The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to examine the constraints we place on accepting the prompts of the Spirit to transform our relationships with others through practice of unconditional love.
The reading from the Prophet Micah declares 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. (Micah, CHAPTER 7, n.d.)
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). (Psalms, PSALM 103, n.d.)
The Gospel of Luke presents 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. (Luke, CHAPTER 15, n.d.)
Eileen Wirth knows that the father’s response mirrors God’s love for us and his unconditional willingness to forgive us for our misdeeds.
Parents, especially, get this because their intense bonds with their children tend to withstand even great hurt and disappointment. It’s a heart thing.
Since the goal of this parable is to teach us about God’s limitless mercy and love, the story ends after making that point. However, in our “prodigal families,” we struggle with how to move through the fraught days ahead.
This parable provides no explicit guidance for that, but we can draw helpful lessons from it. The father presumably survived the interminable period when his son was gone through faith and hope that he would eventually return. God did not abandon him during that awful period. Nor will God abandon us.
Somewhat irrationally I cling to the cliché that when God closes a door, he opens a window. That’s not always true but often it is. (Wirth, 2023)
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) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 invites us to turn our attention from what we do to what God does. Each of today’s readings paints a part of that picture. The prophet Micah reminds us that our Father delights in showing mercy: “Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin?” (7:18). The psalmist proclaims that God is eager to forgive our sins and save us from our guilt: “He pardons all [our] iniquities. . . . He redeems [our] life from destruction” (Psalm 103:3, 4). And in the Gospel, Jesus tells us that our Father sees us, even when we are a “long way off,” even when we’re wondering how to make our way back, and he runs toward us (Luke 15:20).
This is your God. He pours out his grace today so that you can “come to your senses” (see Luke 15:17). He comes to meet you today in your prayer. He runs to you in Confession, where you can let go of your burdens of sin. And he pleads with you to enter the celebration of his Body and Blood. All this, God does. All this, so that you might come home.
“Thank you, Father, for always helping me to come home to you.” (Meditation on Luke 15:1-3, 11-32, n.d.)
Desmond Ryan, Honorary Fellow in the School of Health in Social Science, University of Edinburgh, and Colaborador Externo, Departament de Treball Social i Serveis Socials, Universitat de València, argues that if we look at this story in a new way we see the harmful consequences of prioritising relationships based on authority over those based on a sibling model.
God, however, is present to every age. If so, scripture must be reclaimable by all, even by the men and women of this age of suspicion. It can have no less rich resources to offer us than have been received by earlier generations. This parable reclaims me by prompting me to raise my voice in respectful yet insistent challenge of our Christian legacy of adult-averse institutions, world-refusing spirituality, and deafness to youth. I would wish to challenge the waste of human beings whose mutual giving and receiving in love is diminished by the continuing dominance of the vertical axis over the horizontal, of fatherhood over brotherhood, of institutional preaching over humane teaching, of dependence over partnership, of feeling comfortable with oneself over anticipating the needs of others. (Ryan, 2010)
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the declaration of Micah that God’s promises to Israel will be fulfilled even as they are not deserved. Prodigal, or incredibly generous, is a description of the father in the parable of the Lost Son from Luke. Friar Jude notes behaviour that is not characteristic of a Jewish father of the time. Friar Jude notes how even as both sons in the parable treat the father as an object, we get the message that God wants to make the returned part of His life.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that the contemplative practice of walking a labyrinth grew out of the medieval commitment to going on pilgrimage.
Labyrinths seem to have emerged from the collective unconscious, representing a clear path to center, to the Divine. A classical labyrinth has seven cycles, each representing a stage of life, and seven U-turns as we learn to change course at least that many times in a normal life. A straight-line trajectory grows no one; it only makes you more and more rigid and inflexible. Find a labyrinth (on the ground, printed on paper, or carved in wood) for your feet or fingers to traverse in the company of God’s presence. Walk or trace the labyrinth as if on pilgrimage, without a goal beyond the experience itself. Move consciously and slowly, allowing the Divine to guide and teach. Let the path teach its own lessons. There is no one correct message. The turning circuits of a labyrinth remind us that life is change, transformation, and repentance (that is, metanoia or turning around). (Rohr, n.d.)
We are called to challenge the boundaries in our culture that inhibit relationships between people that recognize our connection as brothers and sisters with mutual love and care.
References
Luke, CHAPTER 15. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/15?1
Meditation on Luke 15:1-3, 11-32. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://wau.org/meditations/2023/03/11/629241/
Micah, CHAPTER 7. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/micah/7?14
Psalms, PSALM 103. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/103?1
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Pilgrimage: Weekly Summary. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/pilgrimage-2023-03-11/
Ryan, D. (2010, March 12). The Prodigal Father - A Postmodern Homily. Thinking Faith. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20100312_1.htm
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Father, I Have Sinned against Heaven and You. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2023&date=mar11
Wirth, E. (2023, March 11). Creighton U. Daily Reflection. Online Ministries. Retrieved March 11, 2023, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/031123.html
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