Jesus makes God known to us as our Father who loves us too much.  We get to adjust to such love as the Father hugs us and kisses us.

The Pharisees and the scribes cannot adjust to what they see:  publicans and sinners going to Jesus to listen to him.  So, they murmur and say, though they do not name him, that he welcomes sinners and eats with them.

And these Pharisees and the scribes are who the parable of the lost son speaks to.  The two parables just before this also speaks to them.

Yet these parables, for sure, are also for us lessons to which to adjust.  After all, are we not folks who do not take too kindly to outreach to those who are gay?  To the divorced and remarried?

And are we not with those who, basically,  do not like Vatican II and its call that we all reconcile to each other?  Do we not, all too often, show anger and hate, and not joy and love, foster division and not union?  Anger makes us hate so much that we cannot and do not want to name those we are angry with.

Are we not far from being like the “lavish and spoiling” father?  He does not worry about his honor, interests, or that his younger son suggests his Father is dead.  What worries him is his lost son.  Hence, he waits day in and day out.  And when he spots him from afar, he runs to meet, hug and kiss him.  He gives him back his honor and rightful place, and he holds a great banquet for him.  So, the father makes one to hope and love.

The older and “true son who fulfills his duties and works hard,” on the other hand, makes one to despair and hate.  Are we not like him?  Do we not refuse to go in to share in the feast with joy?

Lord Jesus Christ, you know no sin.  Yet you become sin for us to save us and to reconcile us to the Father.  He does not only show mercy; he is mercy (SV.EN XI:328).  Make us living stones in your building (1 Pt 2, 5; Eph 2, 20-21).  And grant that we adjust to what you teach us by words and works.  For when we adjust so, we then turn into God’s justice in you.  Let us always share in your holy banquet.  We shall thus be like you, the true manna or food from heaven, as we taste your love and mercy.

30 March 2025
Fourth Sunday of Lent (C)
Josh 5, 8a. 10-12; 2 Cor 5, 17-21; Lk 15, 1-3. 11-32