Commentary
Sunday, 3/31/2019, Fourth Sunday of Lent
Their Day Had Come, So Will Ours
First Reading Commentary: Joshua 5:9a, 10-12
Imagine planning an overnight hiking trip that you have been looking forward to taking and when you reach your destination, you say, “At long last. I finally got here.” It was an exhausting and difficult journey which took much longer than you thought it would. In fact, it turned out not to be an overnight trip. It took days. You got lost along the way, ran out of food, had to find shelter and encountered all kinds of problems. But you finally made it. Now, after you gain your composure, you want to celebrate.
That’s nothing compared to the Israelites who spent forty years wandering in the desert before they finally reached the Promised Land of Jerusalem. And what did they do when they finally got there? They celebrated. But they did not have a knock-down; drag out have a good time party. The Israelites celebrated the Passover because the LORD said, “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.”
It was the fourteenth day of the first month of the Hebrew calendar which was about the same time that the Israelites crossed the Red Sea. It was about the time of the first full moon after the spring equinox. The tradition of celebrating the Passover at this time has been kept throughout history.
This is a time that the LORD Himself has set aside as being special and holy. Not only was it the Passover for the Israelites, but this time is also the Passover for all of mankind. Jesus and His disciples were celebrating the Passover at the Last Supper. We were all passed over as Jesus made Himself the Sacrificial Lamb. This is why Easter Sunday also coincides with the first full moon after the spring equinox.
Lent is a time of repenting and fasting because this is how we prepare ourselves to celebrate the crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ. We confess and repent for the sins that Jesus took to the cross for our sake. We fast and perform acts of kindness and mercy to show our love and compassion toward those who are less fortunate in the same way that Jesus showed His love and compassion for us.
On the day of the Passover and on the next day, the Israelites ate of the produce of the land. They ate unleavened bread and parched grain and the manna from heaven ceased.
Unleavened bread is one of the vital parts of the Passover meal. Not only in Jewish tradition: but also, for Catholics. Jesus broke unleavened bread and shared it with His disciples saying that it was His Body which is why unleavened bread is used to be consecrated into the Body of Christ at Mass.
But the point of this prophecy from Joshua as it relates to us and the point of this commentary is that the day of reaching the Promised Land had come for the Israelites and all things were made new. That magnificent day is a forerunner to the last day when all who believe and repent will enter the Promised Land—the New Jerusalem—heaven where all things will be made new for all eternity.
Reconciled into One
Second Reading Commentary: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Today’s message from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians begins with him telling us that whoever is in Christ is a new creation. Paul tells us that the old things have passed away and that new things have come. In other words, Paul is telling us that Christ fulfilled His mission of making all things new.
But Christ will come again to make all things new and that story is told in, part six of Revelation—The New Creation in chapters twenty-one and twenty-two. In Revelation 21:5, the one who sat on the throne—Christ said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
Now you may wonder, does Christ who is the Alpha and Omega, the Great I AM in the person of the Son have to make things new twice? I don’t think that at all because that would demonstrate a lack in faith. I see it as two parts of the same plan. The first part being: the paving of the way for us to get to the Promised Land and the second part being: our entry into the Promised Land.
In both parts, Christ does the same thing—He reconciles us to Himself. In doing this, we are all reconciled into One—the Mystical Body.
To reconcile is to renew a friendship or settle a debt or to harmonize. Confession is known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation because when we confess our sins with true remorse, we renew our friendship with God and achieve harmony with God.
The beauty of it is that the debt was settled when Christ left our sins on the cross. That was how Christ fulfilled the first part of His plan—paving the way for us to reach the Promised Land.
This is what Paul is talking about today and Paul tells us that he and the other Apostles are ambassadors for Christ and that they implore us on behalf of Christ to reconcile ourselves to God. In other words, Paul and the Apostles are begging us on behalf of Christ to reconcile ourselves.
Now if Paul is telling the truth, and he is, then Paul speaking on behalf of Christ is the same as Christ begging us. Does God need us so desperately that He has to beg us? Absolutely not! But God does love us that much and don’t underestimate that or get it twisted. Why else would the Father give His only Son and why else would the Son so willingly go to the cross?
Paul said it this way, “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Repent and God Will Run to You
Gospel Commentary: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Here we go. My personal favorite of all the gospels—the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Why? Because this gospel is: life! I say that because the way that the father treats his sons in this parable is exactly the way that our Father in heaven treats all of us. If you are a regular reader of my commentaries, you have heard me say many times that we are all God’s children. In fact, we are all God’s prodigal children!
The Gospel begins by telling us that Pharisees and scribes complained about the fact that Jesus welcomed sinners and ate with them. There are too many people like the Pharisees and scribes in the world today. They think that they are better than everyone else. They look down on anyone who is in need or has made mistakes in life and they look down on anyone who reaches out to those who need help.
They are too consumed with the deadly sin of pride. There is no room in their pride for compassion or love or respect for others. They are too stuck-up for any of that so they are not capable of obeying the Second Greatest Commandment—love thy neighbor.
But Jesus always knows what to say, when to say it and how to say it and on this occasion, Jesus gave the world the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
A man had two sons and the younger son asked the father for his share of the father’s estate. After receiving his share, the son went off to a distant land where he squandered his inheritance until he had nothing left.
Most of us have a story to tell about someone that we know who came into a large sum of money and spent it all on material possessions and physical pleasures only to end up in worse financial trouble than they were in before their good luck. We shake our heads at them and think about what we would have done differently. Truth is: most of us would make the same mistake. And, in a spiritual way, we do make that mistake every time that we commit a sin.
After everything was gone, there was a severe famine and the son found himself in dire need. So, in desperation, he hired himself out to a local citizen who put him to work farming and tending the swine. He suffered from hunger. No one would even give him any of what was being fed to the swine.
Talk about a riches to rags story. Here is a man who had more than he could ever want or need. Now, he had nothing—not even food to eat. His life had become completely empty and meaningless and no one cared.
That’s the way it is when we separate ourselves from God and live a life of sin. We step away from the umbrella of God’s loving protection and instead of being showered with an abundance of God’s blessings, we find ourselves being empty, living a miserable life and no one seems to care.
No matter how hard we try to be satisfied by what the world has to offer in terms of relationships with other people, money or material possessions; we cannot find true peace or happiness or joy because those things come from God’s blessings and when we separate ourselves from God, we separate ourselves from His blessings.
The son, realizing his mistake, came to his senses and decided to go home and admit to his sins. He decided to tell his father that he did not deserve to be his son and that he wanted to be treated like the father’s hired workers. The son made this decision because he accepted his mistakes; took responsibility for them and was sorry for having committed them.
While the son was still a long way off, the father was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
This is one of the most beautiful parts of the parable. God is all-knowing and knows what is in our hearts before the words come out of our mouths to express it. As soon as the son made the decision to come home, the father knew. Nothing could have made the father happier and that’s the way it is between us and God.
God knows that we sin. What God wants is for us to admit to our sins with sincere remorse and He wants us to be at home with Him in spite of our sins. This pleases God and that is why there is no limit to His mercy and forgiveness.
The son did not need to speak for the father to know what was in the son’s heart but, the son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.” The son confessed and repented and it came from his heart. This is exactly what we are called to do by going to Confession and we give it special attention during Lent.
The full impact of the reward that is granted to us for repenting with remorse is beyond our human comprehension but Jesus demonstrated it for us in this parable as the father gave everything back to the son.
The father ordered that the finest robe, a ring and sandals be brought to the son. He then ordered that the fattened calf be slaughtered for a feast and said, “…this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.”
Sin is death. There can be no sin in God’s presence. Therefore, when we are in a state of sin and fail to repent; we are dead and lost. God is life. So, when we repent, we come to life again and we are found.
As the older son was on his way home from working in the field, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He asked one of the servants what was happening and the servant told him that his brother had come home and that the father was celebrating the younger son’s safe return.
Stop for a moment and put yourself in the older brother’s shoes. How would you react to this news? Would you be happy to hear it? Would you be happy to know that your brother was ok? Or, would you be angry about what your brother had done and be asking, what does he want now—hasn’t he squandered away enough?
Most of us would feel both ways and justifiably so. But we have to be careful not to let our anger overcome us or to become judgmental in the way that the older brother did.
The older son was so angry that he refused to enter the house even though the father pleaded with him. The older son was angry because he had stayed with the father, obeyed all of his orders but was never given any kind of celebration. But the son who had squandered everything was given a celebration with the fattened calf.
Pride, jealousy and a sense of being treated unfairly all came over the older son and were evident in his anger. He considered himself to be better than his younger brother who had sinned so much. He was jealous of his younger brother who was given so much and to him; this was just totally unfair.
But remember last week’s gospel, Luke 13:1-9, where Jesus made the point that the same reward is available to all of us and so is the same punishment available to all of us? Neither, the reward or the punishment, are of this earth. They are eternal. The reward is heaven and the punishment is hell. What we receive is our choice.
The prodigal son had already been punished in this life by way of the suffering that he experienced. Because of his repenting, his punishment would not be eternal because now he was one with the father and this is why the father celebrated. The prodigal son’s eternal reward was yet to come.
The older son did not understand this because his thinking was limited to the physical. He did not realize that the eternal reward that the prodigal son would later receive was his reward too.
So, the father said to him, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”
Notice how the father did not become cross with the older son. Instead, the father reached out to the older son. God reaches out to us as well. He gives us every opportunity to repent for our sins with remorse and nothing makes Him happier than when we do.
None of us are exempt. Each of us is a prodigal child of God. But who do we emulate with our actions? Are we like the prodigal son who repents with remorse? Or, are we like the jealous son whose pride blinds his judgement and hardens his heart? Because we are His prodigal children, God wants us to be remorseful like the prodigal son in today’s Gospel.
