FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT (2025)-LAETARE SUNDAY
Readings:
Joshua 5:9-12
Psalms 34:2-7
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
The evangelist Luke, as we have often said, is concerned about the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church, his concern for women (including Mary) is noteworthy, and the importance of prayer is a distinguishing trait of his gospel. In addition, no gospel writer is more concerned than Luke with the mercy and compassion of Jesus (Lk 7:41-43; 10:29-37; 13:6-9; and this Sunday’s parable, 15:11-32). What we call the Parable of the Prodigal Son is unique to Luke’s gospel, and aptly displays Luke’s talent as a storyteller.
Our parable begins with the very first verses of Chapter 15 of Luke’s gospel, which establish the context for the several parables that follow, including that of the Prodigal Son: “Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’. So to them Jesus addressed this parable” (actually, several parables). The consciences of so many religious leaders, at the time of Jesus, were clear, in spite of the fact that they looked down on all those who were different from them. Tax collectors, who were likely Jewish, were despised because of their collusion with the Romans, and the broad category of “sinners” was made up of those who didn’t keep some part of the Law. Not worshipping appropriately, coming in contact with a dead person, or even having some incurable illness (there were many at the time of Jesus), could put you in the category of ‘sinner.’ The 613 precepts of the Law were demanding, and religious leaders were quick to chastise those who might have even erred in some modest rule for purification, or who offended the rules governing working on the Sabbath, regardless of whether the ultimate goal was the good of another person.
“Tax collectors and sinners” were drawn to Jesus and His teaching, for so much of the population demonized and shunned them, and Jesus appeared to “welcome” them, and even “eat with them,” something so foreign to those who mistakenly called themselves “holy.” Conscious of the unfair attention an entire class of people were getting from the religious leaders, Jesus went out of His way to touch the hearts of the poor and oppressed, the shunned and neglected, those who stood on the fringes of society. It is why today the Church continues to have, in all of its social teaching, a special “option for the poor.” That sense of a special “option” is needed more today than ever, for we have a government which is trying to demonize large classes of people, and as Christian’s we should be troubled by the gestapo-like tactics which are arbitrarily removing people from our streets, people we once invited to our country, and making them ‘disappear.’ They are seen by some as threats to our “national security,” but these are not gang members, these are students, teachers, hairdressers, and ordinary people. We should not tolerate this abhorrent behavior. Jesus, the “man who welcomes sinners and eats with them,” demands that we listen carefully to this parable of 30 AD once again, for it is just as current today.
Jesus speaks a parable about two sons, neither of whom seem to possess a special closeness to their father, but it becomes obvious that the father owes them very much. The younger son already wants to get out of Dodge. He feels confined, and wishing to spread his wings, he does the unheard of thing of asking for his share of his inheritance, customarily something that would not be done until his father’s death. Ignoring the insult, the loving father divides up the inheritance, and the younger son sets off for a distant country, where he assumes the grass was greener and where the women were looser. In any case, the youngster squanders “his inheritance on a life of dissipation.” After losing his fortune, a famine breaks out, thrusting him into desperation and into taking a job tending the swine, a completely inappropriate job for anyone who might consider himself a good Jew.
By this point in time, Jesus is hoping that some of His listeners, the Scribes and the Pharisees in particular, are wondering whether Jesus is talking about them. In so many ways, they had squandered the inheritance that was theirs, caring more about wearing larger tassels and living off Temple taxes than about the people they were called to minister to. They forgot what was most important about being respected as a religious leader (as many religious leaders have today).
In the meantime, the younger son’s dire circumstances made him think about home, where all the servants were given enough to eat. Here he was dying of hunger; it might be time to rethink things. Humbled to his depths, he decided to return home to the father he had insulted, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.” He sets out for home.
There isn’t a day that the father hasn’t missed him, so even though “he was still a long way off” (the Father had hoped every day this would happen), the father “ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.” He didn’t treat him like a servant. On the contrary, he brought out “the finest robe,” and “put a ring on his finger,” and new “sandals on his feet.” The father ordered “take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.” Sounds of merriment filled the air.
The lack of closeness to the father becomes obvious when the older son discovers that the party going on is for his long lost brother. It made him angry, and he would have no part of the party. The older son brings up his past grievances, and takes no joy in his brother’s return. And then the parable abruptly ends.
Wait! We want a happy ending! We want the entire family standing around the roasting calf and singing Kumbaya! But Jesus wants His listeners (Scribes, Pharisees, and us) to think about the story He just told. What makes a sheep herder rejoice – finding the one stray that he was convinced was permanently lost (Lk 15:3-6).
Recently my next door neighbor’s dog unexpectedly ran off. I remembered the joy she had when she bought the dog. The dog was missing some 4-5 days, and with the passing of each day, her sad resignation that there was the possibility that she had lost her dog for good seemed to overwhelm her, and the neighborhood. Finally, one evening word was received that the dog made its way to a local school yard, and they tracked down my neighbor to let her know that “what was lost was now found.”
Based on today’s parable we will never know what the older son decided to do. Did he finally go into the house? Did he ever forgive “this son of yours” (not ‘my brother’)? Did he ever come to accept that the love of God is like the love of the Father – unexplainable, boundless, magnanimous? Jesus wanted the Scribes and Pharisees to spend less time condemning the “tax collectors and sinners,” and spend more time focusing on a love which is more eager to forgive than to condemn. We will never know how the characters of this parable lived out the rest of their lives. All that is important, is that we live out the rest of our lives loving as Jesus would have us love, and forgiving as we have been forgiven.
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