring them back.

·        Did you notice that for the younger son, "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."  The father had been patiently waiting for him.  He then decked him out in the finest clothing and jewellery, and ordered a festival in his honour, with the main dish being the fattened calf.

·        And with the older son, the one who refuses to come in and join the feast, again the father went out there to seek him and plead with him.  He told him: "My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours."  He never forced him to come into the house and the story does not tell us if the son did.  But it was not for lack of trying on the father's part.

And so, God our Father, like the father in the story, both respects our free will, but is also seeks us out and waits to receive us when we sin and repent.

Christian Life

So, this is the king of father God is.  But what kind of sons or daughters are we?  Perhaps when we hear this parable called the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we think that only the younger son was the sinful one and see him in ourselves. But aren’t both sons sinners?  Aren’t we like both sons in some way?  Can we learn something from each son?

From the younger son, we learn to avoid entitlement and to practice conversion.

1.    Rather than always demanding: "Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me," we should allow God to give us freely what he thinks we really need.  In our prayer, we can request, but must we leave it to God to grant our requests.  We must not demand, bribe or grab. That was the sin of Adam and Eve who ate of the fruit of the tree, so that they could get for themselves knowledge apart from God.  That can be our sin today, when we take, take, from God, but never give, give at all.  And of course, this entitlement is the root cause of materialism, consumerism and all the other sins that come from misusing what God has given us.  That is what the younger son does too.

In addition to the entitlement, the younger son is also guilty of abandoning his father, and going to a pig-raising foreign land. In an agricultural community like Judah, when a son got his inheritance, he did not depart, but stayed on the farm to help his father.  We do something similar when we abandon God and his Church, and go out there, as it were, in a land foreign to the faith.

2.    But from this younger son, we also learn what to do, especially when we sin.  As a Jewish man, being reduced to feeding pigs, unclean animals for that religion, was the lowest one could get.  He had scraped the bottom of the barrel.  That is when he realized that going back to his father, not as a son but as servant, would still be much better than being in his situation.  And so, he went and said: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son."  But the father received him back as a son.

Don't we too sometimes find ourselves at the bottom of the barrel, struggling with sins of purity, with our marriage, with our work situations, or even prayer? Like the younger son, we too should examine ourselves, become contrite and return to the father in confession to seek his mercy. In fact, during confession, we use virtually the same words of this parable when in the act of contrition, we say: "O my God, I heartily sorry for having sinned against you."

From the older son we can imitate his diligence and avoid his jealousy and envy.

1.    Starting with his good qualities, clearly, he was a committed son.  When the younger son went off and abandoned the dad, he stuck around.  He is diligent and obedient, like he says himself: "Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders."  Every day, he works hard: he can be counted on to deliver the calf at 2.00 in the morning, milk the cows at dawn and take the oxen out to plough in the hot sun.  In fact, he has yet even taken a penny of the inheritance, for he tells his father: “you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.”  Would we not like to have a child like him?

How many of us can claim this level of diligence, obedience and commitment to our earthly parents and perhaps even more importantly to our heavenly Father?  Can we learn these qualities from this older son?

2.    At the same time, this older son has some vices that we must avoid: As a son, he thinks of himself as a slave to his father, rather than as a beloved child.  He wants to buy his father's love by hard work and blind obedience.  But as Jesus tells us, "I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father" (Jn. 15:15).  God wants sons and daughters who love him for him, not simply out of fear of him.

As a brother, the older son harbours jealousy and envy towards his brother. 

·        Jealousy makes him want to keep the father's love for himself and not share it with his little brother.  We too can be like him when we deny that God could love people of a different religion, race or even sinners.

·        Envy makes him not want the brother to have the father's forgiveness.  Don't we also sometimes think that God and the Church are too merciful to sinners, prisoners, immigrants, the poor, people who don't deserve mercy?  In fact, it is to address such envy that Jesus told this parable, to Pharisees grumbling that “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Conclusion

And so, as we continue our Lenten repentance, may the parable remind us that although imperfect like both sons, we have a prodigal, generous, merciful Father.

And I want to end by reading just one paragraph from Pope Francis’ homily this past Friday, at the special event of consecrating Russia and Ukraine, and indeed the whole of humanity to the Blessed Mother.  What he said is a fitting message to take away from today’s gospel.

In these days, news reports and scenes of death continue to enter our homes, even as bombs are destroying the homes of many of our defenceless Ukrainian brothers and sisters.  The vicious war that has overtaken so many people, and caused suffering to all, has made each of us fearful and anxious.  We sense our helplessness and our inadequacy.  We need to be told, “Do not be afraid”.  Yet human reassurance is not enough.  We need the closeness of God and the certainty of his forgiveness, which alone eliminates evil, disarms resentment and restores peace to our hearts.  Let us return to God and to his forgiveness.