FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT  – CYCLE  C – 2019

INTRODUCTION

v  The center of the readings is the parable of the Prodigal Son, which certainly could be called the parable of the Good Father .

v  This father is the Father in Heaven, the Father that Jesus wants to share with us, as he said the day of his resurrection “my Father and your Father…” 

v  Let us see the message that the readings give to us. 

FIRST READING   Jos 5:9-12

·         The book of Joshua is the first book of the Bible after the Pentateuch.  The people of Israel that has arrived to the Promise Land will have to adapt his life to the new situation. 

·         They had been nomads that journeyed through the desert to the land promised to their Fathers.  They were shepherds.

·         Now they will have to adapt new forms of life,  they will have to learn how to cultivate the soil, besides being shepherds they will have to be farmers.   

·         They will have also to adapt the way they worship.   

·         What do the readings say to us?  

o   God reminds them that He is the one who has liberated them, that has taken away the shame they suffered being slaves in Egypt  

o   Now they are in the land and they will celebrate for the first time the Passover in the land.  

o   This same day the manna disappeared, from now on they will have to provide for themselves cultivating the land which will provide what they need. 

RESPONSORIAL PSALM  Ps  34

R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
 and from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

v  The Psalmist  

o   Blesses [says good] the Lord at all times  

o   He is proud of the Lord  

o   He invites the people to rejoice on hearing the Lord.   

v  The Psalmist invites the people  

o   To proclaim and praise the Lord  

o   Because when he sought the Lord for help, the Lord listened to him.   

o   I think this an experience we all have had, the joy to realize that the Lords was listening to us, no matter how long ago.

o   The fears move away, there is a feeling of security, of being protected, within hands that protect us.  

v  The Psalmist speaks to each one of us  

o   He invites us to trust, to jump with joy.   

o   We will not be defrauded because the Lord listens to the cry of the poor.   

o   Maybe the key of all of these, is to be poor, that is, to trust fully in God, our Father.

o   As a background music the responsorial psalm repeats: Taste and see…   

SECOND READING  2 Cor 5,17-21

Ø  Paul speaks to his community of Corinth about the newness of those who are in Christ.  

Ø  We began to be in Christ when we were baptized, when we became new creatures. 

Ø  He also reminds them that whatever is old has passed away, it does not exist anymore.   

Ø  He says that all of this was possible through the loving initiative of God in Christ that reconciled us with the Father. 

Ø  This reconciliation that Christ made on the cross, he has given it to us, to the Church, so that we might become ministers of reconciliation in the world.  

Ø  As ministers of reconciliation, we need to say to our brothers “be reconciled to God.”  

Ø  For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.  

GOSPEL Lk  15:1-3.11-32

      Verses 1 to 3 provide  the  setting  for this wonderful story, parable. 

o   Jesus is surrounded by “sinners” = tax collectors and others.  

o   The Pharisees are there also, but they are not there with the same intention as the sinners. They are there to judge what Jesus is doing, Jesus who welcomes those whom they considered “lost.”  

o   Jesus in response to those feelings, which they have in their hearts, tells them and us this wonderful parable. In all of us we find the “sinner” and the “Pharisee that judges.”  

o   The parable of the Prodigal Son, which should be called the Parable of the Good Father.  

o   This parable has different scenes, which we are going to contemplate one by one. 

o   The first one: the younger son asks for his inheritance and goes away from home:   

§  Give me my inheritance!  This is an insolent petition. The inheritance is received after the death of the person who leaves it.   

§  The father does not argue, he divides his possessions between the two sons he has. 

§  The younger son goes away from home to a far distant country.  Distant country means a place far from home, from all that is familiar, from the love of his father. The reality is that he has always been far from home, even living in it. His heart has always been far from the love of his father.    

§  Here the first scene ends.   

o   The second scene: the younger son in a foreign country and the father  waits for him to return.   

§  What does the son do in the far away country? What does the father do at home?  

§  The son expends all his possessions in a dissolute life, while he has money he has many friends. 

§  The father at home goes to the road every day to see if the son returns. He wants to see his son even knowing that the son does not love him.   

§  The son is out of money and loses all his friends. He feels lonely, hungry and humiliated. He feels so low and so hungry that he goes to work feeding pigs. A profession that a Jew will never have, pigs are impure animals.  In this situation he comes back to his senses and decides to do something: “I will go back….”  

§  The father keeps going to the road ….    

o   The third scene is the return home of the younger son   

§  The father, who goes every day to the road to see him returning, recognizes him from afar and runs to meet him. 

§  The son says to his father the words he has prepared “I have sinned… I am nor worthy… accept me as one of your workers…”  

§  The father does not allow him to finish. Quickly bring the tunic, the sandals, the ring… let us celebrate.   

§  Why? Because this son was lost and has been found, was dead and has come back to life.   

§  The celebration begins; the father is filled with joy.    

o   Last Scene  – The Elder Brother  

§  He comes back from the fields, where he has been working all day long.  He hears the voices of joy, the music, the laughter… What is this? Because   there has been only sadness in the house since his brother had left.

§  Your brother has come back, and your father is so happy to have recovered him in good health that he has killed the fatted calf and has called for a celebration.   

§  The elder son is angry, he does not want to join the celebration.  The father comes out and begs him to enter, to rejoice because his brother was dead and he is alive, was lost and he has been found.  “Everything that I have is yours my son. You are always with me.”  

§  We do not know if he joined the celebration, Jesus leaves us in suspense. Maybe because we are the ones who have to finish the story,   we are at the same time the younger son who sins  enjoying the pleasures money gives him,  and the elder who sins judging and being sad. We are at the same time like the “tax collector” and the “Pharisee.” 

§  I read once a book by Henri Nouwen and he said that a friend told him to forget about being the elder or the younger son, and trying to be like the Father full of love, mercy and joy.

 CLARETIAN CORNER

He put again before me all the religious orders and made me see the deplorable state of the universal church and told me with heartfelt words that the evils of this holy church had no other remedy that the observance of his most holy law.

At this moment I saw our Lord Jesus Christ, I had him present in very special way. He had so much pain for the evil of the church, that it seemed as if his Divine eyes were bursting into tears, and told me sorrowfully: “look, my daughter, if with tears I would be able to renew the spirit of my church, I would shed tears of blood. Because I did not spare myself to shed all my blood for her creation, but I left myself as pledge and memory of my infinite love for her, for her conversion until the end of time. (Our Lord granted me again this vision for the following night during prayer). Venerable Maria Antonia Paris, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters, Autobiography 8-9.

I simply can't understand how other priests who believe the same truths that I do, and as we all should, do not preach and exhort people to save themselves from falling into hell.

I wonder too how the laity, men and women who have the faith, can help crying out. What if a fire broke out in a house in the middle of the night and the people in the house and in the neighborhood were asleep and unaware of the danger? Wouldn't the first person who noticed the fire run through the streets shouting "fire, fire in such and such a house!" Well, why not shout "hellfire!" to awaken those who are asleep in their sins, lest they awake to find themselves burning in everlasting fire? Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 13-14.