Prodigal God 2

Today is Laetare Sunday – Laetare is Latin for Rejoice.  The Rose color vestments express the anticipated joy of Easter.  The Rose, itself is a symbol for Christ.

“Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad because of her, all you who love her.

Exalt, Exalt with her, all you who love her.”  Isaiah 66:10

In our first reading, after 40 years of journeying through the desert, the Israelites entered the promised land – They rejoiced!  It was more than the fact they didn’t have to eat manna anymore! They had been freed from slavery and now were ready to begin a new life!  What joy! 

It’s like the feeling you get when the prayer of absolution is prayed over you in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Your sins are removed – you leave them behind – as far as the East is from the West…You are back home – washed free – restored in your relationship with God.

Here we are in the middle of Lent – with a great story about the over the top, awesome, forgiving, welcoming-back love of God

Very familiar story – there’s a danger in that.  Too familiar – we stop listening.

and we miss the meaning – what God is trying to say to us now.  We are different than the last time we heard this story.

Three characters: prodigal son –, Father, Older son.

(Prodigal means extravagantly wasteful!)

Prodigal Son

What led the son to make such a bold and hurtful request?

Give me my inheritance now – as if his father was already dead!

Was it selfishness?  Greed? Buying into the myth that material and things and seeking pleasure will bring one happiness?

Did he not care about family or responsibility?

Maybe there had been tension – arguing, fighting in the family.

Why did the father honor the son’s hurtful request?

Is there estrangement in the family?   What do we do in those situations?

Maybe we look back on our lives like the prodigal son and realize that we made a mistake.

Maybe we can find the humility and the courage to turn around and return home.

The Son returns – but maybe still out of his own self-interest.

 He will, after all, be better off as a hired hand at home than starving where he is.

Even so – he admits his wrong – his sinfulness.

That’s a big step in our culture today.

In America today, we have a difficult time recognizing sin.  We have gotten very good at rationalization.  We can explain our sin away – “Oh, it’s really not that bad.”

Individual freedom has become of greater value than the common good.

We can think that our sin only affects us, but that is not true.

By the decisions we make – we affect future generations.

The selfish, extravagantly wasteful son discovers the error of his ways and he makes the tough decision to swallow his pride and return to his father. 

Father

“While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him…”

How did that happen?

The father was eagerly, prayerfully waiting for him.

Every day, he went out to the top of the ridge and looked out for him.

Day after day he returned – sad – missing his son – worried about his well-being

Was he OK?  Would he ever return?

Then – one day – he saw his son!  Joy swelled in his heart!  He’s coming home!

What do we do for an estranged family member?

Someone who has left the family or the faith.

Disaffiliation has touched so many of our families – and certainly has touched our Church.

Brandon Vogt, in Return: How to Draw your Child Back to the Church, cites these the statistics:

• An average of 6.5 people leave the Catholic Church in America for every one that joins.
• Fifty percent of young people who were raised Catholic are no longer Catholic today

Do we have the courage to ask them why and the humility to really listen?

Do we keep the door open and keep the light on for them?

That’s what God does for us. 

He longs for us to come back to him

He leaves the light on for us –

He had given us salvation through Jesus Christ – who died for us.

Paul reminds us that through Jesus – the old things have passed away.

Through Jesus – we are a new creation – we have a new covenant through the blood of Jesus. God wants us to enter into the paschal mystery – to truly experience the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ during the Lent and Easter season.

The father – welcomes his son back – without hesitation.

The son’s well-rehearsed apology speech is not even necessary.

The father does not even listen to it –

“Quick – bring a robe, get a ring for his finger, kill the fattened calf – we have to celebrate…”

The father could be called prodigal as well – extravagantly wasteful, over the top…

It would have been enough just to take the son back – to let him be a worker – maybe sleep in the barn…

But no – the father pulls out all the stops

Older Brother

Then, there’s the older brother – he hears the celebration and is confused.  He didn’t know there was a feast today. 

He calls a servant over and when he learns the reason for the feast – he is furious.

Maybe sometimes we feel like the older brother – filled with righteous indignation.

We judge other people.  We think we know their situation and we are in a position to say what they should or should not have done.

We know what we would have done in that situation – and that gives us the right to not only judge but to condemn. 

The older brother is in need of conversion as well.

What do you think?  Does he go in? Does he forgive his younger brother?

Does he realize that he has everything from his father – that loving his brother, forgiving him, welcoming him back to the family will take nothing away from what the father has given him?

The prodigal brother was blind – but now he sees.

He was lost – but now he is found.

What about the older brother?  Does he see?  Is he found?

The parable may be known as the prodigal son – but it is about our prodigal God!

God’s mercy and love is extravagantly poured out on us. 

Whatever we may have done….

However far we may have strayed…

God stands in the doorway…straining to see us…longing to see us returning to him.

Day after day…night after dark night…God leaves the light on for us.

So we are ambassadors for Christ. As if God were appealing through us.

God is appealing through us!

We are called to be the “Prodigal Father” 

We are called to seek the lost…

Who are the lost today? Who do we actively look for?

How do we be “over the top committed to bring them back? How do we make it easy for them to come back?

Let’s embrace the over the top, awesome, forgiving, welcoming-back love of God in our own lives. 

And then, let’s invite others to step into that love – in our family, in our parish and in our world.