A Lectio Divina Approach to the Sunday Liturgy
BREAKING THE BREAD OF THE WORD (# 17)
Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year C – March 21, 2004
“Finding the lost sons”
BIBLE READINGS
Three years ago, I participated in a course entitled “Liturgical Dance and Drama”, offered at the Pope Paul VI Liturgical Institute in Malaybalay, Bukidnon in the Philippines. The culminating event of the course was a Eucharistic Celebration in which elements of dance and drama were used to highlight the important parts. At the Gospel proclamation, the parable of the Prodigal Son was mimed by an excellent cast, which made the liturgical assembly hear more intensely the saving message and see with a deeper vision Jesus’ teaching on God’s concern for the lost and his love for the repentant sinner. After the presiding priest had finished the reading and declared solemnly, “The Gospel of the Lord”, the prodigal son and the servile brother gently placed their heads on the bosom of the welcoming father, whose arms enfolded them both in a joyful embrace. My eyes welled with tears. The actors had put an appropriate resolution to an open-ended story. The “coming home” of the two lost sons is the best ending of all.
Today’s Gospel reading is taken from the evangelist Luke’s trilogy on God’s mercy: the parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15:3-7), the parable of the lost coin (Lk 15:8-10), and the parable of the two sons (Lk 15:11-32). These three parables of mercy are situated in a context of controversy against the Pharisees and scribes who resent Jesus practice of table fellowship and consorting with sinners. According to Robert Karris, “In three parables, Luke champions the theme that God’s mercy breaks through all human restrictions of how God should act towards sinners. God’s mercy, indeed, is as foolish as a shepherd who abandons ninety-nine sheep to save one, as a woman who turns her house upside down to recover a paltry sum, and as a Jewish father who joyfully welcomes home his wastrel son who has become a Gentile. Because the disciples have such a merciful God, they can embark trustingly and joyfully on Jesus’ way to this God.”
Today’s parable is commonly called, “The Parable of Prodigal Son”, which is a misnomer. The popular name fails to indicate that the father has two lost sons, not one. The resentful elder son, however, did not know that he was “lost”. Though physically near, he was just as lost as the one who had set off for a distant country, squandering his inheritance in a dissolute life.
Others prefer to call this story, “The Parable of the Prodigal Father”. According to Aelred Rosser, “I agree with those who feel that the story would be more appropriately called the parable of the prodigal father. Clearly, the point that Jesus makes in this story is not how bad the boy (or his elder brother) is but how good the father is. It is the father who is excessive and extravagant and immoderate, anything but frugal with his forgiveness and mercy. It is the father who squanders love and reconciliation on the son. The father is the true spendthrift here, sparing no cost of labor to celebrate the homecoming of his wayward son. The reluctance of the elder brother to forgive with similar prodigality makes the father all the more generous.”
The joy of the father in the return of the wayward son is so unmitigated and intense that it must be expressed in a celebration. There is an Easter motif in the compassionate Father’s call for celebrating and rejoicing: “”Your brother was dead and has come home again; he was lost and has been found” (Lk 15:32). Indeed, the conversion of a repentant sinner is a paschal experience. It is an intimate participation in Christ’s saving death and resurrection. Moreover, this life-giving joy that results from God’s patient mercy and forgiving love has an ecclesial impact. The whole Church rejoices when God finds the lost and when a sinner is converted from sin.
In order to experience real joy and inner peace, we must participate in the Father’s compassionate mercy and saving love with a generous and humble heart. Self-righteousness prevents empathy with the compassion of God and thus, cuts us off from the joy resulting from his forgiving love. This is the case of the “lost” elder brother. According to Samuel Oyin Abogunrin, “The problem is that his self-image has taken him farther into a distant country than his younger brother had traveled … Regarding himself as the only truly loyal son, he has erected a barricade of self-righteousness that prevents him from recognizing the unconditional love of his father that is always freely extended to both sons equally.” Those who have the resentful streak of the servile and self-righteous son need to look to Jesus, the beloved Servant-Son, as model of what it means to serve God in completely filial way. By imitating Christ’s faithful love and filial service, we would experience the truth of the Father’s contention: “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours” (Lk 15:31).
The parable of the Father’s prodigal love finds its completion in Jesus Christ, God’s beloved Son who, in taking on human nature, became totally identified with the pathetic experience of the wayward son and of every sinner. In his paschal offering on the cross, Jesus would experience the total and excruciating pain of alienation caused by humanity’s sin. By his passion and death, the Servant of Yahweh and Son of God carried the burden of sin as a means of expiation and redemption. When he breathed forth his last on the cross, crying out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46), Jesus radically experienced the “homecoming”. In that unique saving event, Jesus Christ, the beloved Servant-Son, made possible the “homecoming” of the lost children of God and their reconciliation with the compassionate Father, who had been so prodigious with his saving plan.
II. POINTS FOR THE EXAMINATION OF HEART
In what way am I the lost, wastrel son?
In what way am I the lost, elder brother?
In what way am I the compassionate Father, so prodigal with love?
Leader: Father, you are full of mercy and compassion. Forgive us for having chosen our own way, independent from you. Forgive us for having wasted the spiritual riches and gifts you have bestowed on us. We wanted to build our lives outside of your loving plan. We were eager to taste the thrill of death-dealing adventures and relish the recklessness of false freedom. We also drank the dregs of sinful pleasure and indulged in selfish satisfactions. Now that we are done, we feel degraded, isolated and empty. Please help us for we are broken and our life is shattered. Father, we have sinned against heaven and against you. We no longer deserve to be called your children. By the loving passion of our brother Jesus and his sacrificial death on the cross, we return to you, laden with tears of repentance.
Assembly: The compassionate Father says, “We must celebrate and rejoice, because the dead has come to life again; the lost has been found.”
Leader: Father, your merciful love is abounding. Forgive us for being self-righteous. Our brutal sense of justice and unwarranted indignation made us resent your kindly embrace for those in need. Forgive us for treating harshly our brothers and sisters who have erred, but are humbly seeking to return to your loving embrace. Father, our pride has alienated us from you. We are “lost” and are in need of healing. In the name of our brother Jesus, your beloved Son-Servant, we turn to you with filial love and tears of repentance. Gracious Father, your joy is our joy. Everything you have is ours to share with those in need.
Assembly: The compassionate Father says, “We must celebrate and rejoice, because the dead has come to life again; the lost has been found.”
The following is the bread of the living Word that will nourish us throughout the week. Please memorize it.
“But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come back to life again; he was lost and has been found.” (Lk 15:32)
V. TOWARDS LIFE TRANSFORMATION
ACTION PLAN: During the Lenten season, participate in the Church’s celebration of the rite of penance and reconciliation.
ACTION PLAN: Make a step toward reconciliation involving a person you have hurt and/or offended. Do this in the spirit of the repentant “lost” son and the compassionate forgiving Father.
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