I will rise and go back to the Father
Readings: 1st: Jos 5:9-12; Ps 33; 2nd: I Cor
5:1-21; Gos: Lk 15:1-3.11-23
Today, the fourth Sunday of Lent, is called
Laetare Sunday. It got this name from the entrance hymn of today’s liturgy
which is taken from Isaiah 66:10-11. It says, “Laetare Jerusalem”, meaning “Rejoice,
O Jerusalem.” It continued, “Be joyful, all who were mourning; exult and be
satisfied.” So, the church invites us at this middle of the Lenten season to
rejoice, to express joy and hope because Christ will reconcile us to the Father
through His death on the Cross.
It is on this note of joy in the Lord that the
first reading of today gave us the account of the joyful celebration of the
Passover by the people of Israel in the promised land after they have been
rescued and liberated by God from all their enemies. Theirs’ was not a freedom or
victory won by their own hands and strength, but by God. Thus, they kept the
fourteenth day of the month as a day of commemorating the great deeds of the
Lord in their history.
The second reading of today concentrated on
this theme of reconciliation with God: the reason why we have been told to
rejoice today. It tells us that God reconciled us and the world to Himself
through Christ, not counting our trespasses against us anymore. Having done
this for us, God has now appointed us as ministers and ambassadors for Christ,
entrusting us the ministry of reconciling the rest of humanity to Himself.
Therefore, dear friends, our old life of sin has passed away, and a new life
has begun in us: the new life of Christ, the new life of Holiness, of love, of
peace, of charity, of kindness, and of service towards others.
Dear friends, St. Paul informs us that in
Christ we have become a new creation. He, therefore, urges us to always get
reconciled ourselves with God every day. This means that we should always seek
the sacrament of penance as frequent as possible so that we will not have any
stain of sin in us. Whenever we realize that we have fallen short of the glory
of God, we are urged to run back to God’s friendship, grace and glory by going
to confession, so that we will continue to be a new creation in Christ.
The gospel reading presents us the story of a
son who fell short of the glory of his father, and how he ran back to the glory
of his father when he realized his sinful state. There are many actors in this
parable. What each of the actors did can be wonderful lessons for us.
In the first place, we have the prodigal son
who allowed himself to be led astray by his youthful exuberance, his ambitions
and the influence of his friends. He wanted freedom without limit, enjoyment
without limit, parties and highlife without end. To get all these, he departed
from the presence of his father, because he felt that living in the presence of
his father was a hindrance to his aspirations. In the same way, some people do
not come to church/God’s presence because they think that identifying with
Christianity will hinder them from living the kind of life that their heart
yearns. Some youths also do not feel comfortable staying at home because they
want absolute freedom, the kind of freedom to do whatever they want and
whenever or wherever they want it.
It is good to note that as soon as the prodigal
son left the presence of his father, his problem started: he started losing his
life and his resources day by day because he has left where there is abundance.
Dear friends, whenever we depart from the presence of God, we expose our life
to attacks from the devil and to a big lose. It is only in the presence of God
that abundance and restoration are assured. In fact, it is good we know that
whenever the devil wants to deal with someone, one of the first things he does
is to pull that person out of the presence of God, because in God’s presence,
protection is assured; he uses many tactics to draw that person away from God’s
friendship and grace. The devil often does this by leading that person into
sin. So, anytime we are facing temptations, it is good we realize that the
devil is trying to pull us out of God’s grace and friendship in order to deal
decisively with us. That was exactly what he did to the prodigal son. He pulled
him out his father’s presence, led him to a very distant land and dealt with
him there.
When the prodigal son came back to his senses,
after many years of suffering and want, he told himself that he will go back to
his father and ask him for forgiveness and get reconciled with him again. This
is what the church expects from each of us this Lent. Dear friends, let us
depart from our sinful affairs, from our sinful relationships, from our sinful
attitudes, from that place of sin and go back to our father through the
sacrament of reconciliation and ask him for mercy.
In the case of the prodigal son, his father was
already standing at the gate waiting for his return. In our case, God the Father
opens his hands everyday to embrace us, to cleans us of our sins. We have a
loving Father, therefore, let us cast away all shame and pride and go back to
him. No matter the gravity of our sins, He will forgive them all. The father of
the prodigal son forgave him and restored him to his former place of glory. God
our father will forgive us if we ask him for forgiveness, and he will also
restore us to our former glory.
Having shown us the images of the loving/forgiving
father and the repentant son, the parable turns our minds to the image of the elder
son in this story. Though this elder son did well in his service to his father,
the kind of unforgiving and self-righteous heart that he has is what the church
invites us to avoid. He has a heart that wants a sinner to die in his sins.
This is not the life of a Christian. By presenting the image of the first son
to us, the parable invites us to shun self-righteousness and self-justification,
especially the attitude of wishing that sinners die in their sins.
Dear friends, we are all sinners saved by the
grace of God. Let us admit the truth that we are an assembly of sinful people. Let
us always acknowledge our sins and return to God as the prodigal son did. If we
do this, we will receive God’s forgiveness and experience Jesus’ Personal
Presence in the Holy Eucharist as our loving and forgiving God.
Peace be with you.
Fr. Isaac Chinemerem Chima
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment