The Prodigal Son

Saturday of the Second Week in Lent

Luke 15:31-32

Then the father said [to the elder son], "Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found."

This parable is obviously intended to subvert one of the favorite themes in the Old Testament namely, that of the chosen and the rejected. Because of the older son's misconduct toward the father, the hearers are expecting the story of Jacob and Esau to be repeated. Jacob, the younger son, was chosen by God while Esau, the elder son, to whom the inheritance legally belonged, was rejected. The expectation is that the elder son in this story is also going to be rejected, and the hearers, who would have identified by now with the younger son, can rejoice along with him in being God's specially chosen people.

The conduct of the father, however, effectively destroys the idea of Israel as the chosen people. Instead of rejecting the elder son for his disrespect, the father affirms, "You are always with me. Everything that I have is yours." The elder son thus is assured of his share of the inheritance in spite of his misconduct. Just as the younger son is received back into the family in spite of dissipating his father's livelihood, so the elder son, who has just broken the fourth commandment by his insolent disrespect, is restored to favor. The father thus disregards the offenses of both sons. He puts completely aside his personal honor and the legal code. He shows himself equally disinterested in the immorality of his younger son and in the offensive self-righteousness that is the preoccupation of his elder son.

What emerges as the primary concern of the father in this parable? It is to unite his two sons: to bring them together in love. Both are guilty of serious failings and he wants to forgive them both. This father's chief concern is not justice but mercy. The father communicates unconditional love to his two sons so that they in turn may show mercy to each other. According to Jesus, his heavenly Father is not especially interested in legal codes and in conventional morality He seeks the unity of the human family, the removal of divisions and barriers, and the triumph of compassion by manifesting the maternal values, symbolized in that culture by nourishment and overflowing affection.

The parable must have left the Jewish audience with their mouths open in astonishment. What they thought was their major claim to God's protection and love, his free election of them as his chosen people, is profoundly undermined by this parable. The fact is that everyone is chosen. This includes both public sinners, who know that they have offended God; and the self righteous who deny their complicity in sin. This father forgives both but commands them to live together in peace and common concern--the kind of concern that the Father has shown in sending his Son into the world as the sign of his forgiveness of everything and everyone.

~The Kingdom of God Is Like . . .

Prayer

Father, You forgave the Prodigal Son for his wild pursuit of pleasure, squandering in the process the inheritance You had given him. You forgave the Elder Son for his self-righteous condemnation of his younger brother and of Your tender forgiveness of him. You insisted only that they live together as Your children in peace. May we know Your infinite mercy and share it with each other, both as individuals and as nations, races, religions, ethnic groups, neighbors, households, and families.

The Barren Fig Tree

Third Sunday in Lent

Luke 13:6-9

A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, "See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?" He replied, "Sir, let it alone for one more year; until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down."

What are we left with at the conclusion of this parable? A tree that is good for nothing. The gardener offers to shovel manure around it, but there is no indication that any new growth will actually occur. This tree and its predicament are striking symbols of daily life, especially when our efforts to do good fail or seem to be fruitless, our prayer periods are as dry as dust, and nothing ever happens. In addition, there is no sense of God's presence in daily life, no enlightenment experience, while our faults continue, people blame us unjustly, and disappointments multiply. Our spiritual life seems to be dead. What are we to do? The parable seems to say, just keep waiting.

This parable hints that it does not matter if we do not succeed in our own estimation or in that of others. The divine presence is so present that nothing can take it from us. Of course, we can still reject God, but someone who is seeking God is not about to do that. When we realize the fact of God's closeness, success and failure are relativized. We simply do what we can: that is, we throw a little manure--symbol of our fruitless efforts--on the old stick. Of course it is not going to grow, because it is dead. But in some mysterious way, because of God's solidarity with us in everyday life, something much more important happens.

~The Kingdom of God Is Like . . .

Prayer

Holy Spirit of God without You 
there is no divine life in us, 
nor any virtue. Create in us a 
conscious relationship with You.

The Grace of Weakness

Monday of the Third Week in Lent

Luke 4:28-29

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.

Ministry, especially a good one, is a losing game. Paul details the long list of his difficulties, including "a thorn in the flesh" that was interfering with his peace of mind. He kept praying to God to free him from the problem. One would think that God would respond favorably to such a great apostle, make things a little easier for him, or even provide him with the red carpet service. Paul was traveling all over the known world of his time spreading the kingdom of God, and what does he get? Shipwreck, imprisonment, stoning, rejection, persecution, and the betrayal of false brethren. Why could not God, infinitely powerful, do something to smooth the way for the divine message?

Difficulties are a stumbling block for everyone, especially when one is working for God. We cannot get enough money, enough help, a decent reception. If we finally get a good crowd, it snows or there is a hurricane, and nobody can come. This God of ours is not predictable.

bring with us from early childhood, and which social custom and even our religious group support.

Paul was thinking, "I'm working for you, Lord, risking my life for you, and this sting of the flesh is getting me down. Can't you do something about it?" There has been much scholarly discussion about what this "sting of the flesh" might have been. It was not an abstract problem; it was in his flesh. Maybe he had arthritis. Maybe he had an emotional problem. Maybe his was an aggressive personality that kept alienating his beloved disciples. Maybe he was impetuous and had a sharp tongue. Whatever it was, it was serious. He besought the Lord again and again saying, "Let me out of this mess. Help! Help!" And the reply came, "Nothing doing. I prefer the way things are. My power is made perfect in weakness." This is news. God is more pleased with our weakness than our success. Why? Perhaps because for most people success is self-defeating. Until we have been squashed, stepped on, rejected, opposed, persecuted, and have endured all kinds of difficulties, success is hard to handle. The experience of our weakness is God's special gift.

~The Kingdom of God Is Like . . .

Prayer

O Holy Spirit, may Your Gift of Fortitude 
uphold us in times of trial and temptation, 
and enable us to never give up, give in, or run away.

Forgiveness

Tuesday of the Third Week in Lent

Matthew 18:11-11

Peter came and said to [Jesus], "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus Said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times."

The teaching being presented has a certain vigor. Jesus tells Peter, "Not only should you forgive your brother seven times, but any number of times." This is a new way of thinking about forgiveness. Human beings have felt from time immemorial that if they are offended, they are entitled to revenge. Revenge resists the open-heartedness to which the gospel calls us.

In this parable, the importance of forgiveness as the essential healing of a bond that has been injured emerges in full force. The health and integrity of every community, its creativity and growth, depends on the sense of belonging. Forgiveness is a necessity from this perspective; it is the very fabric of the universe.

The outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are the symbol of the forgiveness of everything and everyone. This love triumphs over the forces of entropy in creation. In a sense, unwillingness to forgive is an attack upon God. God is so identified with creation that any unwillingness to forgive is a resistance to grace; any movement to injure another is to tear God to pieces.

The bond of love needs to be constantly renewed. Forgiveness maintains and strengthens the bond of unity that enables all life to grow. If we have much to forgive, we also have much to be forgiven. The proportion between the two, the parable suggests, is very small.

~Awakenings

Prayer

Holy Spirit of God, may Your precious 
Fruits of charity, joy, and peace abound in us.

~~~~~