Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C)

Fourth Sunday of Lent March 27, 2022

Joshua 5:9a, 10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

image courtesy: Google

A pastor heard that one of his parishioners was going about announcing to everyone that he would no longer attend church services. This rebellious parishioner was advancing the familiar argument that he could communicate with God just as easily out in the fields with nature as his setting for worship. One winter evening, the pastor called on him for a friendly visit. The two men sat before the fireplace making small talk, but studiously avoiding the issue of church attendance. After a while, the pastor took the tongs from the rack next to the fireplace and pulled a single coal from the fire. He placed the glowing ember on the hearth. As the two watched in silence, the coal quickly ceased burning and turned an ashen grey, while the other coals in the fire continued to burn brightly. The pastor's silent message was not lost on the parishioner. After a long pause, he turned to the pastor and said "I'll be back at services next Sunday."

Today as we enter the fourth Sunday of Lent we are called upon to renew ourselves and experience the loving invitation of our Lord to be renewed in him.

The First Reading tells us that Israel had reached the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. A relatively brief journey became a journey of forty years as the people of Israel failed to trust God. Now God tells Joshua that the slavery of Egypt and the reproach of being serfs under pagan dominance are removed at last. The Israelites now can live freely in their own country.  However, the faithless people had no entry into the new land. The reading tells us that they happily ate the produce of the land. The manna which was their food for forty years ceased to come from heaven and they had the new products of the land for themselves. The people could now enjoy the abundance of the Promised Land.

Today's gospel is the family story of a man and his two sons. At the beginning of the story we see that the younger son is the bad boy and the elder son the good boy. But by the end of the story we see that both of them in different ways prove themselves to be obstacles to the family unity and harmony which the father desired more than anything.

The problem begins with the younger son. Without waiting for his father to die he asks for his share of the inheritance. Then he abandons his duties and responsibilities in the family estate and goes abroad to live a life of fun. His reckless lifestyle drains his fortunes and he finds himself reduced to abject poverty and misery. That a Jewish prince like him should condescend to feeding pigs, which Jews regard as unclean animals, shows the depths of degradation in which he finds himself. A life of sins quickly enough leads people to a situation where they lose all sense of shame and decency. But no matter how far sinners stray from the father's house, the loving heart of the father always follows them, gently whispering in their hearts, "Come home! Come home!" Our wild, fun-loving sinful younger man has one thing going for him: he is not too proud to go back and say, "I have erred; I am sorry." And this is precisely what he decides to do.

We are all sinners. Whether our sins are more visible like those of the younger son or more hidden like those of the elder son, the message for us today is that we all need to repent and return to the father's house. The younger son needs to turn back from his frivolous lifestyle and return to the father's house and be a responsible and obedient son. The elder son needs to turn back from anger and resentment and learn to share the house with the apparently undeserving younger brother.

Just as we have heard in the first reading, the people of Israel wandered for forty years and then rejoiced in the promised land, we too are invited to  renew ourselves and experience the loving invitation of our Lord to be renewed in him.

After teaching her Sunday school kids about the Parable of the Prodigal Son, a teacher asked them: "Now tell me: Who suffered the most in the story?" A child raised her hand and answered, "the fatted cow." Absolutely! Next to the fatted calf comes the elder son who remained outside while the party went on inside. He did not even taste the fatted calf that he had helped to raise. All because he stuck to his own ideas of fairness and justice and failed to see that the father's ways are not our ways.

Happy Sunday