September 15^th 2019.  Twenty-fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

GOSPEL   Luke 15, 1-32

Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading . . .

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GOSPEL   Luke 15,  1-32

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them he addressed this parable.
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbours and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house,
searching carefully until she finds it?
And when she does find it,
she calls together her friends and neighbours
and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’
In just the same way, I tell you,
there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who repents.”
Then he said, “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,
‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant country
where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country,
and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought,
‘How many of my father’s hired workers
have more than enough food to eat,
but here am I, dying from hunger.
I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son;
treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’
So he got up and went back to his father.
While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him,
and was filled with compassion.
He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
But his father ordered his servants,
‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.’
Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field
and, on his way back, as he neared the house,
he heard the sound of music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned
and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’
He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply,
‘Look, all these years I served you
and not once did I disobey your orders;
yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns, who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
He 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.’”

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . The parable of the merciful Father (the Prodigal Son) is told by Jesus in a specific situation: the Pharisees are complaining that Jesus welcomes sinners and eats with them. At the end of the parable, the elder son comes in from the field and complains to his father because he has welcomed back the sinful son and organised a banquet for him. The complaint of the Pharisees and the complaint of the elder son are identical! This parable must be applied to each one of us. At the time that Luke was writing his Gospel, the era of the scribes and Pharisees was already over. So how can we apply this parable to ourselves? The elder son has an image of sin that is identical to the false picture of sin given by the serpent to Adam and Eve in the garden. Satan creates the lie that sin brings enjoyment and fulfilment; he whispers to us that the Father is a taskmaster who wants us to live servile and miserable lives of sterile obedience. This is clearly the view of the elder son. When he sees the banquet going on, he is furious because, as he sees it, the younger son has had his fun whilst he (the older brother) has lived a life of tedious compliance. Is that our view of sin? As something enjoyable? The Father makes clear that sin is a form of death. It is humiliating and demeaning. Twice he says, “This brother was dead and has come to life: he was lost and is found”. This parable challenges us to stop looking on our heavenly Father in the way that the elder son looks upon him, and to stop looking on sin as a sort of forbidden fulfilment. That is the way that Satan wants us to view God: as a taskmaster who does not really want our happiness and completion. Instead we must learn to see our Father as one who considers us to be precious. Like the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son, we are of immeasurable value in the eyes of our father. He yearns for us to return to him for forgiveness.

The parable of the merciful father is directed at the Pharisees and scribes who complain about the merciful condescension of God

Often we approach the parable of the merciful father, forgetting that it is the third in a series of three parables that illuminate each other and arise in a specific circumstance: Jesus is surrounded by tax collectors and sinners, and they are complaining that, "He welcomes sinners and eats with them". In direct response to these complaints, Jesus begins the series of parables that includes the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son - and their finding. Jesus puts the complaints of the Pharisees and scribes in the mouth of the elder brother, who reproaches his father saying: "Now that this son of yours has returned, he has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, and for him you have killed the fat calf”. The anger of the older brother springs from envy: “He went to have fun, he spent everything, and now he is back, eating and drinking! And all the while, I have been serving you for so many years, never disobeying your command, and you never gave me a calf to have a party with my friends."

The younger son has the same false image of sin as that given to Adam and Eve by the serpent. Sin is portrayed as something enjoyable and fulfilling, when in actual fact it is destructive and negative

But what is sin, really? Is it "enjoyment"? No. The experience of the younger brother is tragic, devastating, humiliating, degenerating. The father in fact defines what sin is, and the text repeats twice this existential prophecy: "Your brother had died and come back to life, he was lost and is found".  Sin is death and deprivation, it is an experience of the loss of oneself. But since the time of the serpent in the book of Genesis, sin has instead been falsely portrayed as a better experience of life, of acquisition and of growth. Where do we find the "mentality" of the snake? Precisely in the words of the elder brother, which are really the words of the Pharisees and scribes. The serpent has infected our vision of religion. He has invented the lie that the reason for obeying the heavenly Father is not life and salvation, but frustrated duty and sterile renunciation, the search for one's own ethical correctness. This makes faith a place of self-denial without love.

What is worse? To be a sinner who errs and looks for forgiveness? Or with bitterness to consider myself righteous before a taskmaster God?

Who should you be afraid of the most? Of the younger sibling who errs and comes to his senses? Or of the older sibling who stands just one millimeter from Grace with a distorted vision of the Father who “obliges” him to be a servile subject and not a true son? It is worth pointing out that at the time Luke wrote this chapter, the Pharisees and the scribes already belonged to the past, but their mentality can persist among Christians of all ages. This is the moralistic attitude that forgets that a sinner is a lost sheep in need of forgiveness. A person immersed in sin is a lost coin, something of great value that is not to be lost. It is worth lighting the lamp, sweeping the house and searching carefully until we discover this truth of the heart, this truth about ourselves and others. And Heaven will celebrate every rediscovered sinner.