Saturday in the Second Week of Lent, March 2, 2024

Luke 15, 1-3; 11-32

Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” So to them Jesus addressed this parable. “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation. When he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to tend the swine. And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat, but here am I, dying from hunger. I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’ So he got up and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.’ Then the celebration began. Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, ‘Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ He became angry, and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, ‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ ”

The Lord tells this parable to explain why he “welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  He also tells to explain to “the righteous” that  “there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that do penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance” (Luke 15, 7).  The place of those who claim to be “just”, then, is to rejoice with all those in heaven, God and the angels, not to complain about them and “refuse to go” to the feast.  

As to the son in the parable, see what he says and does.  He is concerned, and rightly, for his survival and heads back to his father’s house with a plan to safeguard it.  Now, at no time and in no way does he ever consider the effect his absence has had on his father.  He does not resolve to return because he is sorry that his father has missed him and worried about him — and that the father loved him is demonstrated by his father’s actions when he does return.  And so the son shows only the slightest amount of repentance.  It is as though he is not sorry for what he had done, but rather that he had been caught.  And yet, God is so head over heels in love with us that he rejoices over any sign that we are repentant and offers us rewards beyond the bounds of imagination.  Our enjoyment of what he offers depends upon our capacity to receive it — a capacity in turn dependent upon our love for God — but it is there for us.

The Pharisees, “the righteous”, should see from the parable that is the younger son who has shamed his father comes back and is welcomed in this way, how greatly they, who stood with his father in his need, will be rewarded in due time.  And how much greater still if the elder son had gone to his brother in his sinful state and pleaded with him to come home, emphasizing the love of their father and his grieving for him.  If they had thought hard upon the Lord’s words, their attitude towards the tax collectors and sinners who came to Jesus would have changed.  They too might have converted and become truly righteous.