March 30, 2025 at Saint William Catholic Church in Naples
Joshua 5: 9-12 + Psalm 23 + 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21 + Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32
The Great Journey to Jerusalem continues with one of the best loved and known parables of Jesus. It speaks to all of us who know jealous rivalry, conflict between children and parents or among the children themselves. It speaks to every community that has some members who just go their merry way taking and never giving, and others who work faithfully for the good of all. Today we get a shocking picture of how the path of reconciliation begins.
The first shock is the son’s request, which at the time of Jesus and in that culture really meant he wished his father was dead. The second shock is that the older son raises no objection to this. The third shock is that father goes along with it. Those who heard this parable from Jesus would have gasped at that father’s behavior. He should have thrown the kid out with nothing and changed the locks. Today we would call that kind of father an “enabler.” Even more shocking is the father’s behavior later in the story as he gives up his manly dignity and runs outside with a kiss, a ring, and a robe. I’ve always wondered where the mother was. I think she nagged him until he surrendered his macho ideas and asked her to set the table for the party.
Familiar as the story is to us, we have to be careful and thoughtful about who of the three in the story gets our attention and is worthy of our imitation. I have sat through more Penance Rites than any of you have ever attended listening to preachers talk about the younger son urging everyone to repentance. Hardly ever does anyone pay attention to the other one who is really much more like us. People who can identify with the younger son are not here. They are still out there somewhere living it up with their “eat, drink, and be merry” life-style. We are the ones who are always here. We are the ones who give, sacrifice, and do what God asks of us, and herein lies the danger.
At that time, his attitude is a mirror image of the Pharisees toward sinners. Remember, this story started because the tax collectors and sinners were coming to Jesus and the Pharisees were plotting against him because he ate with them. An attitude of entitlement and privilege is the greatest problem emerging from this story then and now. It is a strong warning that God’s love is not earned. We are all God’s sons and daughters. We are not slaves. That sick and sinful attitude is dangerous to the whole human family of God.
This parable in an invitation to consider our discipleship and how it may deteriorate into joyless resentment toward those who seem to be benefiting undeservedly from all that God offers. At the same time, we might recognize the free offer of God to us all, a shocking generosity offered by the one is willing to pay the high humiliating cost to gather in all the children, none of whom have earned the right to this inheritance. The father is the humble one here, not that son.
Don’t think that the young one learned humility when he recognized how low he had sunk and decided to go home. His rehearsed speech was a job application. It had nothing to do with the family, with humility, or with repentance. He was broke and he needed a job. It’s the father who teaches us something here about God’s costly, humble love for us. “All that I have is yours” he says to us. The cost of accepting that is to replicate such reconciling love in our own attitudes and actions.