20200314
THE
GOOD NEWS OF REPENTANCE
14 March, 2020, Saturday, 2nd
Week of Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: Violet.
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First reading
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Micah 7:14-15,18-20 ©
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Have pity on us one more time
With
shepherd’s crook, O Lord, lead your people to pasture,
the
flock that is your heritage,
living
confined in a forest
with
meadow land all around.
Let
them pasture in Bashan and Gilead
as in
the days of old.
As in
the days when you came out of Egypt
grant
us to see wonders.
What
god can compare with you: taking fault away,
pardoning
crime,
not
cherishing anger for ever
but
delighting in showing mercy?
Once
more have pity on us,
tread
down our faults,
to
the bottom of the sea
throw
all our sins.
Grant
Jacob your faithfulness,
and
Abraham your mercy,
as
you swore to our fathers
from
the days of long ago.
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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 102(103):1-4,9-12 ©
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The
Lord is compassion and love.
My
soul, give thanks to the Lord
all
my being, bless his holy name.
My
soul, give thanks to the Lord
and
never forget all his blessings.
The
Lord is compassion and love.
It is
he who forgives all your guilt,
who
heals every one of your ills,
who
redeems your life from the grave,
who
crowns you with love and compassion.
The
Lord is compassion and love.
His
wrath will come to an end;
he
will not be angry for ever.
He
does not treat us according to our sins
nor
repay us according to our faults.
The
Lord is compassion and love.
For
as the heavens are high above the earth
so
strong is his love for those who fear him.
As
far as the east is from the west
so
far does he remove our sins.
The
Lord is compassion and love.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Lk15:18
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Glory
and praise to you, O Christ!
I
will leave this place and go to my father and say:
‘Father,
I have sinned against heaven and against you.’
Glory
and praise to you, O Christ!
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Gospel
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Luke 15:1-3,11-32 ©
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The prodigal son
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.”’
THE GOOD NEWS OF
REPENTANCE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [MICAH
7:14-15, 18-20; PS 103:1-4,9-12; LK 15:1-3; 11-32]
Very often, when we
think of the season of Lent, we see it in terms of fasting and doing penance. This is especially so when in the first
three weeks of Lent the liturgy tends to focus on the need for repentance and
doing penance. Even then, the stress on penance and mortification
is not an end in itself, as if it were some spiritual feat of discipline that
we can boast about, such as fasting on bread and water three times a
week. But if we are doing all these mortifications without the right view
of the end in mind, it can make us only vainer. Such penance cannot bring us
true happiness and joy in life. It does not enrich and empower life.
Even if we do penance
with a view to repentance, we might not experience the joy of Lent. Repentance is not something
useful to God. It is not as if God enjoys seeing us
humiliated. On the contrary, the Lord only desires our joy and
happiness. He is not a joy-killer but a life-giver. He comes to
rescue us from our slavery, as He did in the case of the Prodigal Son who spent
all his father’s money on the vanities of life and then was left penniless and
in starvation. “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.”
Repentance should be
motivated by God’s great love for us. His love is so great that He takes
the risk of allowing us to love Him freely. He is not afraid to allow us to make mistakes
in life and to learn from them. Although He feels sorrow and pain when He
sees us suffer, His love for us makes Him able to accept our pain without being
overwhelmed. To the unfaithful Israelites, the Lord grieved in His heart, “What
shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is
like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.” (Hos 6:4)
Unlike God who is not overwhelmed by our sufferings, many of us are overcome by
the sufferings of our loved ones. Hence we try to prevent our loved ones
from learning about life, and being independent by pampering them. We
seek to do everything for them because we cannot see them suffer the pain of
growth. We chauffeur our children to school, provide them all the
luxuries of life and even do their homework for them, and when they do wrong,
we seek to vindicate them.
But God is ever ready to
forgive us, knowing how frail we are. He does not take into account our
sins. He wants us to
find joy in Him. “What god can compare with you: taking fault away, pardoning
crime, not cherishing anger forever but delighting in showing mercy? Once more
have pity on us, tread down our faults, to the bottom of the sea throw all our
sins.” Indeed, “The Lord is compassion and love. His wrath
will come to an end; he will not be angry for ever: He does not treat us
according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults. As far as the east
is from the west so far does he remove our sins?”
God desires to pardon
us. He does
not enjoy seeing us suffer from our sins. When the Prodigal Son
returned home, the Father did not give him a good lecture or reprimand him.
On the contrary, “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.” When his son wanted to apologize, he interrupted him and 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.” He restored the Son back to his
sonship without any condition or interrogation. This is certainly not the
case for us when someone has hurt us. We interrogate, berate and make
them feel small and humiliated. But God who is quick to forgive, was
happy simply because His son had returned. That he was back home, is the
cause of His celebration and enthusiastic joy. He asked no
questions.
Repentance does not prevent
us from enjoying life but frees us to live life to the fullest. As St Paul says, “Now the works of
the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions,
factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am
warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit
the kingdom of God.” (Gal 5:19-21)
When the Prodigal Son repented, it did not enslave him, but he was set free for
love and life. So repentance is not something negative but positive.
This is why God allows
us to do our penance, whether freely chosen or from the seeds of evil we sow in
our lives. St Paul says, “If
you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you
sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” (Gal 5:6)
So when we suffer, we are simply reaping the foolish actions we had
undertaken. We must never imagine that God is the One who actively causes
us to suffer the consequences of our sins. On the contrary, He is the One
who intercedes to save us from the consequences of our actions. Often, it
is only when we suffer that we come to repent.
This is particularly
true for those sent to prison.
It is not true that prison is a place to make the criminals suffer for their
crimes. If that were the case, they will only come out of the prison more
wounded and angry with life and society. Nay, the prison is a place for
them to think through their crimes, understand why they are in that situation,
and hopefully, through counselling and spending quiet time in the cell, they will
come to realize their folly and turn over a new leaf. If there are repeat
offenders, it is because they did not come to true repentance of their
wrongdoing. Instead of learning from past mistakes, they blame the world.
In the case of the
Prodigal Son it was his suffering that caused him to realize how foolish he
was. More importantly, he also remembered his father’s love for him. “Then he came to his senses and
said, ‘How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and
here I am dying of hunger!'” So, often it is only when we are no longer
able to depend on ourselves that we recognize our folly, helplessness and
powerlessness. Only then do we realize that God is more powerful than any
of us. Those who think that money, power and status can help us to
acquire all the things in life will one day awaken to the fact that without the
grace of God, nothing in this world can save us from a broken family, a
betrayal, a crushing failure or failing health. This Covid-19 reminds us
that without God’s mercy, even the powerful can succumb to the disease.
Indeed, many people only
remember God when they suffer and are stripped of all things in life. So long as we do not
just remember our sins but also how great and loving our God is, we will always
find the strength, to carry on and move forward in life, like the
Prodigal Son. The Israelites always recalled His faithful love for
them. “Grant Jacob your faithfulness and Abraham your mercy, as you swore
to our fathers from the days of long ago.” The psalmist says, “My soul,
give thanks to the Lord and never forget all his blessings. It is he who
forgives all your guilt, who heals every one of your ills, who redeems your
life from the grave, who crowns you with love and compassion.”
Alas, there are those
who can never encounter the love and mercy of God. These are the self-righteous,
represented in the icon of the elder son. He saw himself as a slave of
his father and not his son. His was miserable because he was just
fulfilling his duties to earn the Father’s love. He failed to realize
that the Father has always loved him, regardless. If he were to do good
and live responsibly, it was ultimately for himself. His Father’s love
for him was not dependent on how he behaved. By living a righteous life,
it was for his own happiness. So let us be careful that we do not forfeit
the good news of repentance by behaving like the elder son who could not
celebrate with his father when his brother returned home. He was filled
with jealousy and resentment. But for those of us who are aware of our
sinfulness and God’s forgiveness, we can rejoice with sinners who return to God
and with our Father who loves us all without exception, saint or sinner.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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