Introduction to the Liturgy of the Day

As we approach the holiest week of the year, we get a taste today of God’s rich mercy and boundless generosity, eventually realized though Christ’s ultimate sacrifice. The stories and reflections we hear in today’s readings illustrate the care God has for us all, despite our flaws, despite our sins. The fact that we hear these words in the context of this celebra- tion deepens their meaning, for the Eucharist itself memorializes the sacrifice Jesus made and enables us to receive him at the table of plenty.
 

Introduction to the Liturgy of the Word

“(He) was dead and has come to life again,” says the father in today’s Gospel in Jesus’ story of love and forgiveness, using words that anticipate similar ones that we will hear from the voices of angels and on the lips of his disciples in just a few weeks. Listening to this parable today, as well as the words from Joshua and Paul, let us reflect on how God transforms us all, from the believers reaching the Promised Land, to sinners who turned away from those who loved them, to all of us today.
 

Reflections

• The younger son did one other thing to his father besides demand his inheri- tance. He abandoned him. He fled to a distant land where he could not be found. He alienated himself. Now remember that Jesus tells this parable after many complained, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:2). In effect, Jesus is responding to them by asking, “What would you have me do? Turn my back on sinners and isolate them?” The younger son has already isolated himself, turning away from a loving father and a loving God to enjoy as many of life’s pleasures as “his” money would take him. If no one welcomed him back, he would have remained alone: starving for food and for love in a world that had no use for a person without means. Jesus, “made . . . to be sin who did not know sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), welcomed sinners like him and ate with them, sharing food and love with those who had lost both.

• Mercy is not easy to accept when we feel it is applied unjustly. Just ask the older son. He had done everything right. Always obedient, always serving his father, he was the dutiful son. He should be the one rewarded; he should be the one honored. This lavish mercy was decidedly unfair. He resents his father for giving it and his brother for receiving it. Jesus does not tell us what the older son eventually did. But he tells us what the father did. Once again, he took the initiative, going to his son and pleading with him to join him in his joy and celebration. The one son revealed himself to be self-centered by deciding to squander his inheritance on dissolute living. But the other son revealed himself to be shallow, doing the right thing so he would be rewarded. Both needed mercy but only one’s need for it was obvious. We pray we can recognize and accept our own need for it.

• Jesus, the light of the world, is light in our isolation, illuminating our sin, yes, but also illuminating a way home. For he has returned to the Father from the land of sin and death. He knows the way.
 

Question of the Week

How have I isolated myself and from whom? On the other hand, whom can I respond to with mercy when they return from isolation?


-from Pastoral Patterns

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