Fourth Sunday Of Lent
LUKE 15:1-3, 11-32
Chapter 15 of Luke is the "Lost and Found Department - a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. Our gospel reading gives the introduction to the three parables, skips over the lost sheep and the lost coin, moving on to the Parable of the Prodigal Son. The word "prodigal" is understood as "free-spending." Not only was the son prodigal in wasting his inheritance. The father was even more prodigal in distributing the inheritance and welcoming back his wastrel son with great prodigality. The parable may just as well be called "Parable of the Prodigal Father."
The father had two sons. The younger son brazenly asks his father for his share of the inheritance. The prodigal (imprudent?) father grants the request and divides his estate between his two sons. Sirach 33:20-24 advises parents not to distribute inheritance until the day of their death. Had the father been that wise, the parable could not have continued, and we would never have known and used this wonderful story of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. Like a drama on television, the show must move on to the next scene. The younger son leaves home. He quickly squanders his inheritance in immoral activities. After the money was gone, he hits bottom, and comes to his senses.
The Old Testament parable of Jonah illustrates how a person can go lower and lower until there is nothing lower, then returns to his senses. The Israelite prophet Jonah had been commissioned by God to preach to the Assyrians in their capital city Nineveh. The Assyrians are Israel's worst enemies. Jonah has his own plans for avoiding contact with the people he hates. Instead of going east to the Assyrians, he takes a cruise westward toward Spain. The author of the story skillfully describes Jonah's descent resulting from disobedience to his call by God. Jonah is in the hold of the ship, fast asleep, then in the sea, then in the belly of the fish, and finally fish-vomit.
The young man of the parable reaches similar degradation, at least according to the customs of his people. Jews considered pigs and many other animals, fish, and birds to be "unclean." A list is found in Leviticus 11. Eating these animals as food or even association with them made a person ritually unclean, unable to engage in religious ceremonial activities. Since Jews considered pigs among unclean animals, a Jewish boy could sink no lower than to be on a level with unclean animals. Since he had spent his inheritance, he had to get a job. His job - a swineherd, tending and feeding hogs, and starving because no one would even offer him even the food of the hogs.
Fortunately we do not recognize ritually unclean foods, as we enjoy bacon, ham, pork sausage - 'the other white meat." It should be a matter of pride for hog farmers that a truly great Pope, Sixtus V, 1585-90, as a boy on the farm, tended hogs. So the young man of the parable reached bottom. He remembers that even the hired help on his father's estate had plenty to eat. He decides to return to his father and beg forgiveness. Instead of the father saying to himself, "My son made his bed. Now let him sleep in it," he was waiting and hoping for his son's return. From a distance he saw him approach. He did not wait for an apology, but ran to embrace him. He threw a banquet for his son, young in years but old in sin. The reason for the party: "This son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost, and is found!" The prodigal father of the parable is the heavenly Father who joyfully welcomes the repentant sinner.
The elder son had stayed home and faithfully worked for his father. When he hears what has happened, he is angry. His anger over the honors his father gave to his formerly degenerate and wastrel-brother seems justified. He reproaches his father, "...this son of yours" refusing to recognize a brother. The father reminds him, "this brother of yours n The fraternal tie remains intact. There are many ways to apply this parable. For Luke it was probably an appeal to Jewish Christians to welcome Gentiles into the Church. In our day the parable is often used in Reconciliation Liturgies. The general teaching of the parable is this: all are welcome in the house of the Father, no matter what their origin or tainted past from which they repented.
JOSHUA 5:9a. 10-12
The Israelites were about to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land. In the unsettled life of desert nomads, a major precept had been neglected —male circumcision. The shedding of skin symbolized leaving behind the slavery of Egypt and its idolatrous attractions. Thus Joshua says, 'This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." Now they were true Israelites — eligible to celebrate Passover, which immediately follows.
2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-21
This reading illustrates the repentance theme of today's liturgy. The word "reconciliation" occurs five times. Like the repentant son in the gospel, and the Israelite men in the first reading, the life of sin must be left behind to become a new creation. Paul writes, "Be reconciled to God!"
