March 23, 2019 (Saturday of the second week of Lent)
The prodigal love
Dear friends in Christ, how often have we wasted something, some time, and even our God given gifts and talents, and only to be saved by grace. The greatest prodigality is not in the monies spent daily, but in the love, that is lavished on us by the Father, and wasted by us. God’s tap of love towards us, never runs dry.
Today’s first reading (Prophet Micah 7:14-15.18-20). In it, the prophet praises the mercy and forgiveness of God. “Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger for ever because he delights in mercy. He will again have compassion upon us…You will show faithfulness to Jacob and mercy to Abraham…” God’s mercy and forgiveness is a sign of his greatness.
The parable of mercy given to us today for our Gospel (Luke 15:1-3.11-32) The Pharisees and scribes questioned his association with sinners; but Jesus has no doubt, about the fact that we are the lost sheep he is after in the woods. He presents this story of a father who has two sons. The elder son, a faithful and hardworking boy, never questioning and never challenging the father’s authority; one who had no time for celebrations, but just to do what the father demands of him. The younger son however, was not that obedient, he got all that should come to him as inheritance, and made off. Maybe very adventurous with his future, but for lack of experience, he wasted the father’s love and the property entrusted to him. When all was spent, he faced suffering in a foreign land and only then, did he come to his senses, that he has been wasteful and in the wrong. He then made a bold decision to return home, at least to be a servant in his father’s farm, rather than continue the suffering, in a foreign land.
When he returned however, it was to a feast. The father had been fattening a cow for his return; his clothes were ready, his sandals, his ring,—what a father acts that way? The father considered him lost but found, dead but risen. The elder son was angry, at the father’s action. The father went out to him too, to bring him back home in his righteousness, to love the sinner—his brother, who has returned. We have nothing to boast about, apart from our sins, which has worn us God’s favour. ‘O happy fault, o necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us, so great a redeemer.’
Let us pray: God of mercy and compassion, look with pity upon us. Amen. May the Almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
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