St James Catholic Church

On this fourth Sunday of the Lenten season, called Laetare Sunday, a time to anticipate the joy of the Easter season, we get a taste of God’s rich mercy and boundless generosity, eventually realized through Christ’s ultimate sacrifice.  The stories and reflections we hear in today’s readings illustrate the care God has for all of us, despite our flaws, despite our sins.

In the prodigal son story, we have a silhouette of that on the wall to the right of the sanctuary, the younger son did one other thing to his father besides demand his inheritance.  He abandoned him.  He fled to a distant land where he could not be found.  He alienated himself.  Remember, Jesus tells this parable after many complained, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  Jesus is responding to them by asking, “What would you have me do?  Turn my back on sinners and isolate them?”  The younger son has already isolated himself, turning away from a loving father and a loving God to enjoy as many of life’s pleasures as his money would take him.  If no one welcomed him back, he would have remained alone starving for food and for love in a world that had no use for a person without means.  Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them.

Mercy is not easy to accept when we feel it is applied unjustly.  Just ask the older son.  He had done everything right.  Always obedient, he was a dutiful son.  He should be the one rewarded.  This lavish mercy was decidedly unfair.  Jesus does not tell us what the older son did.  Be he tells us what the father did.  Once again, the father took the initiative, going to his son and pleading with him to join him in his joy and celebrate.  The one son revealed himself to be self-centered by deciding to be shallow, by doing the right thing so he would be rewarded.  Both needed mercy but only one’s need for it was obvious.  We pray we can recognize and accept our own need for forgiveness, mercy, and compassion.

Love, Peace, Joy

-Fr. Bob