Need not worthiness

The Gospel text from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today is the Parable of the Prodigal. Luke sets this powerful teaching by Jesus in a scene where Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners. Friar JudeWinkler notes that the attitude of the Pharisees that sin is contagious lives on in our concern about the company we keep. The difficulty with the approach of the Pharisees is that the people who need to know God as portrayed in this powerful parable are those who know deep separation from God. The irony that bites believers is that we can identify all too well with the older brother who has been doing the bidding of the Father and still waits for his day when the reward will come for his effort. The truth that we live in relationship with God is sometimes under appreciated by believers. The need for forgiveness which the Father addresses in the superlative way while waiting for the separated, and in Jewish tradition as if dead, son to turn home without interrogation of motive and with overwhelming signs of welcome is played out continuously in the lives of those who still live in the Father`s house. The joy of the psalmist who knows the deep life that God provides the sheep of His flock in which He remains steadfast in removing the obstacles to growing Love in our relationship rings out in praise and thanksgiving. The text from the Prophet Micah proclaims the fidelity of God to compassion and the destruction of our sin. The Shepherd of Israel continues to be made visible through the generous forgiveness taught by Jesus which is based on our need for return to God not on our deserving to come Home.