20230311 THE TRAGEDY OF THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS
11 March 2023, Saturday, 2nd Week of Lent
First reading |
Micah 7:14-15,18-20 © |
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.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 102(103):1-4,9-12 © |
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.
Gospel Acclamation | Lk15:18 |
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!
Gospel |
Luke 15:1-3,11-32 © |
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 TRAGEDY OF THE SELF-RIGHTEOUS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [MICAH 7:14-15, 18-20; PS 102:1-4,9-12; LK 15:1-3; 11-32]
How merciful is God towards us? Many of us have doubts about God’s mercy. Although we claim that He is all compassion yet many of us continue to live in guilt of our past even when we have confessed our sins, made our amends and live a new life. Every time when something goes wrong with us, we think that God is punishing us for our past sins, although the bible makes it clear that God always forgives. In Ezekiel, the Lord said, “If the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live; they shall not die. None of the transgressions that they have committed shall be remembered against them; for the righteousness that they have done they shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live?” (Ezk 18:21-23)
In the book of Micah, the prophet underscores the mercy and compassion of God towards sinners. It is reminiscent of what the Lord said to Moses, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” The prophet wrote these words to the remnants of the community that had returned from exile and facing the great challenge of rebuilding Jerusalem when they were against all odds. Indeed, they cried out to the Lord, “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 when you came out of Egypt grant us to see wonders.” And the prophet’s assurance was this, “What god can compare with you: taking fault away, pardoning crime, not cherishing anger forever but delighting in showing mercy?” This is the God of Israel, always ready to show mercy and pardon when we repent. He will “have pity on us, tread down our faults, to the bottom of the sea throw all our sins.”
This God does not remember our sins and removes all iniquities when we repent of our sins. This is what the psalmist also expressed. “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. His wrath will come to an end; he will not be angry forever: He does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults.” Simply because St Paul said as well, love “is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13:5f)
This mercy of God is beautifully illustrated in the story of the Prodigal Son, also known as the Prodigal Father. The prodigal son had done great injustice to the Father’s love and generosity. He wanted to go his own way. The Father’s love was never coercive. He gave his son the freedom to choose his way. “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.” He was hungry and starving. Then coming to his senses, he humbly decided to return home and asked to be one of the paid servants. But the father who saw him while he was still a long way from home, “was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly.” He cut off the request on his son’s part to be his servant. Instead he restored his sonship by putting on him the best robe, a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. He called for a celebration and the calf they had been fattening was slaughtered for the feast because he said, “this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” Such is the heart of the Father’s mercy and compassion.
If we were the sinners or the culprits, we would be happy to know that the Father is so merciful to us in spite of the wrongs we have done. When we are the receiving end of God’s mercy, especially when we deserve condemnation and punishment, we cannot but be grateful to God. Certainly, we will feel so grateful to be given a second chance. We know that we do not deserve God’s forgiveness. Yet, because God is the one who reaches out to us even before we reach out to Him, calling us to repentance, we cannot but be even more humbled at God’s graciousness. Instead of we taking the initiative, often the call to repentance is the initiative of God as seen by the Father running to embrace the prodigal son even before he could ask for forgiveness or express his regrets. Reconciliation is purely the grace of God.
But if we are not the recipients of God’s mercy, how would we react? This is particularly if we have worked hard all these years for God, obeying His commandments, observing the laws faithfully, making sacrifices for the Father. How would we react to those who have failed and now given the same dignity and blessings which we have received or even more? This was the crux of the elder son’s resentment. He was full of bitterness and said, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders.” In other words, the elder son experienced great injustice. The Father added salt to his injury. He continued, “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.” His anger and resentment could be seen in making statements that he was flirting around with women using the property that was given to him. His argument was based on justice. Since he had used them up already, then he deserved to be hungry and be poor. To help him, and worse still to restore his sonship, is injustice against him who all these years had slaved for the father.
Indeed, few of us would be so generous like the Father. We all seek justice. What we reap is what we sow. An eye for an eye. This is how the world deals with our fellowmen. Otherwise, we will not bring those who have wronged us to court. Not only do we hope that we will be compensated for our injury, we want to see that those who hurt us will suffer similar pain and suffering inflicted on us. If not, we will not feel satisfied. The justice of man is revenge. We want fair play. And so like the elder son, we will not join the celebration. Ironically, like him, there is a reversal of fortune. We stay out of the house and continue to be a slave of the father whereas the younger son lives in the house and was called my “son.”
And this is because we fail to realize that we are all sinners and all we have come from God. Nothing is our own. This was what the Father said to the elder son. “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 has lost and is found.” The father has given himself to us all. We are forever the sons of our father. The Father keeps nothing for Himself and gives everything to us. We must remember that all we have is also the grace of God and not just our doing. We should learn to be generous like Him. We must be forgiving because the Father knows we are ignorant and weak.
What ultimately is important is that all are reconciled not just with the Father but with each other. Reconciliation involves not only God but the individual with the community. The real challenge of today’s gospel is whether we can embrace and forgive those who have sinned against us and hurt the community. It is not enough that we live a righteous life as individuals, but we are called to do more, to welcome back those who have hurt us, and to forgive them, give them another chance. This is the question the Lord is asking of us – are we willing to accept the Father’s invitation to forgive those who have wronged us and be reconciled with them? This is why the story is left hanging at the end as we are never told whether the elder son, the personification of the self-righteous, representing the pharisees and scribes and all so-called good and devout Catholics, entered the house for the celebration. It is not easy if we were in the place of the elder son because we feel so short-changed. But unless we are willing to share the heart of compassion of God, we will not be able to experience real peace ourselves because we too need forgiveness as we are no better than other sinners.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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