Some Thoughts For Lent -V

Details: 12 March 2010

Prodigal Return

In the Gospel passage for Mass next Sunday (Cycle C in the Lectionary) we shall hear again the beautiful parable of Jesus about the prodigal son, (Luke 15:1-32), about the evil lifestyle and life of dissipation the son had at first adopted, and then about his repentance, his return to his senses and then to his home, his experience of the forgiveness of the father that he sorely offended, and about the efforts of that loving father to have his elder son join him in giving pardon to the wayward brother. The parable follows two other parables of Jesus recounted previously in that chapter by Saint Luke, about the lost sheep and the lost coin, and both parables ending with similar sayings of our Lord: ....“there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-just who have not need of repentance”(15:7); “Even so I say to you there will be joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (15:10). Those sayings are an important leitmotif for every Lent.

Lent is the special time of the year when sinners, which, of course, includes all of us (I John 1:8), are urged by God’s grace to be again like the prodigal son, who “came to himself” and then “arose and went to his father”. Acknowledging our sinfulness in thought, word, deed, and omission, and returning anew to God our Father, so that at our celebration of our Savior’s resurrection on Easter we might again be spiritually clothed in the festive robe, ring, and sandals of our baptismal innocence, is what should be the culmination of our careful observance of this beautiful time of the year.

Saint Luke, in his Gospel account, seems to have gone out of his way to recount our LincolnLord’s concern for the salvation of repentant sinners. The parable of the prodigal son, for instance, appears to foreshadow the forgiveness and promise made by Jesus to the Good Thief, Saint Dismas, which is recounted later by Saint Luke in his narrative of Christ’s passion (Luke 23:39-43).

Second Word

Many splendid meditations have been written and spoken over the centuries about the seven last sayings (sometimes called “words”) of Jesus from the cross. One of these sets of meditations, done by Father Robert Hugh Benson, and speaking about the “second word” of our Redeemer from His cross (Luke 23:43), makes it easier to see how the forgiveness and promise of Jesus in that “word” could be related to the parable of the prodigal son.

‘The screams and blasphemies of the two tortured thieves have died to moans and the moans to the silence of exhaustion. In that silence the grace of God and the habits of the past have been at work together. The one thief is absorbed in his own pain...the other is aware that there is something in the universe besides his own pain, that his pain is not the beginning and the end of all things. He caught glimpses of Another who hangs in their midst. His friend has seen Him too but has seen His patience only as a reproach to his own torment: “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us too.” Yet this other thief sees more than a failure and a tragedy. He has heard, maybe, that first “word”(Father forgive them...) groaned out as the nails went through...”

Grace

“Grace has been at work in its mysterious operation.... that darkened mind (of the thief who at first had joined in the chorus of blasphemy) began to catch glimpses... facts and truth the cultivated Pharisees overlooked: that the criminal was not wholly a criminal, that the thorns were not wholly a mockery, that the title above the cross was something besides a sneer. At least we know that the thief spoke at last-a greater miracle than Balaam’s ass- that a murderer recognized the Lord of life, that a liar spoke the truth, that an outlaw submitted to a King: Lord remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

“He asks, therefore, for the least thing for which he could ask, that a King Who will someday enter into a kingdom will not wholly forget that there is such a creature as Dismas, who once suffered at His side. He no longer doubts-if You are the Christ-but he calls Him Lord outright and one day, whenever that may be, begs to be remembered! Forget not that I exist. Remember me when Your supreme achievement of love has been wrought and human nature has been made conformable to the divine. Dear Jesus, remember me and, in that day, be to me not a Judge but a Savior!”

“And then, upon the thief turning and speaking (his two good works, cooperating with grace), the miracle happens, the same miracle which always happens when a soul begins with shame to take the lower place and be a humble servant..he is changed to a friend: Friend, go up higher... I will no longer call you servants but friends...He, Jesus, is the One, Whom to serve is to reign, Whose service is perfect freedom: Today you will be with Me in paradise!’

“Oh! this friendship of Jesus for the penitent! Just now there were three of Christ’s intimates round His cross: the Immaculate Mary and the stainless Disciple whom Jesus loved, upon the one side, with the purified, weeping Magdalene upon the other. Now the quaternion of His lovers is complete, for the broken-hearted thief has joined them, he who desired to serve and therefore merited to reign. Now he too is in paradise!”

Sinners’ Special

Whether our sins are slight or grievous, few or many, recent or long-standing, the holy season of Lent has been historically and liturgically designed for sinful penitents like us. Inspired by the history of the Good Thief and by the parable of the prodigal son, we can easily remember the words of Saint Joseph Cafasso: Jesus is a Friend Who will not terrify you, Who will not abandon you. Hope in Him and heaven is yours.” On the first Easter Sunday night, Christ gave the forgiveness of sins that He merited on the cross for all of humanity into the keeping of His Catholic Church to distribute down the centuries (John 20:22-23), until He comes again. Thus, Saint Isidore said, “Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon for sins. In confession there is always a chance for mercy.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, “Christ instituted this sacrament for all the sinful members of His Church.... it goes by the names sacrament of conversion, sacrament of penance, sacrament of confession, sacrament of pardon, sacrament of reconciliation.” By means of it our heavenly and forgiving Father enables us to get back to our home awaiting us in heaven, where there will be dancing, and music, and laughter, and feasting forever.