The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today are a starting point for our meditation on the events of our daily life where we fail to fully appreciate the Presence of God inviting us to accept forgiveness and compassion.
Still a long way off
The reading from the Prophet Micah reassures us of God’s compassion and steadfast Love.
* [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.1
Psalm 103 is a thanksgiving for God’s Goodness.
* [Psalm 103] The speaker in this hymn begins by praising God for personal benefits (Ps 103:1–5), then moves on to God’s mercy toward all the people (Ps 103:6–18). Even sin cannot destroy that mercy (Ps 103:11–13), for the eternal God is well aware of the people’s human fragility (Ps 103:14–18). The psalmist invites the heavenly beings to join in praise (Ps 103:19–22).2
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the Parable of the Prodigal and His Brother.
* [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.3
Luis Rodriguez, S.J. comments that a more refined form of the syndrome of the brothers consists in fleeing intimacy with God, in order to seek fulfillment in attachments that, without being necessarily sinful, would not fit in a context of friendship with God.
Closeness is a diverse concept: at the physical level it is a relationship of mutuality; at the affective level, though, it can be a one-sided affective closeness, while the other side ignores it or pretends not to notice (think of poor Charlie Brown and the little red-hair girl he likes: one-sided affective closeness). At the spiritual level it can also become one-sided: God is always near, while we can choose to remain distant. Even Saint Augustine of Hippo admitted to God: You were with me, but I was not with you.4
Don Schwager quotes “Life through death,” by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"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)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 asks what is our heavenly Father like? Many in the crowd listening to Jesus—especially the “tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 15:1)—pictured him as a God of wrath and judgment. But Jesus knew better, and so he told a parable that revealed the truth about his Father.
Finally, God cares for every one of us. The older son was naturally resentful, but the father assured him of his love and begged him to join in the celebration. God wants us to feel secure in his love and just as joyful as he is when a lost person returns to their true home. This is what your heavenly Father is like. So praise and thank him for his love, his mercy, and his faithfulness! “Jesus, thank you for revealing the Father’s heart to me.”6
Friar Jude Winkler describes how God maintains the Covenant in the prophecy of Micah. Being “prodigal” or “foolishly generous” is the attribute of the Father in the Parable. Friar Jude reminds us to celebrate as God does over the return of someone to a relationship with God.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM comments that self-awareness is a requirement in order to see differently. Today, we offer a practice from Father Anthony de Mello (1931–1987). From the wisdom of his Jesuit spirituality, he encourages us to use our imagination in order to expand our self-awareness and to support our ability to see in a new way.
To do this exercise, you have to think of your whole day as a film. Let us suppose you are doing this exercise at night. You unwind the film of the day, going backward, one scene at a time, until you return to the first scene of the morning, your first waking moment.7
Our imagination lets us be in the Parable of the Generous Father and open our hearts to receive and practice the generosity and compassion of God.
References
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