Gospel Reflection for  Fourth Sunday of Lent  Year C 　　

As one of many things I do is to coordinate a religious education program of my Catholic parish, I regularly write for its Sunday bulletin on the scripture readings to help my students and their parents better appreciate Sunday readings.

Though my actual bulletin article is much shorter for the sake of space, this is a kind of thing I write..

We have come beyond the half-point of this year’s Lenten journey!  Just this week, next week and the Holy Week to make it to Easter! We are getting closer and closer to Jerusalem, where Jesus died and resurrected, as we follow closely the life of Jesus, Paschal Mystery.

Let’s review how we come this far.

On the first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel (Lk 4:1-13) theme was fending off temptations, in spired by Jesus’ victories over temptations at the end of his 40-day fasting in the desert. On the second Sunday (Lk 6:28b-36) , the theme was to transform ourselves from sinfulness to purity and holiness, inspired by Jesus’ transfiguration.  The third Sunday’s (Lk 13:1-9) theme was not to overly anxious about punitive consequences of our sins but rather to work hard on our need of penance so that we would not be like a barren fig tree, which symbolizes a person who failed to repent during God’s “grace period”.

This Sunday, we reflect the importance of reconciliation and forgiveness through the parable of a prodigal son, following last Sunday’s theme of God’s mercy and our need of repenting  so that we won’t end up like a barren fig tree in the last Sunday’s Gospel reading.

In today’s Gospel (Lk 15:1-3, 11-32), Jesus addresses the parable (vv. 11-32) to both sinners, such as tax collectors, and the self-righteous, such as Pharisees and Scribes.  Thus, there is a reflection of a contrast between these two types of audiences for Jesus’ parable on a contrast between the prodigal son and his righteous older brother.

The prodigal son, younger brother, came to his senses as his suffering from sin became unbearable. This was a turning point for him to return to his father, whom he sinned against. Yet, his father received this returning son, who once offended him, with open arm and joy, believing that he has repented.

Through this forgiving father, Jesus describes God’s mercy, which is also addressed in Exodus episode of delivering suffering Israelites from Egypt, as well as in giving a barren fig tree a “grace period” to become fruitful.  The prodigal son is about us, the sinners, who are to repent.

From this parable’s view, repenting means turning back from sin to God’s mercy – to seek His forgiveness.  This is what “metanoia” really means – turning our heart - though the Greek word,“metanoia”, is often simply understood as “conversion”. In terms of “metanoia”, a Filipino theologian, Jose DeMesa, explains with this Tagalog word, “pagbabalik-loob”, which literally means, returning to innermost self.

The prodigal son, amidst his unbearable suffering, came to “senses” (v.17).  This means that he realized his need for “metanoia” or “pagbalik-loob”.  Upon this “enlightenment”(coming to senses) as Buddhist would describe, the prodigal son was on his “pagbabalik” (returning) to “loob”(his deeper self – who really he is) as he returns to his father for mercy.  Thus,  our true self, “loob”, is where we are together with forgiving God, who is represented by the father of the prodigal son. To put this further in Tagalog theological view, “loob”(our deeper sense of self) is our “pakikipagkapwa” (connected in harmony ) with God, upon reconciliation, which demands “pagbabalik-diyos”(returning to God) as our way of “pagbabalik-loob”.

The parable also leaves us in an impression that it can be more problematic if we are like the older righteous brother, who cannot accept and forgive his younger brother. The older son is a reflection of the self-righteous, such as Pharisees and Scribes, who complain rather than listening to Jesus.
Because of his inability to accept and forgive his younger brother as his father did, the elder righteous son found himself outside the celebration his father was hosting for his younger brother. This means that our own inabilities to reconcile can keep us outside the circle of joy that merciful God brings in reconciliation.

Have you found yourself in mounting frustration and misery of your life because you feel your righteousness has never been rewarded? If so, you may have felt angry at God for not responding positively to your rightful conducts. This is the kind of problem that the older son experienced as his own self-righteousness rejected his father’s invitation to celebrate his younger brother’s return. The older son’s sense of righteousness proved to be rather hypocritical because it made him jealous, angry , judgemental and unforgiving. As these are elements of sinfulness, ironically, the older brother’s righteousness had turned out to be a source of his sinfulness.  This is also what Buddhism teaches as one of Three Poisons (a lack of mindfulness/ignorance, anger, and greed).

Paul, in today’s second reading (2 Cor 5:17-21), calls us to be ambassadors of Christ. Because Christ is the reconciliation between us and God, being ambassadors of Christ means that we are to be ambassadors of reconciliation between the world and God.  But, to be agents of reconciliation, our faith cannot be preoccupied with doing “right” things, as the older brother in the Gospel parable was. Rather, it is to remain grateful for God’s mercy, from which God reconcile with us, so that we can serve as ambassadors of reconciliation with one another and with God.