The Prodigal returns

Here is the text of the homily I shared tonight with those who had gathered for the regional Penitential liturgy that was celebrated.  Following a Liturgy of the Word, opportunities were made available for the celebration of individual confessions.

The power of forgiveness

During the Season of Lent, we are all invited to use the disciplines of prayer, fasting and almsgiving in order to listen with the ear of the heart for the gentle call of our God.  The voice of God has called out to his beloved people since the dawn of time.  At a certain point in time, our God even sent his own son to live among us as a sign of his love for us, but human beings have always been fickle.  While Jesus came to tell us about God’s love, not everyone was ready to welcome the good news he had to share.  Saint Luke tells us that the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling about the fact that this fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.  Is there a part of us that reacts in this way when we see evidence of goodness around us, a goodness that is offered for everyone, for the privileged and for the less fortunate alike?  Are we sometimes more interested in protecting our own status in society than we are about spending time with others, with those who call out to us, with those who need us?  Does our preoccupation with our own self-worth ever stop us from recognizing the fact that Jesus is calling us to conversion?  If so, the parable of the prodigal son is addressed to us.

There is a part of all of us that is like the younger of the two sons in this parable.  Our faith tells us that there is a great treasure reserved for us, the treasure of love and of faith, and the promise of eternal life in heaven, but sometimes we confuse this treasure that is intangible with the treasures of this world.  Sometimes, we even dare to ask our Father to give us the share of the property that will belong to us so that we can enjoy it now.  Our Father is generous with his love.  He is willing to give us anything we ask, even the inheritance that is reserved for us, and even though he knows that we are tempted to use it in order to travel to distant countries and to squander it.  If indeed we have traveled far away from our God, if we have squandered the gifts he has entrusted to us, now is the time for us to come to our senses.  Perhaps deep within us we have recognized that the talents God has given to us have not been developed or honed as they should have.  Perhaps we have even tried to deny our need for God, preferring to find our own way in the world.  The young man hired himself out … and was sent into the fields to feed the pigs, and still that was not enough.  He thirsted for more, and deep within our hearts, perhaps we too also recognize that we have settled for second best.  Perhaps we too have come to our senses and are ready to return to our Father.  Even if we have nothing to offer in return, perhaps all we can hope for is mercy and forgiveness.  Tonight, we have come to this place to say to our Father: I have sinned against heaven and before you.  Perhaps we even feel unworthy to be counted as one of God’s precious children, but our God is waiting for us, he sees us while we are still far off.  He is filled with compassion and comes running toward us, wrapping us in his arms, covering us with tender kisses.

In his excitement, our God doesn’t even give us time to speak our rehearsed lines.  Instead, he dresses us in the finest clothes because we are his precious children.  He places a ring on our finger to demonstrate the fact that we are his chosen and beloved ones.  He places sandals on our feet, true luxuries of the time, simply because his heart is so filled with joy at our return.

There is a part of each of us that is also like the elder son.  When the Pharisees saw that Jesus was spending so much time with sinners, even sharing their table with them, they may have felt that he was somehow beneath his station.  Perhaps they thought that because he was respected as a preacher, he should have been spending time with them instead.  What about us?  Are there instances when we have been jealous or resentful about someone else who has received some recognition that we ourselves might have believed to be ours? The elder son became angry and refused to go in to the banquet, but when the Father heard that his son had arrived, he went out in search of him.  Our God comes in search of us, especially when we are outside, when we are lost, when we are closed in on ourselves.

Perhaps even today, our Father is calling to us:  My son, my daughter, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.  How do these words resonate in our hearts?  Do we believe them?  Can we trust the voice that speaks them?  All that Christ has to give is ours for the taking, but it is right that we should also celebrate and rejoice when we witness someone else who has gone astray and courageously returns.  It’s not easy to come back, and none of us knows the path that has been trodden in the meanwhile.  Only God knows those details. 

What about the other guests who had been invited to the feast?  I wonder what they thought about the drama that was unfolding in the Father’s house.  Had they seen the jealousy of the elder son on other occasions?  Were they too of the opinion that the younger son had no right to return?  Did they feel powerless to change the situation?  What about us?  Have there been situations in our lives where we have felt like bystanders, looking on from a distance while friends, relatives, even dear friends struggle with demons they don’t seem to understand.  Have we taken sides in arguments that are not our own to fight?

God invites us tonight to celebrate the great gift of his mercy.  Perhaps we ourselves are the ones most in need of the Father’s forgiveness – that gift is waiting - Christ's arms are spread wide open.  Perhaps we are the ones who are called to join the party, to celebrate with a brother or a sister of ours who has traveled a long and dusty road, and who has come back.  Walking beside one such as this is the ultimate act of compassion.  Perhaps we ourselves have been the one who has gone running to welcome one who was lost but has returned, with the joy of a loving heart that knows no bounds. Regardless of what has been done, even if that means that we ourselves have been hurt in the process, now is the time to celebrate and rejoice with those who once were lost, and who have now been found.