HOW TENDER GOD’S LOVE CAN BE
March 21, 2004 4th Sunday Lent (C) Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
St. Patrick’s parish is in
Kowloon, Hong Kong. There are four
weekend Masses including a children’s Mass at 10:45, Sunday. This is the parish where I was formerly
pastor. [email protected]. Cf. also Social Concerns Education: www.acpp.org -- Fr. Gene Thalman M.M.]
Mrs. Au-Yeung always complained that she married below her station. She had an important job in an office. Her husband had a lowly job in the Hong Kong
sanitation department. She often
scolded him, pointed out his faults and nagged him for not “making something of
himself.” He would just listen quietly. When Mr. Au-Yeung died, Mrs. Au-Yeung
was surprised at the hundreds of people attending his funeral. Each person told her of the way her husband
had helped them…how one time he risked his life to save an old lady from a fire
in her apartment…how after work he would do shopping for the sick…how he was a
good listener and always gave wise advice...how he cheered up the depressed
with jokes. Mrs. Au-Yeung was
surprised and said: “We had been married for forty-two years but I guess I
never really knew the kind of man he was.”
GOD’S POINT OF VIEW
To understand today’s parable, we have to go to the first three verses.
Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners. Well some Pharisees and the
scribes murmured: “This man welcomes
sinners and eats [ugh!] with them.” And
so Jesus: “addressed this [these three] parable [parables] to “them.” The
“them” are the Pharisees and scribes.
This is a parable for scribes and Pharisees.
Now Luke was writing for
the gentile Christian communities. Luke
didn’t have it “in for” the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. But rather than scold the early Christian communities, Luke
records how Jesus scolded the Pharisees of his day. Of course the early Christians knew that Luke was warning them
not to act like the Pharisees. And the Church has chosen today’s reading so
that we Christians of St. Patrick’s community will avoid “the sin” of the
Pharisees. This morning we ask: “What
is the sin of us Pharisees?”
In today’s parable,
Jesus describes the “Pharisee-sin”.
In this parable the
“elder son” represents the Pharisee. And his sin was his failure to recognize
the kind of man his own father was.
Despite his many sins,
the younger son had a better idea than his brother of the kind of man his
father. While sitting with the pigs in
the stinking pigpen, he reasoned: “If I apologize to my father, eat humble pie,
get my bottom chewed out, agree to be a servant, agree to a long probation
period, my father might be willing to hire me as a servant.” The younger son knowledge of his father was
good as far as it went but he still had a long way to go to discover the kind
of man his father was.
But the main character
in this parable is not the merciful father nor the younger brother. The main character is the elder brother, the
Pharisees and all of us Pharisees in our Church this morning.
I think most of us can sympathize with the
feelings of the elder brother—which goes to show that we are truly Pharisees.
The elder brother had a good case. While his
little brother was “living it up” spending his inheritance on, cigarettes,
whiskey, wild-wild women, the dependable older brother was sweating in the
fields. It was only natural that he
considered himself a model son…and that he should feel sorry for himself
because his brother left him to shoulder all the responsibility.
It is little wonder that
when elder brother hears music and dancing, discovers his brother has returned
via a family servant. He could smell the fatted calf roasting on the spit. And
to top it all off, his father never had the common courtesy of informing
him. If we were the elder brother, we
too would get fleas up our armpits and be angry.
So why does the elder
brother turn out to be the villain in this parable? He did not know what kind of person his father was. He had lived with his father all his life
but never really knew his father.
He should have known how sad his father was
at his brother’s departure and how everyday the old man waited at the gate
hoping his son would return. Did he
wait for months or years? If the elder
son really knew his father, he would not have been surprised that his father
went bananas when his brother returned… He should have known that his father
would at the first sight of his returning son… would grab his cane run down the
road like a racehorse.
He would not have been least surprised that
his father would hug his brother… kiss his son despite the pig smell…and before
his son can get his humble apology out of his mouth, the father interrupts and
starts giving orders to the servants: “give him a bath…put on my finest robes
…put a ring on his finger…put new shoes on his bare feet…kill the fatted
calf…and celebrate.” And if the elder
son knew the kind of man his father was, he would not have been the least
surprised that his father had forgotten to send a servant to break the news to
his older son. And if the elder son
really knew his father, he would have slapped his brother on the back, gave him
hug and danced with his brother and everybody else at the party. Unfortunately, the elder son along with the
fatted calf saw no reason to celebrate.
This elder son had a working relationship--—
a contractual arrangement with his father-- but not a personal acquaintance
with his father. The elder son thought
that if he worked hard in the field, people would think well of him. He expected to be rewarded with an
inheritance and all the neighbors would respect him as a dutiful son.
RESPONSE
Few of us sitting in Church this morning,
ever ran away from home, dissipated our family inheritance in cigarettes,
whiskey and wild, wild women.
Instead we are like the Pharisaical elder
brother—for whom this parable was written.
God gives us many hints of the kind of person
he is. Each of us has experienced the
wonders that God has created. Each of
us has experienced God’s love and care.
Each of us has experienced his gentleness and mercy and the kind of
things that gets God’s goat. I hope
that none of us, like Mrs.Au-Yeung, will wait forty-two years because we
discover the kind of person that God is.
Sacred Scripture is the book that tells us
what God is like and how he feels about each of us and all his creatures.
Scripture is full of revelations into way of behaving. Jesus took flesh and
became one of us and told us parables so that we could have an even clearer
idea of what our God is like.
1. During this Lenten season in
our prayers, our scripture reading, our Easter
celebrations, we can
constantly ask this question: “What’s God like?” Pin the
question up on your mirror.
2. During our daily Scripture
reading, write down notations of God’s surprising
behavior.
FINALE: If you will try to respond in some such way,
please stand-up and recite the Creed which describes the kind of God that God
is.
March 21, 2004 4th Sunday Lent (C) Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
THEME: Elder
son did not really know his own father.
TEXT:
“But we had to celebrate and rejoice.”
(Luke 15: 32)
DESIRED RESULT: During the
past week, I thought a lot about the people that I dislike, and I kept asking
myself: “How does God feel about this person?
Is he precious to God? Did Jesus
die to save this lady? How precious are
these people to God?”
CHURCH’S POINT OF VIEW: “The
Church ‘forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful…to learn
“the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ,” by frequent reading of the divine
Scriptures. “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ [God].”’” St. Jerome, Catechism of the Catholic Church, (Mission Hills: Benziger
Publishing Co, 1994), #133, p. 37.
March 21, 2004 4th Sunday Lent (C) Luke
15: 1-3, 11-32
NAME_________
Grade_____________
1. Why do
you think the younger son left home? ____________________.
2. Jesus
directed today’s parable to what class of people? ______________.
3. Give
here reasons why the younger son was surprised when he returned home?
A. ________________ B. _____________________
C. ________________________.
4. What
significance did the Son’s return have for the fatted calf?
_______________________
5. (Optional)
Tell a time when you discovered that God was a special kind of person
for you.
[I would be interested in
knowing if any of our readers find these questions
of any use. Suggestions? Gene Thalman [email protected]]