March 14 — Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C)

Joshua 5:9, 10-12

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The Parable of the Prodigal Son is most memorable and inspiring. Jesus, in telling us this story, is trying to tell us who God is, what God is, and, especially, what God’s attitude is toward us. It is a story to help us accept God, who is seeking us.

In a real sense the Prodigal Son is every man and woman of every age, beginning with Adam and Eve who were the first to squander their inheritance and thus lose God’s grace and righteousness. This parable indirectly touches every violation of love, every loss of grace, every sin.

The parable illustrates the emptiness a person can feel when they are distant from God. After wasting his young life and the gifts from his father, the son ends up feeding what for Jews was sinful to consume, pigs. When we are away from God we feed the things (pigs) that lead us away from God. We feed pigs like self-sufficiency. We feed attitudes and thoughts such as: I am living a good life and have no need for God. Or one may feed such things as, well, this really is not sinful, I am only doing what many others are doing, and, I am not doing the terrible thing that so and so down the road is doing.

At some point the son became tired of feeding the pigs. Trying to nourish our life with our self-righteousness, trying to eat our lack of need for God and his Church, trying to dine on our sense of how good we are without God, becomes empty. All of these are not real food for our spirit or our mind.

Are we monks exempt from feeding the pigs. Monks are exempt from nothing. The devil is everywhere and tempts everyone. When the monk seeks special things for himself, when he thinks he is entitled to special circumstances and special permissions, he is beginning to feed pigs. When the monks stops holy reading and stops private prayer, he is feeding pigs.

The son became sick and tired of his life. He began to reflect on what he left behind. His father’s house did not does not seem to bad anymore. In fact, he thought it would be nice to be there again, even as a servant. Gradually the son has a change of heart. The sin he committed begins to sink in and, in his mind, rehearses a confession.

Notice that the father is faithful to being the father of his son. Just because the son rejected the father, does not mean the father rejected the son. God is always faithful. And so we in the monastic life have to be faithful to the monastic way of life. We have to be faithful to each other as brothers and live as brothers in our prayer together, during meals, in conversation, in our willingness to forgive each other, accept each other and sacrifice for each other.

The same is true for everyone. Spouses, parents and children, neighbors are all called to fidelity to each other. Our faithfulness to others is an expression of God’s faithfulness to us. When asked how is God faithful? we should be able to say that God’s faithfulness is something like my faithfulness to my brother monks, like my faithfulness to my spouse and children and parents. God’s faithfulness is like the father’s faithfulness to his son in this parable. The father is joyfully faithful. To him it is not a job. It is his life, his heart.

The father’s faithfulness to his son is expressed in action. He had compassion for his son. He ran out to meet him. He threw his arms around him and kissed him, even though his son did not deserve it. This teaches us God is waiting for us, even though we do not deserve it. We monks are to be faithful and compassionate toward our brothers, even though one of the other may not deserve it. The norm for our behavior is God, not our feelings about someone.

If God is so merciful to a sinner, it would seem God must be very kind and loving to those who strive to be faithful to him. St. Thérèse of Lisieux understood this very well. She wrote: What joy to remember that our Lord is just; that he makes allowances for all our shortcomings, and knows full well how weak we are. What have I to fear then? Surely the God of infinite justice who pardons the prodigal son with such mercy will be just with me ‘who am always with him’. (The Story of a Soul)

Mercy, as presented in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, has the quality of a most full, rich and attentive love. It is a love able to each every human misery, able to reach every form of sin and every form of self-rejection. For when the Prodigal Son is reconciled with his father, his dignity and belonging were restored. He was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found. His father had been waiting for him. God is waiting for us.

Here we are at Mass. Here we are at the place where we Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. (Responsorial Psalm) In light of this parable, what else can we say but THANK YOU, LORD. I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth. (Responsorial Psalm)

Rejoice and be glad, my brothers and sisters, that you have the privilege of hearing this parable from the mouth of Jesus. Peace be with you always.