Homily for 4th Sunday of Lent Year C 2016
Joshua 5:9a,10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3,11-32
Introduction
Two little schoolgirls, let's call them Monica and Ashley, were
practicing their math skills by asking each other test questions.
Monica asked: “Ashley, when you have five dollars and you ask your dad
for five dollars, how much money do you have?”
“Five dollars,” replied Ashley.
“That is wrong!” Monica yelled out.
“Five plus five equals ten.
Ashley, you don’t know your math!”
But Ashley replied, “Monica, you don’t know my father!"
We might ask ourselves a similar question:
"Do we really know God our Father?”
Scripture and Theology
Thankfully, today's gospel parable tells us
something about who God our Father is.
The story also suggests what kind of sons and daughters we should be to
our father, and what kind of brothers and sisters we can be to each other.
From the parable we learn that ours is a
merciful and loving father, in at least two ways. First, God is the kind of father who respects
the freedom of his children. Unlike some
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 make mistakes and hopefully learn 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.
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.
·
We heard that when the younger
son, after squandering his money on loose living, realized the error of his
ways and returned to the father. But "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 decked him out in the finest clothing and jewellery, and ordered a
festival in his honour, with the main dish being the fattened calf set aside
for very special occasions.
·
And with the older son, the one
who refuses to come in and join the feast, the father went out there to seek
him and plead with him. He tells 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 he 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, has both respect for our free will and mercy for our conversion,
when we choose to exercise either.
Christian Life
When you have such a father, the natural
response is to be a good son or daughter to him, as well as a good brother or
sister to your siblings. We can learn
both from the two imperfect sons in the parable.
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 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, whether he wants to add us five more
dollars or not. We cannot 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.
2.
But from this same younger son,
we also learn what to do, especially when we sin. As a Jewish man, being reduced to feeding
pigs, unclean animals in for that religion, was the lowest one could get. As the saying goes, 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 at the bottom of that barrel.
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.
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."
Even the older son can teach us something
to imitate and a few things to avoid.
1.
Starting with his good
qualities, clearly he was a committed son.
When the younger son went off and abandoned the dad, who perhaps had
just been diagnosed with cancer, 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, it seems that he was 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? At least I know I certainly can learn
something 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 puts, "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 us
to be 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. I am a
jealous person when I want to keep others from getting what I have, and I am
envious when I want what the other person has for myself alone.
·
This older son is jealous
because he wants to keep the father's love for himself alone. We too can be like him when we deny that God
could love other people, of a different religion, nationality, race, or even
sinners.
·
The older son is also envious, because
he does not want the younger son to have the father's forgiveness. Don't we also sometimes think that God and
the Church are too merciful, reaching out to sinners, prisoners, immigrants,
the poor, people who don't deserve compassion?
That's why Jesus told this parable, because the Pharisees were grumbling
that “This man welcomes sinners and eats
with them.”
Conclusion
As we continue reflecting on this parable,
let us answer these three questions:
(1) What kind of father is God to me?
(2) What kind of son or daughter am I to
him?
(3) And especially, what kind of
brother or sister am I to God's other children?
No comments:
Post a Comment