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Homilies are posted no later than during the week
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4 Lent
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Fourth
Sunday of Lent - Cycle C
Luke 15, 1-3, 11-32
The story is told about a soldier during combat. He was drinking
heavily and was a constant menace to his comrades. His commanding
officer had had him on the carpet several times. But on this occasion
he was ready to throw the book at him. Said the colonel to his
lieutenant, "I have given him every break." The officer responded,
"Sir, you have punished him and it hasn't worked. Why not forgive him?"
The colonel accepted the advice. To the soldier he said, "I have
punished you many times. Punishment has not worked. This time I am
going to forgive you. Your many offences will be removed from your
personnel folder." The soldier, who had expected a court martial, broke
down and wept. More to the point, he never drank again.
This was probably the first and perhaps last time the commander acted
in this merciful and indulgent fashion. However, such a procedure
luckily for us is standard operation procedure on the part of God.
Today's parable clearly underlines this point.
In literature, this story is called the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Prodigal the son was with his inheritance from his father but so have
been countless other sons. But what does not happen often is that
this son was totally forgiven by his father. And there was much more
than forgiveness. He was restored to full honors in the family
hierarchy. Despite the son's expectations, the father spoke not one
word of reproach against his younger child. It was Andrew Greeley I
believe who said the parable might be better called the Parable of the
Crazy Father.
Today's parable is found in the fifteenth chapter of St Luke's Gospel.
For many people, this celebrated chapter is the summing up of the
entire Gospel. To their reasoning, the fifteenth chapter offers to
readers the very core of the wonderful message that the Christ came to
preach.
The parable father, in Christ's mind, is clearly a type for God
Himself. What is emphasized in the parable is the father's awesome love
for his son even though he really deserves nothing more than hot tongue
and cold shoulder. The father knows well the know-it-all boy is
primarily coming home because he is hungry and needs a place to live.
That he has wasted his money is of no importance to the father.
The Master then is telling us that God will forgive even the worst
rogue among us unconditionally. All we have to do is start walking back
to God. Like the prodigal son, our motives may not be the purest. Nor
do we have to even finish the journey. God is quite willing to meet us
before our trip is finished. He will bring us to honors which we
humanly speaking do not deserve. Obviously God merits the label "this
tremendous lover." As William Bausch puts it, God is among the very few
who stoops to conquer.
Abraham Lincoln, William Barclay tells us, was asked by a journalist
how he would react to the rebels after hostilities ceased. Immediately
the President answered, "I will treat them as though they had never
been away." President Lincoln must have reflected on this parable often.
The elder brother knew that his father's heart was breaking over his
missing son. Why had he not gone out in search of his brother if for no
other reason than to give joy to his father?
The elder brother is of course a type for our selves. He had absolutely
no sympathy for his brother. Had he had the opportunity, he would have
tarred and feathered his younger brother. He would then have run
him off the property on a rail. But his sibling's misadventures cost
him nothing. As the elder brother, two thirds of his father's estate
was legally his. His money was safe and protected. His brother had
wasted the third of the estate that was rightfully his own by law.
Notice too the older fellow had an ugly mindset. It was he who
suggested that his brother had spent his inheritance on fast women and
slow horses.
Lent is fast becoming history. Why not resolve to behave toward sinners
as Lincoln did and not as the elder son? Can we, asks James Tahaney, be
less patient with others than God is with us? The choice is ours.
Recall the wise man who told us forgiveness and reconciliation are the
oxygen of Christianity.
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http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
4 Lent
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Fourth Lent: Joining God in Forgiveness and Celebrating His Love
The
Son repents.
The
Father forgives.
The
brother misses the meal.
My
guess is that most of us could recite the parable of today's gospel
almost word for word. When we think of God's forgiveness, the picture
of the Father looking out across the fields, longing and waiting for
his son to return, enters our minds. We see God giving us a hug,
embracing us, calling out to the servants to put a ring on our finger
and get the finest cloak. We know that God is not concerned with
the hurt He feels when we reject Him. He is concerned only about
us, how we are hurting ourselves. When we think of our own
sinfulness, and picture the son who offended his father, we remember
how sin puts us in the mud with the pigs. We remember how we've
hurt ourselves, as well as others. We know that we
can have the courage to get out of the mud, turn back home and say I'm
sorry. The Loving Father will forgive us before we even tell our
sad story. For years the focus of the parable was on the
offending son. In fact, this has always been called the parable
of the prodigal son.
More
recently the focus of the parable has been on the forgiveness of
God. The parable is now often referred to as the Parable of the
Forgiving Father. Having come from an age when God was hammered
into us as the terrible judge, this was a valid and needed insight into
the parable. In confession we priests most often emphasize how
much God loves the penitent and how forgiveness is an expression of
love.
There is a third character in the parable for this Sunday, a character
that with whom we all tend to identify and with whom we are tempted to
agree. That is the elder son. The elder son is angry
because even though his brother had committed horrible offences, the
ingrate was being given a party on his return. "I've struggled
for you for years," the elder son says to the Father, "You never had a
party for me." We all have the inclination to say that this son
is right. In his mercy for the prodigal, the Father did not treat
the elder son justly.
Or
did he?
Let's look at the parable closely. The younger son was a real
selfish brat. The sons of farmers were expected to work the farm
for their fathers until their father's death. This was ancient
social security. The prodigal son wasn't about to do this.
He shirked his responsibility to his father by selling his portion of
the property. Furthermore, to the ancient Jews, property was
sacred, their family's portion of the chosen land. "God forbid,”
Nabaoth tells King Ahab in 1 Kings 21, “God forbig that I sell the
vineyard the Lord has given my family", Nabaoth is pius. The
Prodigal Son couldn't care about anyone or anything except
himself. He has insulted his father, his God, and his whole
family.
The
elder son has cause to be upset. He did the right thing in his
life. He worked his portion of the inheritance, his two thirds of
the property, for his father. He suffered through his brother's
insulting of the father. There is nothing that gets us angrier
than when a loved one of ours is offended. The elder son has
cause to be angry with his brother. But he himself errs by
letting this anger control him.
A
banquet is thrown, but the elder son refuses to enter. The Father
who was offended has forgiven the Prodigal, the elder son refuses to
forgive. In scripture a banquet is a way of expressing the
intimate sharing of God's life. God will love his people so much
that he will set a banquet for them, bring them into his intimacy, the
Old Testament says. The Elder Son separates himself from the
intimacy of his Father's love because he refuses to forgive his
brother. We separate ourselves from the intimacy of God's love
when we refuse to forgive others who have sinned.
We
all have battle stories. We have all had people who have
consciously and callously tried to hurt us. I've been offended and so
have you. But if we don't forgive those who have hurt us, we will be
keeping ourselves out of the banquet of God's intimacy. If
we want to receive God's forgiveness, we have to give God's
forgiveness. If we don't, then do you know what we do, we stand
outside the banquet griping and grousing, but separating ourselves from
God's love. At the conclusion of the parable, only the Elder Son is
excluded from the banquet. And he does this to himself.
Today we pray that we might be like the forgiving Father, not like the
Elder Son. We pray that we may live the words we pray when we recite
the Our Father: Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin
against us.
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http://www.geocities.com/seapadre_1999/
* available in Spanish - see
Spanish homilies
4 Lent
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A
New Creation
(March 14, 2010)
Bottom line: Heaven is not a reward for doing good things; heaven is a
relationship with the Father in Christ - a relationship that makes one
new creation.
A few years ago the Archdiocese of Seattle purchased a retreat house.
The building had served well for many decades - and the archdiocese
faced a choice: Either touch it up a bit and open it again in a few
weeks - or completely renovate it. The archdiocese took the second
course. They gutted the building, creating completely new spaces with
new plumbing, heating and other utilities. For those of us who had used
the old retreat house, the renovation seemed like a miracle.
God wants to do something similar for you and me. St. Paul says,
"Whoever is in Christ is a new creation!" God doesn't want to just make
a few cosmetic changes; he wants to renovate us inside and out.
Many people (especially in our American culture) have the idea that you
get to heaven by doing good deeds.* That was the attitude of the older
son in today's parable. He thought he could demand his father's love:
"Look at all the things I have done. How hard I worked! And I never got
anything it return. I expect some credit."
But the older son had it wrong. No one can demand love. Nor can we earn
love. In the same way, no one can "earn" heaven. People today tend to
look at heaven as one more entitlement program - like Social Security.
You pay something into it and when you retire, you get the benefits.**
Heaven does not work that way.
The younger son, he understood what heaven means. He said, "Father I
have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be
called you son." That boy knew he could not demand his father's love.
He could only receive it as a free gift.
Let's listen to St. Paul again: "God was reconciling the world to
himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them." When we
accept that gift, says St. Paul, we become a new creation.
The new creation involves much more than touching up the exterior and
sweeping out a few rooms. No, it is a complete renovation - a whole new
interior. Heaven, after all, is a relationship with God - through
Christ - in the Communion of Saints. It requires a humbled heart - like
that younger son had, after he repented.
During these final weeks of Lent, I want to help you have a new heart,
a new spirit - to become a new creation in Christ. I also want to
become a new creation. One of the best ways of doing that is by making
a good confession.
When we receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we recognize that we
have in some way wandered from the Father's House. We have sought
happiness apart from God. But the things we thought would bring
happiness, they let us down. Like the younger son, we wound up lonely,
hungry. At that moment we face a choice: We can crawl into a hole or we
can swallow our pride - and return to the Father's house.
When we make a good confession, we say, "Father, I have sinned against
heaven- against the Communion of Saints - and against you." We admit
our sins. It doesn't require a long list. What matters is to stand up
and get on the road.
As a priest, I try represent the Father. I want to receive anyone who
comes. Sometimes Jewish and other non-baptized people come for
confession. I listen and pray with them. Sometimes people come, who -
for example, because of their marriage situation - cannot receive
Communion. I listen and pray with them. The greatest joy as a priest:
to welcome someone back to the Father's house - in the name of Christ.
This week (on Friday evening) we will have our Lenten Penance Service.
I hope many of you will take advantage of this opportunity. If you
cannot come on Friday evening, the Archdiocese is offering the
Sacrament of Reconciliation all day Saturday at St. James Cathedral.
Now is the moment. In just two weeks, we celebrate Palm Sunday - the
beginning of the greatest week of the year, Holy Week. We celebrate
what St. Paul tells us this Sunday: "God was reconciling the world to
himself in Christ." In him God offers us this free gift - a filial
relationship with God, as part of the Communion of Saints. Heaven is
not a reward for doing good things; heaven is a relationship with the
Father in Christ - a relationship that makes one new creation. If we
allow God, he will renovate us inside and out. He wants us to become a
new creation.
************
*This Pelagian view often becomes the concluding paragraph of funeral
eulogies: "And so - in spite of our sadness - we can be happy Joe is in
heaven..." (See The Usual Homily)
**Which naturally leads to a quiet cynicism: Given the likelihood of
benefits actually being there, who can blame a young person for hedging
his bets?
Intercessions for Fourth Sunday of Lent (from Priests for Life)
Spanish Version |
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http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
4 Lent
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http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/homilies/index.lasso
4 Lent
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Fourth
Sunday
Laetare Sunday
Joshua 5,9. 10-12; Psalm 34; 2 Corinthians 5, 17-21; St. Luke 15, 1-3.
11-32
When our brothers and sisters do not share our faith in the Church and
are led by scandals to disbelieve in her, they repeat the sin committed
by those who professed scandal at the Lord himself, for he today
associates with tax collectors and prostitutes, and all sinners, in his
body, the Church.
Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct
toward sinners with God's own attitude toward them. (Cf. Mt 9:13; Hos
6:6) He went so far as to hint that by sharing the table of sinners he
was admitting them to the messianic banquet. (Cf. Lk 15: 1-2, 22-32)
But it was most especially by forgiving sins that Jesus placed the
religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a dilemma. Were they
not entitled to demand in consternation, "Who can forgive sins but God
alone?" (Mk 2:7) By forgiving sins Jesus either is blaspheming as a man
who made himself God's equal or is speaking the truth, and his person
really does make present and reveal God's name. (Cf. Jn 5:18; 10:33;
17:6, 26.) (CCC 589)
Only the divine identity of Jesus' person can justify so absolute a
claim as "he who is not with me is against me"; and his saying that
there was in him "something greater than Jonah, ... greater than
Solomon," something "greater than the Temple"; his reminder that David
had called the Messiah his Lord, (Cf. Mt 12:6, 30, 36, 37, 41-42.) and
his affirmations, "Before Abraham was, I AM"; and even "I and the
Father are one." (Jn 8:58; 10:30.)
Let's pray for each other until, together next week, we "meet Christ in
the liturgy", Father Cusick
(See also nos. 545, 589, 1423, 1439, 1468, 1700, 2795, 2839 in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church.)
(Publish with permission.) http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/
_________________________________
Liturgy Note
Today is Laetare Sunday: the joy at one stage of our Lenten journey
accomplished and a foretaste of the joy of Easter, which springs from
the Cross of Christ. Every Mass, every Sunday, even in Lent is an
experience of the joys and splendor of the new Jerusalem, the Church on
earth and the heavenly city. We celebrate that today, Laetare Sunday,
with the rose colored vestments, the playing of the organ and the
flowers on the altar, all signs of the Church's joy, alive with the
Resurrection, which cannot be contained even in Lent, though we still
refrain from Alleluias and the singing of the Gloria until the
magnificence of the Easter Vigil. Our entrance antiphon sets the tone:
"Laetare Jerusalem; Rejoice Jerusalem: and come together all you that
love her; rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow; that you may
exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation." |
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http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
4 Lent
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http://www.ctk-thornbury.org.uk/
4 Lent
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Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C
The interesting thing about our gospel reading today about the prodigal
son is that it is such a human story. Many human emotions and desires
that we know so well are clearly set out.
The so-called prodigal son wants to leave home, wants to go his own
way, and wants independence from the family. This is something most of
us have experienced and it is an entirely natural and even laudable
thing.
Where the prodigal son goes wrong is that he uses his newfound
independence to reject the values which his parents had spent so much
effort trying to help him to acquire. Perhaps he felt life at home was
unnecessarily restrictive, he wanted freedom and the ability to make
his own choices.
This desire to leave home and to set up on one’s own is absolutely
normal and is indeed necessary. But unfortunately it is often motivated
by naive assumptions and wrong-headedness. Frequently during the
teenage years children feel that the parents no longer love them and
that they are being unnecessarily restrictive. They don’t recognise
that the changes are going on within themselves and not that their
parents are acting differently.
‘You’re cramping my style,’ or something like it is a phrase we have
perhaps often heard on the lips of our children. But, of course, it was
on our lips long before it came to be on theirs.
It is part of the human condition that we feel the need to make our own
mistakes. Frequently this is the only way we can learn.
The task of the parent is to give the child such a good grounding in
life and in Christian values so that when the break occurs the mistakes
that the child makes enable them to learn but without being so
spectacular that they ruin their lives in the process.
Easy for me to say, but not so easy to do.
When I first looked at the readings for today and saw that we had this
text about the prodigal son, I thought how singularly inappropriate it
was for Mother’s Day the celebration with which it coincides this year.
But on further reflection I came round to thinking perhaps it was quite
an appropriate choice because the story is about the importance of good
parenting, even though all the characters in it are men.
And in the modern world there are just as many prodigal daughters as
prodigal sons. Not a few of whom have ended up for a few months or more
sojourn in our nearby prison for women at Eastwood Park.
The story is about good parenting. It is about the parent giving the
child a good grounding in moral values in a suitably protected
environment but also, when the appropriate time comes, about giving the
child the necessary freedom to make their own life choices.
And, of course, it is about being there for them, always ready to
welcome them back into the family when things go wrong.
I don’t want to put down fathers in any way but perhaps on this
Mother’s Day we ought to note that there are surely at least as many,
indeed probably far more, mothers who fit this role of being there
ready to forgive.
In our society, the mother is frequently the one who longs for the
return of the prodigal, the one who exercises forgiveness more readily.
Although things are changing and the balance is being rectified I
suppose it is still true to say that the greater part of the burden of
parenting falls on the mother: The greater part of the burden, but also
the greater part of the joy.
On this special day dedicated to mothers we acknowledge the debt we owe
them and pray that they may experience in full measure the reward of
their labours and anxieties on our behalf.
The story is about good parenting but it is also about being a good
child. It tells us about the one who went off gadding around doing his
own thing and wallowing in a life of debauchery and how he came to his
senses.
The important thing that this young man learnt was that there is no
shame in returning home. He had the courage to make that decision and
not to cut himself off from his family even more.
The older brother also features in the story and there is a lot to be
learnt from him. Staying at home and being dutiful is one thing, but to
do so with a hardness in one’s heart is quite another. He needed to
learn to be unselfish and generous and not to feel that his compliance
had somehow earned him credit.
In some ways this brother, although apparently obedient and dutiful,
was actually more selfish than the prodigal son. And we might be
tempted to judge him more harshly because his selfishness was hidden.
Our story is, however, primarily about reconciliation. It is, after
all, a parable. It is a parable of the limitless love God has for us
whether we identify with the prodigal son or the selfish older brother.
God is the very best of parents; he is the very best of fathers and
mothers. He is constantly there for us. His heart is ever open and full
of love. He sees all we do and his unseen hand protects us from our
worst excesses.
He gives us all the independence we crave for and need. He opens his
treasury and gives us more than our share when we want to launch out on
our own. And he is there waiting to welcome us into his arms whenever
we are ready to return to him.
To my mind the most beautiful line in the story is the one that says:
While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved
with pity.
This describes perfectly the relationship God has with us. Even when we
are far off he is there waiting for us, waiting to welcome us. His
heart is moved with pity for the condition we have allowed ourselves to
get into. He waits with longing for us to return and to experience his
forgiveness.
In the Church Christ has given us the sacrament of reconciliation, that
wonderful sacrament which expresses God’s love and forgiveness for us.
On Friday 30th we will be celebrating this sacrament together at our
special Lent Service of Reconciliation at which there will be a number
of priests available for confessions.
To take the words of today’s Gospel, it is only right that we should
celebrate and rejoice because in the sacrament of reconciliation we who
are dead because of sin are restored to life, we who are lost are found.
There could be no better conclusion to the homily today than to quote
the words of St Paul from our second reading: The appeal that we make
in Christ’s name is this: be reconciled to God.
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Father Bonar will not be posting homilies for Cycle B to allow himself
time for other projects. His collection of homilies (including homilies
for Cycle B) is available at www.clydebonar.com.
4 Lent |
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These
homilies may be copied and adapted for your own use;
however, they may not be commercially published without permission of
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