Joshua 5:9, 10-12//Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 RSV-CE.
4th Sunday of Lent
This parable is not new for most of you… but it has been misinterpreted for many, including myself. My own journey of a deepened faith began in 2015. At that time, I understood this parable in the same way that many people understood it, as well as how I sympathized with the disgruntled son. The parable felt unfair. “He answered his father, 'Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never slaughtered a young goat for me, that I might make merry with my friends”. “But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!'” In my interpretation I felt this unfairness in my heart for many years. I even called others “the prodigal son” without reason. Of course, I misunderstood the words of the parable, and it was not until recently that I understood the words that Jesus shared in verse 32 “It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive he was lost, and is found." Jesus didn’t come to make our life easier or to solve our problems, He came to offer us eternal life and Salvation. In exchange we need to work with him, listen to him, serve him and obey his commandments. In the same way that we see in the first reading. The Lord told Joshua that he had removed the reproach of Egypt and they were welcomed to celebrate the Passover. The father in the gospel is receiving and removing the reproach for his son because he was faithfully dead. Now think for a moment, have we ever felt that resentment? Have we ever felt that reproach toward others? Imagine you come to this Church today and look at the people around you. You look at those that normally attend. You exchange pleasantries and you are happy to see them. Now think of the people that you have invited every week and who never come. First, let me encourage you don’t give up and keep on inviting them. Don’t stop in becoming the instrument for the Holy Spirit who is also working to invite them, yet, from the bottom of your heart you know they will never come to mass. Now imagine they walk into the church and participate in the mass with you. Imagine they receive the body of our Lord Jesus along with you. Can you feel the happiness in your heart? As Luke said "It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive he was lost, and is found". All of those people that we invite every week to mass, all those that we pray every day for, all those that are heavy on our hearts because they are not here suddenly come back to mass. To come back and follow our Father, to be with our Lord Jesus Christ. You and I are like the other brother, We have served our Lord, we have try not to disobey his command. Those invited friends that we imagined at the beginning of this reflection will always be the people on your mind. Like the father of the two sons, waiting for the lost one, you pray for the day that he returns to you. Now let me ask you a simple question, something little to reflect: if the people you invite weekly and you pray daily come to mass and look for God’s grace in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, Christ will come also and appeal to their hearts and would beg them to stay. You would not have to imagine anymore to see it in the community's faces. “for this brother was lost and now is found”. — God Bless, Augusto Pinaud
