20250322 REPENTANCE MUST BE MOTIVATED BY LOVE
22 March 2025, 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.”’
REPENTANCE MUST BE MOTIVATED BY LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [MICAH 7:14-15, 18-20; PS 103:1-4,9-12; LK 15:1-3; 11-32]
The season of Lent calls us to repentance. But we do not like to repent because we want things our way. We want absolute freedom. So why do people repent? Some repent out of fear of being punished. This kind of repentance is out of love for oneself. This was the case of the Prodigal Son. Only after squandering all the money he had on the vanities of life, penniless and in famine, “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.” He was brought to repentance because he was suffering the consequences of his sins. He came back to his father to find relief from suffering. But this is self-pity. It is not yet true repentance.
Hence, it is not enough to know that our sins are hurting us. It is more important to know that our sins are hurting our loved ones. When we see our loved ones suffering the consequences of our sins, we will be moved to repentance out of love for them. If we lack love for them, we will not be contrite for our sins. This was the case of the elder son. He had no love for his Father nor for his brother whom he referred to as his Father’s son. He saw himself as a slave. “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.”
Even then, most of the time our love for our loved ones is out of self-love. 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 with all the luxuries of life and even do their homework for them. And when they do wrong, we seek to vindicate them. We cannot bear to see our loved ones suffer and grow. Our love is not that pure and noble.
However, our sins hurt God who loves us unconditionally. Indeed, the Prodigal Son 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!'” True repentance however should be motivated by His great love for us. In this way, we will also repent more out of love for Him. Indeed, His love is so great that He took the risk of allowing us to love Him freely. He is not afraid to allow us to make mistakes in life and learn from them. Although He feels sorry and pained when He sees us suffer, His love for us makes Him able to accept our pain without being overwhelmed. Cf (Hos 6:4)
But He does not simply allow us to choose to love Him, He 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 forever: He does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our faults.”
God desires to pardon us. He does not enjoy seeing us suffer for our sins. He is quick to forgive and welcome us back when we are contrite. When the Prodigal Son returned home, the father did not give him a good lecture or reprimand him. On the contrary, we read that, “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 started 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 sonship back to the son without any conditions or interrogation. This is certainly not the case for us when someone has hurt us. We will interrogate and make him feel small and humiliated. Sadly, this sometimes even happens in the confessional! But God is quick to forgive, and happy simply because His son had returned. That he was back home, is the cause of his celebration and enthusiastic joy. He had no more questions.
Then why does He allow us to suffer? It is not because He wants to punish us. He wants us to come to a realization of our mistakes. 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 have 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 to whom we can turn to, to save us from the consequences of our actions. It is when we suffer that we repent.
This is particularly true for those sent to prison. Prison is not necessarily a place to make criminals suffer for their crimes. If that were the case, they will only come out of prison more wounded and angry with life and society. Nay, 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 means that they did not come to true repentance of their wrongs. Instead of learning from past mistakes, they blame the world.
Indeed, many people only remember God when they suffer and have been stripped of all things in life. So long as we also remember how great and loving our God is, we will always find 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.” So often, we recognize our folly, helplessness and powerlessness only when we are no longer able to depend on ourselves. Only then do we realize that God is more powerful than anyone of us. Those who think that money, power and status can help us to acquire all the things in life will one day have a rude awakening when they come to realize that without the grace of God, nothing in this world can save them from a broken family, a betrayal, a crushing failure or failing health.
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. He was miserable because all he cared for was to fulfil his duties so as to earn the father’s love. He failed to realize that the father had 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 brother 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 their heavenly Father who loves us all, without exception, saint or sinner.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment