March 12, 2010
Sunday Scripture
Fourth Sunday of Lent
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
There are three parables in this “lost and found” chapter: the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Luke has an overriding empathy and concern for the outsider, the downtrodden, the rejects. At the end of each of the three parables there is great rejoicing either on earth or in heaven or in both when the lost has been found or restored. Our concern here is the third parable only — the lost son and his restoration. The parable is also called the parable of the Prodigal Son. If we understand the term “prodigal” to mean free-spending or extravagant, we could call it the parable of the Prodigal Father.
The father’s prodigality is obvious at the beginning and at the end. The younger of his two sons asks for his share of the inheritance. The prodigal father freely divides his estate between his two sons. There are few fathers who would be that over-generous or that foolish. The Book of Sirach 33:20-24 advises parents not to distribute inheritance until the day of their death. In the case of the younger son this would have been the best advice for the father. The boy left home, and squandered his inheritance on a wasteful life and debauchery. After the money was gone, he hits bottom, and comes to his senses,
In the theme of hitting bottom before realizing what has happened, one recalls Jonah. The author of that book expresses the final depths to which Jonah had sunk in his disobedience to God — in the inner part of the ship, fast asleep, then in the sea, then in the belly of the fish, and finally as part of the fish’s vomit. To such depths the younger son had sunk that he was ready to dine on hog food. Since Jews considered pigs to be “unclean” animals, a Jewish boy could hardly sink lower than to be a on a level with unclean animals. He remembered that even the hired help at his father’s estate had plenty to eat, while no one would offer him even hog food in his extreme need.
After he has rehearsed his Act of Contrition, he returns to his father. Contrary to what might be expected, his father was watching, longing for his lost son. From a distance he saw his son approaching. He did not wait. He ran to meet him, embraced and kissed him. There was more. To his found-again son he paid the highest honors a man could give to an honored guest — the best robe, a ring, shoes and a grand party which included eating the fatted calf killed only for the greatest occasions. What a homecoming for a young derelict quickly grown old in sins! The reason for the party is clear: ‘This son of mine was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and he is found.” Such prodigality is not very human. It is divine. The prodigal father of the parable is none other than the heavenly Father, whose love for the repentant sinner is impossible for us to grasp.
The older son had stayed home and faithfully worked for his father. He is not pleased, when he hears what has happened. His complaint seems justified as does his anger over the honors paid to his degenerate brother, as he says to his father, “this son of yours” giving up all claim to his brother. But the father comes right back to him with “this brother of yours, “ reminding him that the fraternal tie remains despite what the younger brother did. Luke’s teaching is probably directed to a Church divided between Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles. To the former, the first Christians, there was a problem about accepting Gentiles into the Christian community. The tradition was that Gentiles were sinners and not generally welcomed among respectable Jews, nor among Jewish Christians. The struggle went on until the Church became overwhelmingly Gentile towards the end of the first century. Luke keeps repeating the young sinner’s words of repentance and the father’s forgiveness and acceptance of the repentant. All are welcome in the house of the Father, no matter what their origin and no matter what were the sins of which they repented. Do we accept that?
After forty years of nomadic life, the Israelites were about to cross the Jordan. In this unsettled life a major precept of their religion had been neglected — male circumcision. Our reading begins after the completion of the ritual prescribed for all Israelite males to be members of God’s people. Shedding skin signified leaving behind slavery and the heathen attractions of Egypt. Thus Joshua says, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” Now they were eligible to celebrate the Passover which followed immediately. This reading was chosen because it echoes the theme of repentance exemplified by the repentance of the younger son in the gospel.
Chosen to demonstrate the repentance theme of today’s liturgy, the word “reconciliation” occurs five times in this short reading. Like the young sinner in the gospel, and the contaminated Israelites in the first reading, Paul tells his Christians that they have left behind the past and become “a new creation in Christ.” He commands, “Be reconciled to God!”