Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Luke 15,1-3, 11-32
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them Jesus addressed this parable.
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,
‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant country
where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country,
and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought,
‘How many of my father’s hired workers
have more than enough food to eat,
but here am I, dying from hunger.
I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son;
treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”‘
So he got up and went back to his father.
While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.
He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
His son said to him,
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
But his father ordered his servants,
‘Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.’
Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field
and, on his way back, as he neared the house,
he heard the sound of music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him,
‘Your brother has returned
and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’
He became angry,
and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply,
‘Look, all these years I served you
and not once did I disobey your orders;
yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.
But when your son returns
who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
He said to him,
‘My son, you are here with me always;
everything I have is yours.
But now we must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead and has come to life again;
he was lost and has been found.'”
God’s Mercy
1. Tax collectors and sinners. I always feel encouraged by this passage of the Gospel and I feel the urge to try and follow it, because it reminds me that, as sinful and weak as I am, I can say that I am here in the Church of God to try to do better and to change. Because those who come to Jesus do so because they know their needs and their limitations and mistakes. Those who feel pure and sinless are the problem. There are those who feel they are the judge of their brothers and sisters and have the ability to point a finger of condemnation towards others, forgetting that they are sinners as well. Today I ask your forgiveness for the times when you went to church and felt that you were singled out by us. I ask your forgiveness for not having understood that we had to help you to heal your wounds, instead of giving you a death sentence, just because you were wounded and muddy. Many times, as members of the Church, we are cruel. Many times, we put on a police or FBI vest instead of putting on a “doctor of the soul’s” coat. We also apologize to those brother priests or religious sisters whose weaknesses and mistakes were obvious and, instead of healing them, we sent them to the guillotine just because we believed that they had to be perfect, or superheroes. Forgive us for that brother priest who left the ministry because of some situation that we don’t know about (and that we don’t need to know about) and we turned our backs on him and, even looked another way when we realized he was coming towards us in the street. Today Jesus reminds us that all those people we turn away from are precisely the ones He came for.
2. The younger son. He represents rebelliousness and mistrust, but most of all narcissism, which leads him not to consider his father’s pain. When you’re blinded by your own narcissism you can lose everything, in the order that Jesus mentions in the Gospel: first, you distance yourself from and hurt your closest and dearest, like your father or mother; you leave them aside, you declare them dead. Second, you distance yourself from your personal circle and look for people who will follow you in what you desire. You are moved by material things too much. You make no effort and sacrifice because you don’t want to feel limits and pain. Finally, your very strong need to be the center leads you to become aware of your mistake only when you’re already alone and have nothing left. We’re often like the younger child, aren’t we?
3. The father. He is the one who is always waiting. It is God’s trait and it’s His grace that is above my mistakes and sins, because He is still here. A few days ago I was visiting the town prison and a prisoner said to me, “Father, I have been here for 17 years now, I can’t wait to get out and go to the cemetery to visit my mother and ask her forgiveness”. He made me think… I am also serving the sentence of my mistakes: I’m in my own prison of anger, of keeping quiet; in my prison of letting myself be carried away by my imagination, my prison of fear of what people might say. Those are prison cells from which you and I have to free ourselves to go back to our Father God who is always waiting for us and who wants to give us the opportunity to have everything. To get out of nothingness and return to everything God offers, you only need to recognize your mistakes, ask the Father for help and let yourself be guided. The crowning of your return to God is that you begin to live life as a party, because life is beautiful, and if you don’t see it that way, ask God today to help you to get out of your prison.
Remember that something good is on the way!
God bless you and keep you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
