Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent, C

One of the characters that I think we overlook in the story is the fatted calf. Do you know how much the fatted calf weighs? About 750-800 pounds. Reconciliation is for the whole community.

I have Mass on Sunday at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am

The 7:30 am Mass will be live-streamed. https://stisidore.church/worship-online/

I have 5:00 pm Mass on Saturday, April 5 at St. Andrew

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Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. 

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus, and the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." 

So Jesus told them a parable. There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me." So the father divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. The young man would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, "How many of my father's hired hands have bred enough and to spare? But here I am, dying of hunger. I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired hands.'" 

So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son." But the father said to his slaves, "Quickly, bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet and get the fatted calf and kill it. Let us eat and celebrate." For this son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found. Then they began to celebrate. 

His elder son was in the field, and when he came and approached the house he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. The slave replied, "Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he got him back safe and sound." 

The elder son became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. He answered his father, "Listen, for all these years I have been working like a slave for you. I have never disobeyed your command, yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him." 

Then the father said to him, "My son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." But we had to celebrate and rejoice because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life. He was lost and has been found. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

We usually call this Gospel the story of the prodigal son, which is unfortunate because the story about the younger son isn't really all that interesting. Lots of young people run off, eventually running through their prospects and find their way back to their parents' house. 

The younger son thinks he is playing as old man. He has prepared a little speech, which he took right out of Pharaoh's mouth when the plague of locusts hit Egypt. Pharaoh was only faking penitents, hoping to get the plagues to stop. The son is not repentant, he is just hungry. 

Luke tells us, "While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him." It sounds like the father has spotted his son walking the last couple of miles up the hill to the village. But what if the father saw him coming means that the father saw right through him? We use this language. If someone tries to scam you, you might say, "Oh, I saw him coming a mile away." The father saw him coming. He knew what his younger son was up to. 

This is a story about a father with two sons, the father who has divided the property between the two of them. But one of the characters I think we overlook in the story is the fatted calf. Do you know how much the fatted calf weighs? About 750 to 800 pounds. Reconciliation is for the whole community. "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." 

There are many stories about two sons in the Bible, Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau. Jacob came out of his mother's womb holding on to his older brother's heel. The name Jacob means "heel grabber," but that's not all he grabbed. Jacob also stole his older brother's inheritance. The two brothers live far apart, and over the years Jacob sent many gifts, although he wanted to reconcile with his brother, he could never quite bring himself to go. 

Finally, Jacob set out to meet Esau. The night before, Jacob wrestled with someone. It might have been an angel, it could have been God. Jacob couldn't see his face. In the morning, as Jacob went to meet his brother, Esau saw him coming. He ran to Jacob, embraced him, fell on his neck and kissed him. In quoting Genesis 33, Jesus is performing a mime for the Pharisees. Remember that Jesus is telling the story to the scribes and Pharisees who are grumbling because Jesus is welcoming tax collectors and sinners and eating with them. 

The scribes and Pharisees know their scripture. They know that it was Esau, the older brother, not the father, who ran and embraced the younger brother. Jacob then speaks one of the most beautiful lines in all of scripture. To see your face is like seeing the face of God. We will only see the face of God when we are ready to face our brother. 

Grace is getting what we don't deserve, but which God desires. God's grace, Paul insists, "makes of us a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come, and all of this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation." 

As Christians, we often hear the adage, "We should forgive and forget." But the late Father Robert Shrider cautions, "We can never forget, but we can remember in a new way." When Jesus rose from the dead, his resurrected body carried the wounds of the crucifixion. These wounds of his torture, however, no longer bear the burden of death, but they become a source of life and faith. The experience of reconciliation makes of us, as St. Paul says, a new creation. It brings us to a new place, which we could not reach by ourselves. 

During his long and lonely twenty-seven years in prison, Nelson Mandela's passion for the liberation of his people expanded, becoming a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. At the end of his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, Mandela said that he came to see that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A person who dehumanizes another is a prisoner of hatred and is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. When Mandela walked out of prison and later assumed the presidency of South Africa, he maintained his conviction that his mission was to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor, both. 

As some of you know, I've led many pilgrimages to the Holy Land. In recent years, we had traveled with a Palestinian tour group. A few weeks ago, I was privileged to meet Peter Beinart, an Orthodox American Jew who I've been following since October the seventh. Peter was in Detroit to promote his new book, Being Jewish, after the destruction of Gaza. Peter, who has roots in South Africa, sees a parallel to Israel today. We need a new story, Beinart writes, based on equality rather than supremacy, because the current one doesn't endanger only Palestinians, it also endangers Jews. 

If we keep rehearsing the same old stories, we're condemned to repeat them. Thomas Merton suggests that in Christ, everything is new, even the old is transfigured. There's nothing to cling to. We live in a world that is always being created and renewed. 

God's mercy is as wide as the sea. Let us feast and celebrate, because this son of mine, this brother of yours, was dead and has come to life. He was lost and has been found.