A Parent Reaction

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today illuminate God as Parent who desires the very best for children even when they reject Divine Love.

Source: http://www.ncregister.com/images/uploads/prodigalson.jpg

The Prophet Micah speaks to the exiles about the compassion and generosity of God.

* [7:18–20] The final lines of the book contain a hymn of praise for the incomparable God, who pardons sin and delights in mercy. Thus the remnant, those left after the exile, is confident in God’s compassion and in the ancient promises sworn to the ancestors.

In the Gospel from Luke, The Parable of the Lost Son, describes Jesus particular concern for the lost.

* [15:1–32] To the parable of the lost sheep (Lk 15:1–7) that Luke shares with Matthew (Mt 18:12–14), Luke adds two parables (the lost coin, Lk 15:8–10; the prodigal son, Lk 15:11–32) from his own special tradition to illustrate Jesus’ particular concern for the lost and God’s love for the repentant sinner.

The Catholic Register places among the things we need to note in this parable is the position of the father who sees the returning son while he is still at a distance.

While he is still at a distance, the father sees him, has compassion upon him, runs to him, hugs him, and kisses him.

Tamora Whitney discusses our sense that it hardly seems fair to the people who work hard all their lives, live good moral lives, do everything right, if then some sinful upstart gets the same deal in the end.

But Jesus had a mission to help people, to turn them from their wicked ways to a better path.  The people who were already on the right path did not have as much need of him as those who were heading the wrong way. The good people who are already doing the right thing already have their reward in heaven, but if a sinner, someone who had been lost could return to the right way, isn’t that worthy of rejoicing?

Don Schwager comments on the contrast between the warm reception given to a spendthrift son by his father and the cold reception given by the eldest son.

The prodigal could not return to the garden of innocence, but he was welcomed and reinstated as a son. The errant son's dramatic change from grief and guilt to forgiveness and restoration express in picture-language the resurrection from the dead, a rebirth to new life from spiritual death. The parable also contrasts mercy and its opposite - unforgiveness. The father who had been wronged, was forgiving. But the eldest son, who had not been wronged, was unforgiving. His unforgiveness turns into contempt and pride. And his resentment leads to his isolation, division, and estrangement from the community of forgiven sinners.

He quotes Life through death, by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.,on conversion as a response to a call from God.

"Did you make it possible for yourselves to merit God's mercy because you turned back to him? If you hadn't been called by God, what could you have done to turn back? Didn't the very One Who called you when you were opposed to Him make it possible for you to turn back? Don't claim your conversion as your own doing. Unless He had called you when you were running away from Him, you would not have been able to turn back." (Commentary on Psalm 84, 8)

Friar Jude Winkler adds some background to the compassion and mercy described by the Prophet Micah. The meaning and mystery of the mercy of God is that it is for those who need it rather than deserve it. We often become jealous as opposed to becoming joyful when the sinner turns back, but God is joyful.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, offers the words of Teresa Pasquale Mateus who rightly observes that the contemplative tradition needs to evolve in support of action for the marginalized.

For people existing in the margins—who desperately need contemplative wisdom—a path of contemplation without action . . . doesn’t have meaning. Because their struggles are for survival, for themselves, their loved ones, and their communities, these struggles cannot be set aside in pursuit of an individual spiritual journey. The journey is inherently communal. . . . It necessitates action, but desperately seeks contemplation. The current contemplative container was not built for them and cannot contain their hurts, their actions, their needs, their identities.

The lessons we contemplate about the freedom we exercise and the mercy of God are going to bring discomfort as we work to put these spiritual truths into action.

References


(n.d.). Micah, chapter 7 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/scripture.cfm?bcv=41007014

(n.d.). Luke, chapter 15 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/luke/15

(2013, March 7). 12 things you need to know about the Prodigal Son. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jimmy-akin/12-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-prodigal-son

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved March 3, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/