First Reading – Joshua
5:9-12 ©
Responsorial Psalm –
Psalm 33(34):2-7 ©
Second Reading – 2
Corinthians 5:17-21 ©
Gospel Acclamation – Luke
15:18
The Gospel According to Luke
15:1-3, 11-32 ©
(NJB)
Consider
the reading for today
Let us set aside for a moment the notion that
the events reported in the book of Joshua refer to actual historical realities.
They do not.
These writings are fragments of oral history
woven together with allegories, using metaphors to transform the narratives
into myths that could inspire a struggling people.
These stories began to be collected and
written down in the 10th and 11th centuries BCE. They
reflect the point of view of the Davidic Monarchy, and that of David’s heirs.
They do not reflect that actual history of the people of Israel or Judea.
Know this:
God did not deliver the people from Egypt,
they saved themselves. They had nothing to be ashamed of for having dwelt among
the Egyptians for so long. The children of Israel entered into the service of
the Egyptians during a time of famine and as a means of self-preservation. They
remained in service for several hundred years and while there, they grew into a
strong people.
This is the story that the tradition has
preserved.
There was conflict when they left Egypt, but when
they left they did so under their own power.
They became nomads again, returning to their
roots, wandering around the Levant until they settled in the land of Cannan, where
again there was conflict.
What is hidden in the reading is this:
The People must rely on themselves for what
they do in this world. The people must produce their own food, protect themselves
and grow their own tribes. They are responsible for this and cannot wait upon
God to provide them, if they do they will starve.
God will handle the rest.
The tasks that belong to God will be done by
God, the work and the work of God is not of this world.
We are called to have faith in this, and to
trust in what we hope for.
Be
mindful of what the psalmist says.
If you intend to seek God, look only in your
heart. You will find God in loving, and in loving you will be blessed.
Praise God through works of love.
Look for no other glory than service.
God is great because God compassionate.
God has no name, you cannot lift-up God’s name
in praise, therefore exalt God’s loving work in creation.
Listen to your neighbors, rescue them from
fear. Reassure them with you faith, God’s light will shine on you, in hope and through
love.
Be mindful of this, God is merciful, with God
there is no need for shame.
God is no respecter of station, class or
wealth. God loves everyone the same.
Do not look for God to save you from your
troubles, we are each of us another Job, each in our unique way.
Our tribulations are not tests, but we
persevere through faith. Trust God and you will understand how transient they
are.
Do not look to God to rescue you from
anything, look to your neighbor instead. Be that person for your neighbor, for
the stranger, rescue them if you can.
All pain is temporary, but love lasts forever.
Do not fear.
Speak the truth.
Avoid evil.
Do good.
God see all, hears all, knows all, even your
innermost thoughts, your secrets and desires, your hidden motivations.
Keep your mind in the present and do not focus
on the good things that may or may not come as a result of the work you do.
Love, and do good, without the thought of
reward for yourself. Love as God does, we experience it in the here and now.
Only hearken to those who teach hope…ignore
the fear-mongers. The way is not found in fear.
Listen to the peace of the Apostle.
Our salvation is the God’s work, not ours.
God has done the work already. It began as
Saint John said, in the first moment of creation.
The fall, such as it was, happened subsequent
to and in the context of God’s saving work.
The work of salvation begins in eternity, the
product of sin is a function of time and space.
Listen to the Apostle!
God has done the work already, we are saved. Jesus
revealed the truth of it and has entrusted all futures followers of the way
with the task of sharing that God news with the world. This is the mission of
the Church.
You are reconciled to God. There is no debt to
pay. Allow the burden of sin, allow the fear of it to fall away from you.
Be glad.
It was always God’s plan that we fall and rise
together. We fall and rise as one, as the Apostle teaches. We fall and rise as
one, because we were created as one in the goodness of God.
Consider
the Gospel for today.
People
change.
Appearances
are not everything.
There
is good in everyone, and in everyone there is cause to be disappointed.
The
degree of judgement levelled by the Pharisees in this narrative; that is not something
we should aspire to emulate, neither is the jealousy expressed in this parable by
the loyal son.
Beneath
any veneer of piety there is often a degree of bitterness and resentment;
making the pretense of piety a mere façade.
The
parable is about justice.
Jesus
presents a story from his vantage, he teaches from the perspective of divine
justice.
Few
of us are able to do this.
The
more common discussion of justice is the superimposition of human values,
contemporary social mores over what we think or fear God would desire.
It
is a rare matter to be able to set aside the prejudices of the day and be able
to express divine justice, but this is the role of the prophet; to express justice
characterized by love and mercy, by compassion and forgiveness, and to demand
that we reform our human traditions in light of those.
This
parable is often analyzed as a narrative on the power of repentance;
repentance, which is the turning around of the sinner toward God. It is told as
a story of conversion and the power of transformation that ensues, and that is
fine because those motifs are clearly present.
The
characters in the parable are the father and his children.
Read;
God and humanity.
Humanity
is presented in two different lights; the self-indulgent, and the disciplined.
The
self-indulgent child is like most of us, greedy and heedless of the future. The
journey he makes, takes him for from his father, far from God.
It
is a long journey, it takes years to complete and it leaves him destitute.
The
disciplined child represents a much smaller number of us (though most people
fall somewhere in between). He stays home, remains obedient and asks for
nothing from his father, expecting to get it all.
He
is pious and resolute, but in his heart he is resentful and bitter. Because he
asks for nothing for himself, he receives nothing for himself, and in his heart
he is covetous.
Between
the sin of self-indulgence and the sin of covetousness; which is greater?
I
think it is impossible to say; sin is sin..
There
is perhaps a broader degree of danger in self-indulgence, but there is deep
spiritual danger in the covetous heart.
This
is a story of repentance. The younger son repents and returns home. The long
journey away from home, is a short journey back, and what the narrative reveals
is that while he was away from home, the eyes of his loving father; the eyes of
God, were always on him.
I
believe this is the point of the narrative.
The
purpose of this narrative is not to remind us that repentance is possible, or
that God rejoices in the repentant. The point is to say that God is with us,
always with us.
We
are never out of God sight, and we are never far from God’s love. The parable
is about God, God’s mercy, God’s Love, God’s compassion, God’s forgiving heart.
It is about what God and Jesus, ask each of us to emulate everyday insofar as
we have chosen to be followers of the way.
First Reading – Joshua 5:9-12
©
The Israelites Celebrate Their
First Passover in the Promised Land
The
Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have taken the shame of Egypt away from you.’
The Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal
and kept the Passover there on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening in
the plain of Jericho. On the morrow of the Passover they tasted the produce of
that country, unleavened bread and roasted ears of corn, that same day. From
that time, from their first eating of the produce of that country, the manna
stopped falling. And having manna no longer, the Israelites fed from that year
onwards on what the land of Canaan yielded.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalm
33(34):2-7 ©
Taste and see that the
Lord is good.
I
will bless the Lord at all times,
his praise always on my lips;
in
the Lord my soul shall make its boast.
The humble shall hear and be glad.
Taste and see that the
Lord is good.
Glorify
the Lord with me.
Together let us praise his name.
I
sought the Lord and he answered me;
from all my terrors he set me free.
Taste and see that the
Lord is good.
Look
towards him and be radiant;
let your faces not be abashed.
This
poor man called, the Lord heard him
and rescued him from all his distress.
Taste and see that the
Lord is good.
Second Reading – 2
Corinthians 5:17-21 ©
God Reconciled Himself to
us Through Christ
For
anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone,
and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us
to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation.
In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding
men’s faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are
reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were
appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be
reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in
him we might become the goodness of God.
Gospel Acclamation – Luke
15:18
Praise and honour to you,
Lord Jesus!
I
will leave this place and go to my father and say:
‘Father,
I have sinned against heaven and against you.’
Praise and honour to you,
Lord Jesus!
The Gospel According to Luke
15:1-3,11-32 ©
The Prodigal Son
The
tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear
what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’
they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to
them:
‘A
man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the
share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property
between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had
and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of
debauchery.
‘When
he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began
to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who
put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his
belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then
he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have
more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this
place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your
paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.
‘While
he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran
to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to
be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the
best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a
feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to
life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.
‘Now
the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the
house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked
what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your
father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and
sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to
plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have
slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me
so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of
yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women
– you kill the calf we had been fattening.”
‘The
father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it
was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was
dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’
4th Sunday of Lent
(Year C)
