SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2022

SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2022

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

First Reading: JOSHUA 5:9, 10-12

Responsorial Psalm: PSALMS 34:2-7

Second Reading: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-21

Gospel: LUKE 15:1-3, 11-32

Psalm 1, 1 recommended complete avoidance of sinners for the righteous. This is why the Scribes and Pharisees take offence at the behavior of Jesus who not only walked and dined with sinners but claimed to be doing so in the name of God. They saw themselves as having exclusive relationship with God and having served him faithfully, they resented the idea that God did not confine His love to them but extended it in equal measure to sinners and outcasts. It was to this “upright,” faithful religious people that Jesus addressed the parable of our Gospel today. It was not addressed, at least in its original setting to obvious sinners as we tend to read it today.

This parable is a victim of the title which is most commonly given to it – “the parable of the prodigal son.” The word prodigal means to be wastefully extravagant. That certainly describes the younger son in this parable. But it certainly also describes the father. There are three main characters in this parable – “there was a man and his two sons.” If you read the parable with only the prodigal son in mind, you will read a very touching story of an errant son, who wasted his father’s wealth in loose life, now contrite and returning to his loving and forgiving father. Meditating on this, we might focus on our own need of repentance and returning to a father who is more than willing to have us back; or on the times we ourselves have experienced God’s forgiving love. While this would no doubt be a rich meditation, this parable would be greatly impoverished.

The figure of the older brother in this parable, resentful of his father’s prodigal generosity towards his younger brother would have resonated clearly and uncomfortably with the original audience of Jesus – the Scribes and the Pharisees. The “righteous elder brother” was every bit as lost as his younger brother though in a different way. This parable follows the parable of the lost sheep and the lost coin. The key to understand it, is these two parables taken together. While the younger son, like the lost sheep, was lost away from home, his older brother, like the coin, was lost at home, inside the house. Jesus is in effect saying that some of the most scrupulously religious people of his day maybe just as lost as the sinners whom they despise. Like the older son who remained at home, the Scribes and Pharisees remained faithful to the covenant. And like the older son who could not fathom his father’s love for his sinful brother, they refused to accept that God could be so generous with his love as to forgive sinners, call their gentile enemies and make them share in his love.

Imagine the shame this boy would have caused his father by having his land divided and sold a part off while he was still alive. Moreover, asking for his share before his death is an eloquent way of saying to his father, “I wish you were dead.” And by travelling to a distant land, he was abandoning his obligation to take care of his father in his old age. That’s wicked! Yet, when he was returning, the father did not sit back and wait to taunt him what an ungrateful fool he is. He threw away his dignity and ran to meet him on the way. He was only eager to forgive and welcome him back, restore him to the dignity of son and call a feast for him.

And when the older son refused join the feast in protest, the father went outside to plead with him to accept his brother. The father is extravagant with the love he has for his two sons. For this reason, some have called this story, the parable of the prodigal father.

This parable is a story about repentance, a change of heart. The message of repentance is for everybody. We all need a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return and a conversion to God with all our hearts. We all need to turn away from sin and live a life of righteousness. But above all, this parable teaches us how eager God is to welcome us or any sinner who comes to his senses and repents. And how God wants to restore us as sons and daughters.  

Happy Sunday

Rev. Fr. Chidi Onwuka MSSCC