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RECONCILIATION
AS THE WORK AND INITIATIVE OF GOD
31 MARCH, 2019,
Sunday, 4th Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour: Rose
or Violet.
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First reading
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Joshua 5:9-12 ©
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The Israelites celebrate their first
Passover in the Promised Land
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The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have
taken the shame of Egypt away from you.’
The
Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal and kept the Passover there on the
fourteenth day of the month, at evening in the plain of Jericho. On the morrow
of the Passover they tasted the produce of that country, unleavened bread and
roasted ears of corn, that same day. From that time, from their first eating of
the produce of that country, the manna stopped falling. And having manna no
longer, the Israelites fed from that year onwards on what the land of Canaan
yielded.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 33(34):2-7 ©
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Taste and see that the
Lord is good.
I will bless the Lord at all times,
his praise always on my lips;
in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.
The humble shall hear and be
glad.
Taste and see that the
Lord is good.
Glorify the Lord with me.
Together let us praise his
name.
I sought the Lord and he answered me;
from all my terrors he set me
free.
Taste and see that the
Lord is good.
Look towards him and be radiant;
let your faces not be abashed.
This poor man called, the Lord heard him
and rescued him from all his
distress.
Taste and see that the
Lord is good.
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Second reading
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2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ©
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God reconciled himself to us through
Christ
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For anyone who is in Christ, there is a
new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all
God’s work. It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us
the work of handing on this reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was
reconciling the world to himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he
has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors
for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that
we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the
sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Lk15:18
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Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
I will leave this place and go to my
father and say:
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you.’
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
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Gospel
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Luke 15:1-3,11-32 ©
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The prodigal son
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The tax collectors and the sinners were
all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees
and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats
with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:
‘A
man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the
share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property
between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had
and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of
debauchery.
‘When
he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began
to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who
put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his
belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then
he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have
more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this
place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your
paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.
‘While
he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran
to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to
be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the
best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a
feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to
life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.
‘Now
the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the
house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked
what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your
father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and
sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to
plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have
slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me
so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of
yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his
women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”
‘The
father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it
was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was
dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’
RECONCILIATION
AS THE WORK AND INITIATIVE OF GOD
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ JOSHUA 5:9-12; 2 COR 5:17-21; LK 15:1-3.11-32 ]
The opening lines of the gospel tell us
that the parable of the Prodigal Son was directed at the Pharisees.
The problem of the Pharisees and the
scribes was not because they were “bad” people. Rather, they were people
who tried to be good through their own efforts. Their attitude towards others
and themselves were personified in the elder son of today’s gospel story. They
were trying to prove that they were worthy before God, like the elder
son who told the father off when he tried to calm him down: “He was angry
then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he
answered his father, ‘Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never
once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to
celebrate with my friends.'”
In so doing, they put themselves
at par with God, thinking that they were deserving of God’s grace by their
own merits. Furthermore, they were self-righteous, judgmental and
intolerant of those who failed to perform the good deeds or observed the laws
as they did. They made themselves the measure of what goodness and
holiness were. They became smug, complacent and proud.
When we have such an attitude, we behave like slaves. Isn’t that how the
elder described himself when he told his father how he had slaved for him all
these years? There was certainly no joy for him at all. There was
no love in his heart. People like him can never find happiness, since
pride fills them and alienates them not only from their neighbours whom they
despise, but also God, whom they cannot accept because He welcomes sinners,
eats and drinks with them.
Lest we fall into this
kind of thinking, it is necessary that we begin the second leg of the season of Lent
byputting this whole Lenten programme in perspective.
The theme of today’s scripture reading is clear: Be Reconciled! But
this reconciliation is not the work of man but primarily the work of God. In
the first reading from the Book of Joshua, we have Yahweh saying: “Today I
have taken the shame of Egypt away from you.” Yes, it was God who
delivered the Israelites from the slavery of the Egyptians. From being
nomads wandering in the desert, God led them to the Promised Land. Truly, the
Israelites were nobody, but God chose them to be His people.
This same theme prevails in the second
reading as well. St Paul makes it clear that “For anyone who
is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the
new one is here. It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us to
himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation.”
Indeed, we must not misunderstand
reconciliation as the initiative of man but of God. St Augustine said
that, if God has not found us in the first place, we would not have found
Him. So it is not we who are reconciling ourselves with God, although it
seems that it should be the case since we are the ones who have offended God by
our sins.
The parable of the Prodigal Son
illustrates clearly that it is the Father who reconciles. The father
had been waiting for the lost son all the while, even before he had decided to
return: “While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved
with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him
tenderly.” And the father was not interested even to hear the apology of
his son. Before he could even finish his rehearsed confession, the father
cut short his speech and instead restored him to the fullness of his sonship by
putting on him “the best robe, a ring on his finger and sandals on his
feet.” As far as the father was concerned, it was sufficient that his son
recognized his need to return. The father had never considered him as
anything other than his son.
The Father’s love, of course, was
expressed concretely in the death of His only Son. As St Paul
remarked, “For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we
might become the goodness of God.” Truly, “God in Christ was reconciling
the world to himself, not holding men’s faults against them.” This is the
utter love and mercy of God for us all. That He was made sin means that
Christ had assumed the sufferings and misery of sinners in Himself. For this
reason, Christ is forgiving, for He knows what it means to be separated from
God and from others.
The fourth Sunday of
Lent is thus called Laetare Sunday, that is, the Sunday of Rejoicing. But
how can this joy be ours? This joy is ours only if we respond to His
love and His call for reconciliation. That is why St Paul urges us to “Be
Reconciled!” What, then, is needed for this reconciliation to take
place? Only this: see the mercy and love of God for us in
Christ! This explains why the liturgy in the second part of Lent focuses
on Christ rather than on our spiritual exercises or our sins. Indeed, from
today onwards, the gospel on weekdays is taken from John, which is a reflection
on Jesus as the Light and life-giver in the context of the growing hostility
against Him.
Our conversion comes
about only as a consequence of contemplating on the Crucified Christ on the
cross. Unless we
understand the depth of God’s love for us, we can never change and be
reconciled with Him. So long as reconciliation is on our side, we will
not be able to be grateful, since we would have achieved it by our own
merits. But when God in Christ freely shows His love for us even when we
are undeserving of His love, such an action on the part of God cannot but
transform our hearts.
Consequently, all that is required
of us is that we be convicted of our sins and selfishness by
contemplating the love of God in Christ. For like the prodigal son
who returned home, it was his confidence in his father’s love and forgiveness
that gave him the courage to turn back. That the father could even give
him his share of his property whilst he was still alive, speaks volumes about
the father’s unconditional love.
But what about the Lenten
spiritual exercises that we are invited to do? Nay,
these are necessary, but not so much as means by which we can earn God’s love
and His grace. Rather, the spiritual exercises are meant to help us
remove the obstacles that prevent us from being receptive to His grace.
Of great importance
among the spiritual exercises is the work of reconciliation. Indeed, St Paul reminds us that
the consequence of being reconciled with God is that in turn we become
ambassadors for Christ and become His reconcilers. He said, “So we are
ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the
appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God.” Thus,
when St Paul urges us to be reconciled, this reconciliation must not
only be with God but in a special way with our fellow brothers and sisters.
This is the goal of all our spiritual exercises during Lent. If fasting,
almsgiving and prayers do not lead us to reconciliation with our fellowmen,
then we have missed the point.
This is what it means to
be people of the new creation.
Having reconciled with Christ, St Paul says, we are “a new creation; the old
creation has gone, and now the new one is here.” We must now live by a
new set of values. No longer do we submit to our passions and natural
instincts but we are ruled by God and His gospel.
Yes, although Easter is still three weeks
away, today, the Church wants us to be focused with regard to the goal
of Lent, which is to be a new creation in Christ, through the
restoration of our sonship. As we continue with the Lenten spiritual
exercises, we must never forget that the purpose is to be reconciled with God
and with our neighbours. We have with us already, the Eucharist to
help us in this journey, just as God gave the manna to the Israelites.
Let us therefore be filled with joy today, for our joy is not so much that we
are able to perform the spiritual exercises, but that God loves us and has
forgiven us in Christ. It is this realization that is the basis of our
Lenten joy.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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