Mass
begins each week with a verse from Sacred Scripture. Mother Church
provides this for us, for our nourishment – although in recent decades we have commonly replaced it with a hymn or a ditty or something. I make a point when
I reflect on the readings for a homily, to begin with that verse.
Mother Church provides it for our nourishment, why should we neglect
it as if she would give us something we do not need? And this Sunday,
which we call Laetare Sunday, begins with “Laetare” - which
in English is, “Rejoice”.
Rejoice Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in
mourning; exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast.
It is a beautiful verse from Isaiah calling on us to rejoice with our
mother the Church, and to drink from her 'consoling breast', that is
to joyfully feed from that which she provides for us.
So we come to our mother the Church joyfully for food. And what food
does she provide for us today?
We are fed today with possibly what is the literary highpoint of
gospel writing; what we call generally the Parable of the Prodigal
Son. Unfortunately by calling it that name, we reveal a lot about
ourselves, because by prioritising one of the sons and side-lining
the other, we kind of say that really the parable is about the very
wicked son; and the other son, well, he's just a bit grumpy. In fact
the parable is the parable of the two sons. Both sons represent
immature ways of relating to God (to quote the Pope emeritus). It is
very important that we realise that both are wrong; both are sinful
but in very different ways; both are immature but in very different
ways.
The first son thinks he knows best. He doesn't want to hang around at
home wasting his time, so he commits a dreadful sin. He dishonours
his father; he demands his inheritance there and then: he effectively
says, I wish you were dead. This is an incredibly wicked thing to do
and would have seemed even more wicked at the time of Jesus. It would
have been the height of disrespect. And then, he travels to a foreign
land and his life then dissipates in dissolute living, until
eventually he has nothing. His fall is very great, but it has the
virtue of shaking him up and brings him at last to his senses. He now
realises his sin. He exemplifies the folly of rebellion. He is
immature through rebellion. He goes against his father to the very
extreme, and then falls, and then repents.
The
second son, who has remained at home and who has not disrespected his
father, who has been obedient, who has not lived a dissolute life,
who has worked steadily at home, is nevertheless equally immature in
his relationship with the father. His obedience is childish. He
thinks himself superior. He doesn't remain at home out of love, he
remains at home to be different to his brother, to be better than his
brother... And we can see that he has become filled with pride. When
his brother returns, he is not pleased at his brother's repentance
(unlike his father). The elder son is envious. He is sorrowful at
another person's good. He is immature. He is full of his own merits.
We call the parable the prodigal son because, partly at least, we
would rather not hear the second part about the elder son. In fact,
the elder son, despite the fact he has not sinned in obvious ways, he
has not sinned in lurid or scandalous ways, he has not publicly
humiliated himself, despite all this, he is in fact in a much more
difficult sinful position. He doesn't believe he needs forgiveness.
It is clear now that this parable is a warning to the religious, the
pious, to those who practice their religion meticulously, who are
careful not to cause scandal … but are doing it out of childish
obedience.
This parable is perhaps the highpoint of gospel literature not least
because it announces the truly astounding love of the Father. The
Father's love is greater than our wretchedness – the parable
portrays this very, very beautifully, with wonderful detail. The bit
which I love is when it says “while he was still far away, his
father saw him and was moved with pity...” An extremely moving and
touching detail. The father sees him coming and goes out to meet him.
You can sense in this the enormous compassion and eagerness to have
his son return home.
The Father's love though, is greater also than our own merits. For us
to enter into a mature relationship with God we need to appreciate
that we can do absolutely nothing to earn His love for us. Very
beautifully the father says to the elder son, “My son”, despite
the atrocious thing the elder son said, “all these years I have
slaved for you!” How could it be slavery? It was slavery in the
elder son's heart! But tenderly the father draws him out of his
anger, pride and envy, and says “all I have is yours”. To enter
into a mature relationship with the Father is not loss of freedom
(i.e. slavery) but in truth the greatest freedom of all.
As
we grow in maturity in relationship to our heavenly Father, we grow
to love obeying Him and His commands, it gives us delight, in fact it
gives us joy. Today is Laetare/rejoice
Sunday and we rejoice because we know our Father in Heaven. Our
Father has created us out of free, unselfish, love, and has created
us to be free – that is with a conscience that suffers when we get
lost, and is joyful when we return.
The
world has twisted our notion of freedom – that somehow we express
our 'freedom' when we rebel and do our own thing, and sees obedience
as a slavery, as the elder brother did. What the world has done is to
mix up freedom and license. Often the world is talking about licence
to sin, rather than freedom! Christ Himself reveals to us that
freedom is found through obedience to the Father who love us, and
whom we freely and lovingly obey, and do so in joy. And that is where
freedom is, in the joy. It is not in the knowledge that I can chose
to sin if I want to! Sin is always slavery, is always misery and
suffering in our conscience (however well it is hidden), and is far
from freedom. To be free is to be in a mature relationship with the
Father as His adopted sons and daughters, delighting in doing what He
asks of us, delighting in lively virtues growing in us, and not being
afraid. That is freedom and that is living in love and that is what
causes us to Laetare/Rejoice.
IH
