1 Corinthians 6: 12-20
St. Luke 15: 11-32
Today is known in the church as the
Sunday of the Prodigal Son. Now just two
weeks from the beginning of Great Lent, we are reminded today of who we are:
beloved children of God who need to come to our senses and return to our
loving, forgiving Father. No matter what
we have done, no matter how we have diminished ourselves, no matter how broken
we have made our relationship with God, He patiently awaits our return, runs to
greet us, and welcomes us back into His family with joy and celebration.
We can be sure that the prodigal son
in today’s gospel didn’t think that his father would react that way to
him. After all, he had asked his father
for his inheritance, which was like telling the old man that he should drop
dead so the son could have his money.
The son traveled far away, quickly wasted his money with partying and
immorality, ended up as a servant taking care of pigs, and was so hungry that
he wished he could eat the pigs’ slop.
Then the young man came to himself,
realized how miserable his life was, and decided to return home in hopes of
becoming a servant to his father. He
realized that he had sinned against his father, that he wasn’t worthy to be
called his son anymore, and wanted only to be a hired hand. No self-respecting father in that time and
place could be expected to do more for such a rebellious and disrespectful
son. The young man would have been
fortunate to have been taken back into the household even as the lowliest
servant.
But the father won’t hear of
it. In a way that must have shocked
everyone, he runs to greet his son, embraces and kisses him, gives him fine
clothes, slaughters a calf, and throws a big party. The father did not judge, condemn, or reject
his son; instead, he rejoices that a beloved child who was lost has returned
home, that one who was dead to him has been restored to life.
This story of the prodigal son
should shape all the repentance that we do in our lives, whether in Lent or
not. For it reminds us Who God is and
who we are. As in this parable, there
are no limits to our Lord’s mercy, no restrains on His compassion or
forgiveness. Our Lord, God, and Savior
Jesus Christ was born, baptized, taught, worked miracles, was crucified and
resurrected, and ascended into heaven for our salvation. He came as the Second Adam to restore us as
the children of God, to put us in our proper place in the family of heaven as
those created in the divine image and likeness.
Despite what some of us may be
tempted to believe, the Father is not a harsh, stern, hateful judge who is out
to get us. Likewise, the Son did not
come to condemn and punish, but to save.
We should have no fears about Him rejecting our repentance, no matter
what we have done. He accepted and
blessed everyone who came to Him in humble repentance during his earthly
ministry, including tax-collectors, a woman caught in adultery, Gentiles, the
demon-possessed, and His own apostles who denied and abandoned Him. Christ even prayed for the forgiveness of
those who crucified Him. His abundant
mercy and compassion extend to us and to all who call upon Him from the depths
of our hearts.
This story also holds a mirror up to
us. It reminds us that, like the
prodigal son, we have foolishly rejected our true identity as the beloved
children of God. We have chosen our own
pride, our own self-centered desires, our habits and preferences, over a
healthy relationship with our Heavenly Father.
And we have born the consequences of our decisions and actions by making
ourselves and others miserable.
St. Paul reminded the Corinthians
that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. How horrible, then, for them or us to use our
bodies in immoral ways for sexual intimacy outside of marriage. Our bodies are members of Christ and destined
for the life of the heaven, and we harm and diminish ourselves when we view
them simply as instruments for pleasure.
The union of man and woman is for growth in holiness and love through
the blessed covenant called marriage, which is an image of the relationship
between Christ and the Church in which husband and wife wear the crowns of the
Kingdom. When man and woman join their
bodies in other ways, they choose their passions over holiness and the glory of
their identity as God’s children. The
misery of disease, broken hearts and families, scarred childhoods, and the
horror of abortion are often the results.
This was also the problem of the
prodigal son. He abandoned his father in
order to make his life one wild party, and ended up in a pig sty so wild with
hunger that he envied the food of the swine.
And since the Jews considered pigs to be unclean, the Lord makes clear
that this fellow had truly hit rock bottom.
No matter what our particular set of
temptations may be, we should all admit that we are in the place of the
prodigal son. We have not lived
faithfully as the sons and daughters of the Lord. We have chosen our own will over God’s, we
have asked for our inheritance—namely, whatever good things we can get —and then used them
however we pleased. In thought, word,
and deed, we have often done our best to live as though God is dead, as though
He is no longer our Father and we are no longer His children.
Lent is the time set aside in the
church calendar to come to our senses, to recognize the truth of what we have
done to ourselves, and begin the journey back to the Lord. But we have a major advantage over the
prodigal son. We know that our Heavenly Father
wants nothing more than to restore us to His family. He wants nothing more than to forgive, heal,
and bless us; to return us to our proper dignity as sons and daughters of the
Most High.
You see, Lent is not about getting
God to change His mind about us; instead, it is about us changing our minds and
lives in order to return to God. No
amount of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving will alter anything about the Lord;
but these tools are useful in helping us see the truth about our sinfulness and
in opening our lives to the mercy which Jesus Christ always extends to
repentant sinners.
But we have to be careful here. Some of us hear words like “sinfulness” and
“repentance” and immediately think of God as harsh, unforgiving, and out to
punish us. We may be terrified of God
and think that He wants us to be miserable.
So we obsess about our failings, judge ourselves as hopeless cases when
we aren’t perfect, and end up taking the joy out of life.
The good news is
that God did not create us for a joyless life of despair, but to share in the
blessedness of His life. The eternal Son
of God became one of us to heal our broken humanity and bring us into the joy
of the Kingdom. We pray, fast, give
alms, and forgive our enemies as ways of embracing His healing, of accepting His
gracious transformation of our lives.
Like the man in
the pig sty, we also need to come to our senses, see the truth about God and ourselves
and act accordingly. It is only our own
stubborn refusal which holds us back from entering into the joy of the
Lord. Let’s use this coming Lent to get
over that stubbornness, swallow our pride, and return home to a Father who
loves us more than we can even imagine.
He has sent His only begotten Son to restore us to the dignity of His
beloved sons and daughters. This Lent,
let us run home to Him.
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