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Homily for the fourth Sunday
of Lent - Year C - Lk. 15:1-3 & 11-32
by
Father Daniel Meynen
"Now the tax collectors
and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and
the scribes murmured, saying, « This man receives sinners and
eats with them. »
"So he told them this
parable : « There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of
them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that
falls to me.' And he divided his living between them. Not many days
later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a
far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living.
And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that
country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to
one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to
feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine
ate; and no one gave him anything.
"« But when he came
to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread
enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and
go to my father, and I will say to him, « Father, I have sinned
against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your
son; treat me as one of your hired servants. »' And he arose
and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father
saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the
father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it
on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring
the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this
my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And
they began to make merry.
"« Now his elder son
was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard
music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what
this meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your
father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe
and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came
out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Lo, these many
years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you
never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But
when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with
harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!' And he said to him,
'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was
fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and
is alive; he was lost, and is found.' »"
Homily:
"Now the tax collectors
and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and
the scribes murmured, saying, « This man receives sinners and
eats with them. » So he told them this parable..."
Today, the Church proposes
to us that we meditate upon the parable of the prodigal son, that is,
the time when Jesus told of how a son asked his father for his
inheritance, spent all his money in debauchery and pleasure, and in
the end came back to his father in a spirit of repentance for the
faults which he had made. It is about a prodigal son, because he
spent all his wealth in a reckless and scandalous manner: he badly
used the possessions which his father had given him as his part of the
inheritance. But it is especially about a child, about a son whose
father is admirable for his goodness and kindliness, because although
this son spent without measure, what he spent was precisely what the
condescension of his father had freely bestowed upon him.
This prodigal son knows who
his father is! He knows that he is good and tender towards all the
people of his house, from the least to the greatest. He knows that
his father is good, because he has experienced this goodness on
several occasions. And he remembers it! "How many of my father's
hired servants have bread enough and to spare." Truly, he remembers
it! And we too have experienced on so many occasions the goodness and
the mercy of God toward us... And we too, in the Spirit of God,
remember it! The gifts which God has granted us throughout our life
are as many signs of his tenderness and love towards us. And the Holy
Spirit is there so that we may remember them, as if they were words of
God sowed in our soul during the course of our life: "The Counselor,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach
you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to
you." (Jn. 14:26)
But the prodigal son does
not yet really know who his father is. He does have a general idea,
but he does not have a perfect conception of who he is, because he is
far from his home, living in a foreign country, and memory, as good as
it may be, can bring into the present only what has already passed,
without being able to make present the present itself: the prodigal
son remembers his father as he was in the past, but he cannot imagine
what he is today, that is to say, a man who is anxious for the son who
left him, and who is eager to see him return home. No, the prodigal
son does not really know who his father is: the picture which he has
of him is an old, incomplete, deteriorated picture...
We, too, do not have a good
knowledge of who our Heavenly Father is. Christ has truly given us
his Spirit, the Spirit who makes us true sons of the celestial Father,
true members of Christ's Mystical Body. But since we received the
Holy Spirit at the time of our baptism, very many events have occured
in our life, numerous happy or unhappy events have taken place: some
virtuous acts, as well as misdeeds and sins. How, then, does the true
image of our Father look? Like the prodigal son, we shall discover
this only when we will return home, to our house, which is that of our
Father, who is in Heaven!
Let us go home! Let us go
into ourselves in order to pray to God from the bottom of our heart.
Let us go into our soul in order to discover there, with the eyes of
faith, the door of Heaven. Let us remain there with Jesus! When we
shall receive the Eucharist, let us adore Jesus in us and let us thank
him for all his kindness, and especially for his presence in us. Let
us ask Mary to help us to discover the true countenance of the Father
who is in Jesus!
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