IV SUNDAY OF LENT - Luke 15:1-3,11-32
According to Paul, God is reconciling the world to himself, and he does it through Jesus Christ. And that is great news, and we are entrusted with the proclamation of that news.
Pope Francis proclaimed the Jubilee of mercy for that purpose: To proclaim that God is more than willing to reconcile humanity to himself, and to make everybody aware of God’s mercy. Paul tells us that God is making an appeal through us: “Be reconciled with God”. (2 Co 5:17-21)
In the gospel, the parable of the father who had two sons presents two possible attitudes before the merciful God:
faced with our sin and the destruction that it does to our lives, we recognise and accept God’s mercy. That is the attitude of the prodigal son. Although being a sinner, he was able to remember his father’s kindness and to trust his mercy, making it possible for him to go back and be reconciled with the father.
considering ourselves sinless and righteous, we are not in need of forgiveness; in fact, we may see God’s mercy to others as being unfair to us. That is the attitude of the elder son. He was Mr. Right; and so right he was that he was able to see injustice and discrimination in his father’s kindness and love. He did not ask for mercy. How could he, if he did not need it. And so he was not able to be merciful and to reconcile with his brother (Lk 15:11-32)
The experience of God’s mercy is essential for us to be merciful. The ability to forgive and to reconcile is the greatest expression of love. That’s why, as God’s children, we are told to be merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful (Lk 6:36)
No comments:
Post a Comment