Sinners Listen!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,  (I don’t think it went out yesterday…)

“Your brother was dead and has risen; he was lost and has been found,” is a perfect summary of today’s gospel.  Who is Jesus telling this parable to?  He is speaking to tax collectors and sinners.  And who is listening to him: the publicans and sinners.  What about the Pharisees and scribes?  They could care less; they are not interested in listening.

Do you need Christ in your life in order to be taken out of some situation or some suffering?  Are you calling out to him so that he come to you?  If so, you will listen!  Sinners listen.  You can see that very easily at the Spanish Mass; they are very intent of hearing something for themselves.  And what are the Pharisees doing?  They are complaining, grumbling, murmuring.  We have both kind of people in the Church.  Those who are listening and their life is changing, little by little.  They are starting to experience eternal life.  You can see it in their faces.

Perhaps some who are here today are murmuring.  Some murmur about everything: the kids, their health, the boss, the parish or the priest, their loneliness, that they are single or that they are married, the ones who are in front of them, or on their side, or behind them.  There are some people who constantly murmur no matter what.

In the parable the two brothers have the same problem.  What is it?  They both think they have no freedom in their father’s house.  The younger one leaves and goes off to find his life.  Even the older one, as we hear at the end of the gospel, throws many judgments at his father.  He throws them right in his face.  All these years I served you and never disobeyed you and you never threw me a party…and your son, he doesn’t say his brother, takes the inheritance.  He is not like me who is good.

It is an impressive feast.  The fattened calf is killed which is reserved for the most important occasions since the son was found.  God does the same for each one of us.  Christ is present here in this feast.  In this case it is a lamb that is slain, not a calf.  And he is the one sent by the Father.  Who loves us more than the Father that he gives us his only Son and allows him to die for us?

The prodigal goes off to a distant country, a far-off country, which is an important point of the story.  We all think we are in the Father’s house since we go to church often or even every week.  We watch EWTN or listen to Relevant Radio and we even say the Rosary and read spiritual books.  You think you are in the Father’s house.  But I would argue that all of us are in a far-off country, like the older brother.  He cannot move himself to come into the Father’s house.

We are put on a good face and the priest is number one at this.  Couples hold hands and don’t fight in church.  Everyone looks pretty good and even perfect.  But many when they leave go to a far-off place.  They think it is ok for their son to live with the girl friend or not marry in the church and they are told, just be careful not to get pregnant, and if they do get pregnant…

In this far-off place people can start to eat horrible things.  For a Jew the worst situation would be to eat pork or even worse to eat what pigs eat.  Nothing is worse than this for a Jew.  Pigs are impure.  The prodigal is not filled from what he is eating.  We can also be in this far-off place in our projections of what my life should be like.  We can be lost in our ego, in our thoughts about marriage or spiritual life, in a disordered sexuality.  And this doesn’t fill us; we are not satisfied.

But this younger brother comes to his senses and thinks but my Father loves me and treats the workers better than I am being treated now.  If his Father didn’t love him, he would not find the courage to return.  He knew he would be forgiven.  Imagine that he asks for the inheritance which is like saying that you are dead to me.  I don’t give a fig about you; I just want the money.  And the Father doesn’t try to persuade him.  The Father is quiet and lets him go.  He leaves him free, which means he loves him.  When the son returns, he can barely finish his apology and the Father who is moved hugs him, gives him a ring and sandals.  He has been waiting for him for days or months and runs to him when he sees him a long way off.

What does the Father see in the son?  He sees Jesus Christ.  The Father sees Jesus Christ in each one of us.  What does this mean?  In the one who repents, the Father sees Christ.  The son comes home humbly.  He realizes that he cannot make it on his own.  The Father doesn’t say, now you have to suffer the consequences of your sin, learn from this situation.  God is stupendous and his love will melt each one of us.  He can’t fail to love us.  He makes this unbelievable feast.  We can also experience this return to the Father.  The things of the world don’t fill us.  What love can be greater than the Father’s love who gives us his only Son.

 

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