4th Sunday of Lent
March 26-27, 2022
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
Introduction
On this Sunday, in the midst of Lent, we encounter a day of rejoicing. In fact, “Laetare Sunday”, means a Sunday in which to rejoice. But why would the Church invite us to do this in the midst of Lent? Isn’t Lent a somber, penitential period that began when Ashes were smeared on our foreheads and we were reminded of our mortality?
Perhaps I can offer two reasons why the Church invites us to rejoice today. First is that we are half-way through Lent; there is light at the end of the tunnel! A better reason is that there is joy, great joy, when we repent of our sins. The very first one to be joyful is our Father in heaven. And we who are forgiven are the recipients of his joy; we share in it. All of this and more unfolds for us in Jesus’ beautiful story of the Prodigal Son. We know this story well, perhaps better than the other parables of Jesus. But’s let’s review it anyway in the hope of drawing from it that deeper sense of joy that the Church wants us to experience today.
The Key Moment: Repentance
Jesus sets the scene for us: a father had two sons – a younger son and an elder son. Very quickly, we see that the father is a prosperous landowner. The younger son comes across as brash and unwise. He asks his father for his share of the inheritance – as if his father had already died. Then he goes off to a distant land – not the promised land of Canaan— but a foreign land, gentile territory, if you will. There he squanders his inheritance on dissolute living, as the Gospel politely puts it. Before long, he is broke, hungry, and tending pigs. He had bottomed out. Here Jesus is telling us something about sin. Sin promises to make us happy; to give us a pleasure; to make us independent. In the end, sin brings us sadness; brings us pain; makes us dependent – and separates us from the God who loves us and the people who love us. That’s sin for you!
Many people bottom out and stay that way, but this younger son was different. The key thing to know about this son is that he became aware that it was his sinfulness that brought him to such a miserable state. In his misery, he started to think about his life. He realized that he made a bid to be free from his father and ended up a slave. That led him to think more deeply about how he had offended his father. What Jesus portrays for us is a young man coming to terms with himself, examining his conscience, acknowledging his sins, and resolving to repent. We hear this son rehearsing the confession he will make to his father upon his return.
Lost and Found; Dead and Risen
Meanwhile, the father is waiting for him by the roadside. Even though his young son had taken his money and went away, the father wants nothing more than that his son would return. When he sees him at a distance, his heart leaps with joy and he runs to meet him. His son barely begins his confession before his father showers him with compassion. He embraces his son; he kisses him; he bestows the finest of everything upon him, and orders that a wonderful feast be prepared to celebrate his son’s return. This takes us to the heart of the joy we should be experiencing this Sunday. It is not the superficial joy of this world, but rather the joy God our Father feels when you and I repent of our sins, confess them, and return to him with all our hearts. Elsewhere, Jesus says, that ‘there is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine who have no need to repent!” That’s what we see here.
But wait, there’s more! Look at how the father describes what has just happened. He is deliriously happy that his son has returned home safe and sound because this son of his was lost and now he is found; dead and now he is alive. Lost and found. Dead and risen. Words that should resonate in our souls! When we sin, we leave the orbit of the Father’s love. We are lost. Not even God can bring us back unless we want him to bring us back. When we “give God permission” by repenting, we are found. God seeks us out! … …When we sin, we become spiritually dead; our inmost soul withers up. Guilt is an indicator that our soul is suffering and perhaps dying. Therefore, we should pay attention to it. Yet, when we give God an opening, he embraces us; he imparts his Spirit to us; he bathes and clothes us in the compassion of Christ and restores us to life. Thus, we are brought home from exile. Thus we rise with Christ! This is what happens whenever we confess our sins and receive absolution. Hiding in those few words, “I absolve you from your sins” is the Father of mercies, ready not only to forgive us but to embrace us and usher us into the Eucharistic feast, the table of the Lord.
Not Everyone Is Happy
Not everyone is happy, though, just like the elder son in the Gospel parable. The elder son refused to share his father’s compassion and thus did not share in his father’s joy over his brother’s return. In fact, the elder son did not really see himself as his father’s son, nor did he see himself as a brother to his brother. He was more a laborer on his father’s farm who felt unappreciated. Much like people who feel that they follow all the rules of the faith but find no joy in it because they miss or elude the Father’s compassionate embrace. Instead of examining their own consciences, they sit in judgment of others. Jesus’ parable stands as a warning not to let this happen to us.
Ministry of Reconciliation
In today’s reading from Paul’s 2nd Letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle rejoices. He rejoices because, in Christ, we are a new creation, re-made in baptism, re-created as the Father’s beloved sons and daughters. He further rejoices because God has bestowed on him the ministry of reconciliation, as a message to be preached and as a gift to be given to those whom he served. As a priest of some 45 years, let me tell you how I rejoice to share that ministry when I baptize children and adults, and welcome people into the Church. I share that ministry and experience profound joy when I hear confessions and extend to penitents the loving embrace of God the Father, knowing that I need that same compassionate embrace in my own life. I share that ministry of re-creation whenever I celebrate the Eucharist, and bread and wine are re-created to become Christ’s own Body and Blood. Nothing brings me greater joy and peace than this!
And my fondest, deepest prayer on this Sunday of rejoicing is that each of you, and every member of the Archdiocese, whether active or inactive, will experience God’s loving and merciful embrace in the Sacrament of Reconciliation sometime before the approaching feast of Easter, even as many are preparing to be baptized and received into the Church. In God’s compassion and love, we discover the deepest cause of our rejoicing. So rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say it: rejoice!