A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C)

First Reading – Joshua 5:9-12 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 33(34):2-7 ©

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 15:18

The Gospel According to Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 ©

 

(NJB)

 Listen!

 Set aside the notion that the events reported in the book of Joshua refer to actual historical realities…they do not.

 These writings are fragments of oral history woven together with allegories into a metaphorical tapestry whose mythological narrative was meant to a struggling people.

 The Joshua Epic begins to be collected and written down in the tenth and eleventh centuries BCE, in a process that took generations. It reflects the point of view of the Davidic Monarchy, and that of David’s heirs, it is not a faithful representation of the actual history of the people of Israel, Judea or any of the other tribes belonging to the Hebrew confederation.

 Know this:

 God did not deliver the people from Egypt, they saved themselves. They had nothing to be ashamed of for having been the vassals of Egypt for so many years. According to their own story the children of Israel entered into the service of the Egyptians during a time of famine, they did so as a means of self-preservation, it is not likely that they ever left the land of Cannan in doing so, some perhaps but not the majority, they merely accepted Egyptian rule, and paid Egyptian taxes, while remaining in service for several hundred years. The Children of Israel may have ultimately come to find this burden to onerous to live with, but during that time they grew into a strong people.

 Here is the story that the tradition has preserved:

 There was conflict in Egypt and the Hebrews through off their bonds, when they did, they did so under their own power. They were on their own, caught between feuding empires and without the backing of a major power. The tribes consisted of some herders and nomads, the ancestors of the Bedouin, but there were also bands of thieves, brigands, pirates and runaway slaves.

 They established their own customs, traditions based on law rather than the religious cults of imperial power, they planted new roots and settled the Levant, allowing other tribes to join them if they agreed to keep the law before them, the foundation of which was a commitment to an ethical society, and those who not they put to the sword.

 What is hidden in the reading is this:

 People must rely on themselves for what they do in the world, they must produce their own food, protect themselves and grow their own tribes. People are responsible for this and cannot wait upon God to provide it for them…if they do they will starve. God will not intervene, not until our point of departure from this world, from that moment on God will handle the rest.

 Be mindful of the psalmist.

 If you intend to seek God, look no farther than your heart; you will find God by loving, and in loving you will be blessed.

 Praise God through works of love. Look for no other glory than service seek praise through the emulation of God’s infinite compassion.

 Know this!

 The Divine spirit is nameless, you cannot lift God’s name in praise, if you try you must be humble and keep before you the knowledge that whatever issues from your throat and passes through your lips is nothing more than air, shaped by your tongue whose only connection to the divine is found in the intent with which you utter it.

 Listen to your neighbors when they are afraid; rescue them. Reassure them with you faith, let them see the divine light shining through you…the light of hope and love.

 Understand this:

 God is merciful; with God there is no need for shame. God is no respecter of station, class or wealth…God loves everyone the same.

 Do not look for God to solve your problems, we are each of us another Job, though our tribulations are not tests applied to us by some celestial agent. Our tribulations are merely the vicissitudes of natural world and human culture, they are the price we pay for our freedom of will, and we persevere while we endure them through faith, by your trust in the divine you will come to understand how transient they are.

 Do not look to God to for rescue, look to your neighbor instead. Be the person your neighbor looks to for aid; be that person even if your neighbor is a stranger…rescue them in their need.

 Be mindful.

 All pain is temporary, but love lasts forever; therefore, do not fear.

 Speak the truth, avoid evil; do good.

 God see all, hears all, knows all, even your innermost thoughts, your secrets and desires, your hidden motivations, we all exist within the divine being and God understands the whole of our experience, even as we understand it ourselves (only better).

 Keep your mind in the present and do not focus on the good things that may or may not come as a result of the work you do in the here and now…the work is what you are called too.

 Love and do good, love without the thought of reward for yourself. Love as God loves so that those near you can experience the love of God through you in in the here and now.

 Hearken to those who teach hope…ignore the fear-mongers. The way is not found in fear.

 Consider the teaching of the Apostle and know that our salvation is derived from the work of God’s, not our own. It is God’s work, and the work is done already, the work began as John said, in the first moment of creation.

 The fall, such as it was, happened subsequent to and in the context of God’s saving work, not apart from it or outside of it…apart from God there is nothing.

 The work of salvation begins in eternity, and eternity is where it is realized, while the product of sin is a function of time and space, it comes to an end.

 Jesus revealed the truth of it and entrusted all future followers of the way with the task of sharing that Good news with the world...this is the mission of the Church, to proclaim that we are already reconciled to God, that there is no debt to pay, to lift the terrible burden of sin and allow it to fall away from hearts of the people.

 We fall and rise together, because we were created as one in the goodness of God.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today and know this:

 People change and appearances are not everything; there is good in everyone, and in everyone there is reason to be disappointed. The degree of judgement levelled by the Pharisees in this narrative; is not something we should emulate, neither is the jealousy expressed in this parable by the loyal son. Beneath the veneer of piety there is often bitterness and resentment; making the pretense of piety a mere façade.

 The parable is about justice.

 Jesus teaches from the perspective of divine justice…few are able to recognize the mandate of heaven when they see it, fewer still are those who can articulate it with authority as Jesus does.

 The more common discussion of justice is found in the superimposition of human values and  contemporary social mores over what we hope and fear God would desire.

 It is a rare to be able to set aside the prejudices of the day in favor of an expression of the heavenly, but this is the role of the prophet; to articulate a mode of justice characterized by love and mercy, compassion and forgiveness, and to demand that we reform our human traditions in light of those.

 This parable is often analyzed as a narrative on the power of repentance.

 Repentance: the action a sinner takes when he or she turns away from the world and toward God.

 This parable is a story of conversion and the power of transformation that ensues from it.

 The characters in the parable are a father (read God) and his two sons (read the dual nature of humanity), the younger self-indulgent and the older self-disciplined.

 The self-indulgent child is like most of us, he is greedy and heedless of the future. The journey he makes, takes him for from his father…far from God. It is a long journey, it takes years to complete and it leaves him destitute.

 The disciplined child represents a much smaller number of us (though most people fall somewhere in between). He stays home, remains obedient and asks for nothing from his father, though expecting to receive everything that belongs to the father as his inheritance.

 He is pious and resolute, but in his heart he is resentful and bitter. Because he asks for nothing for himself, he receives nothing for himself and in his heart he is covetous of everything.

 Between the sin of self-indulgence and the sin of covetousness; which is greater?

 I think it is impossible to say; sin is sin, and this is a story of sin and repentance.

 The younger son repents and returns home, the road into depravity was long, but the road to recovery was short, and what the narrative reveals is that while he was away from home, the eyes of his loving father; the eyes of God, were always on him.

 I believe this is the point of the narrative.

 The purpose of this narrative is not to remind us that repentance is possible, or that God rejoices in the repentant. The point is to say that the divine is always with us; we are never out of God’s sight, and we are never far from God’s love.

 The parable concerns God’s mercy, God’s Love, God’s compassion and forgiving heart. It is about what God and Jesus, ask each of us to emulate everyday insofar as we have chosen to be followers of the way.

First Reading – Joshua 5:9-12 ©

The Israelites Celebrate Their First Passover in the Promised Land

The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have taken the shame of Egypt away from you.’

  The Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal and kept the Passover there on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening in the plain of Jericho. On the morrow of the Passover they tasted the produce of that country, unleavened bread and roasted ears of corn, that same day. From that time, from their first eating of the produce of that country, the manna stopped falling. And having manna no longer, the Israelites fed from that year onwards on what the land of Canaan yielded.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 33(34):2-7 ©

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

I will bless the Lord at all times,

  his praise always on my lips;

in the Lord my soul shall make its boast.

  The humble shall hear and be glad.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Glorify the Lord with me.

  Together let us praise his name.

I sought the Lord and he answered me;

  from all my terrors he set me free.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Look towards him and be radiant;

  let your faces not be abashed.

This poor man called, the Lord heard him

  and rescued him from all his distress.

Taste and see that the Lord is good.

 

Second Reading – 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ©

God Reconciled Himself to us Through Christ

For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work. It was God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding men’s faults against them, and he has entrusted to us the news that they are reconciled. So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were appealing through us, and the appeal that we make in Christ’s name is: be reconciled to God. For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Luke 15:18

Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

I will leave this place and go to my father and say:

‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.’

Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

 

The Gospel According to Luke 15:1-3,11-32 ©

The Prodigal Son

The tax collectors and the sinners were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say, and the Pharisees and the scribes complained. ‘This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ So he spoke this parable to them:

‘A man had two sons. The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.

‘When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch, so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs. And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating but no one offered him anything. Then he came to his senses and said, “How many of my father’s paid servants have more food than they want, and here am I dying of hunger! I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.” So he left the place and went back to his father.

‘While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly. Then his son said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration, because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

‘Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing. Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about. “Your brother has come” replied the servant “and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.” He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him; but he answered his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”

‘The father said, “My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours. But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.”’

 

A Homily – The Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C)