March 31, 2022
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Year C) on March 27, 2022, at St. Austin Catholic Parish in Austin, TX. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Joshua 5:9a, 10-12; Psalm 34; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; and Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.
The Church gives us some fantastic passages to consider today! Our second reading comes from Paul’s most vulnerable letter, as he pleads with the Corinthian community to listen to him again after they have grown distant. The most compelling part of Second Corinthians is today’s passage, where Paul explains that since God has reconciled the world through Christ, and we who are baptized into Christ are now ambassadors of that reconciling love.
As we reflect on the Parable of the Prodigal Son in today’s gospel, perhaps we can ask ourselves how well we fulfill our mission as ambassadors of Christ’s reconciling love. Do we refuse to forgive like the older brother? Can we forgive others’ transgressions as lavishly as the father? And when we are the ones guilty of sin, can we accept the forgiveness of God and other people? Can we forgive ourselves?
Perhaps our first reading, when the Israelites finally eat in the land flowing with milk and honey after 40 years of eating manna in the desert, perhaps that is a preview of our full reconciliation with God! Let us begin this Mass by acknowledging our failings and asking again for God’s forgiveness.
As if the worst pandemic in a century wasn’t enough to make us feel powerless, we now face the possibility of nuclear war. What can we do to change the outcome in Ukraine? We pray for peace. We apply sanctions on Russia and provide weapons to Ukraine, hoping that these two actions that at one level seem contrary to the gospel, will stop the contagion of war from spreading further. What else can we do, as individuals far removed from the fighting?
On Friday, Pope Francis preached a masterful homily on this topic. He spent most of his time talking not about geopolitics, but about the graces of the sacrament of reconciliation. Near the beginning, he said:
All too often, we think that Confession is about going to God with dejected looks. Yet it is not so much that we go to the Lord, but that he comes to us, to fill us with his grace, to fill us with his joy. Our confession gives the Father the joy of raising us up once more. It is not so much about our sins as about his forgiveness. Our sins are present, but the forgiveness of God is always at the heart of our confession. Think about it: if our sins were at the heart of the sacrament, almost everything would depend on us, on our repentance, our efforts, our resolves. Far from it. The sacrament is about God, who liberates us and puts us back on our feet. Let us recognize once more the primacy of grace and ask for the gift to realize that Reconciliation is not primarily our drawing near to God, but his embrace that enfolds, astonishes and overwhelms us.
Paul tells us that it is God who continues to reconcile the world to its original, creative, Spirit-infused purpose. God always takes the initiative. We need to see our efforts as participating in the reconciliation that God has already begun. But a lot of us probably think that this sounds awfully naïve. How can my acknowledgement of God’s reconciling love change the world?
Paul told the Galatians that the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If the situation is going to change in Ukraine, we need people throughout the world to possess an abundance of all nine of these fruits. Again, those essential fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. How else is the Holy Spirit supposed to intervene in the world, unless we continually receive and nurture the fruits of the Holy Spirit?
To the younger son’s surprise, before he can even apologize to his father and beg him to take him in, it is his father who runs up to him, embraces him, and rejoices at his return. God loves each and every one of us, even though we can do nothing to earn that love. That is the essence of mercy, and God calls us to be likewise merciful to others. Mercy is not a moment of weakness. It is strength of heart to offer a relationship to someone without conditions. Remember, Jesus told this parable in response to people grumbling about his welcoming sinners and eating with them!
But as the stubbornness of the older brother shows, God always begins the work of reconciliation, but we must receive it. As Francis said on Friday:
That is how God intervenes in history: by giving his very Spirit. For in the things that matter, our own strength is not enough. By ourselves, we cannot succeed in resolving the contradictions of history or even those of our own hearts. We need the wisdom and gentle power of God that is the Holy Spirit. We need the Spirit of love who dispels hatred, soothes bitterness, extinguishes greed and rouses us from indifference…. We need God’s love, for our love is fragile and insufficient. We ask the Lord for many things, but how often we forget to ask him for what is most important and what he desires most to give us: the Holy Spirit, the power to love. Indeed, without love, what can we offer to the world? It has been said that a Christian without love is like a needle that does not sew: it stings, it wounds, and if it fails to sew, weave or patch, then it is useless.
We are limited human beings. We cannot fully reconcile all of creation in the present age, but the Holy Spirit gives us the grace to strive towards that goal. And most of us would come to forgive others more lavishly, if we also worked to forgive ourselves as lavishly as our heavenly Father forgives us! As Francis said, “We need God’s love, for our love is fragile and insufficient.”
Will our endeavors to receive God’s mercy make a real difference in the face of such divisiveness in our world? Well, consider what Bishop Ken Untener wrote in The New Catholic Encyclopedia: “The Christian community exercises its ministry of reconciliation most forcefully when its unity has no apparent reason other than Christ, when people worship together celebrating bonds of oneness that go deeper than the differences that normally keep people at odds.”
On behalf of all of us sinners at St. Austin Catholic Parish, I extend our warmest welcome to you other sinners visiting with us today: when we join at this one table to share the one bread and one cup, we courageously exercise our mutually-reconciling ministry.
Come, Holy Spirit! Help us to receive your reconciling grace. Let us experience your fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control so that we may assist you in renewing the earth!