Readings: Micah 7:14-15,18-20; Psalm 102:1-4, 9-12; Luke 15:1-3,11-32.
People are very familiar with the plot of the parable of The Prodigal Son a younger son claims the share of the homestead as his heritage and heads off for a distant country where he blows it all away. Returning home in tatters and tears hoping for a place in his father’s house, he receives a welcome worthy of a prince which is much to the disgust of his older sibling who has constantly kept his shoulder to the wheel working for his father in the fields. This is the third parable in a row about losing and finding, following those of the lost sheep and coin.
A staple of many Reconciliation Services, especially in the season of Lent, the story epitomizes a theme at the heart of the Gospel of Luke, namely hospitality. In the Emmaus story Jesus turns the tables on the two who have begged him to stay with them through the evening and take his meal with them; here the wastrel of a younger son is welcomed home to the extent that their father even begs his older son to let go of resentment and rejection in receiving his wayward brother home. That is how the parable concludes, having made its point about the mercy of the parent whom Luke’s mentor, Paul, proclaimed in praising ‘the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation’ (2 Corinthians 1:3).
The First Reading and Psalm together form a wonderful commentary on the Gospel. ‘What god can compare with you: taking fault away…delighting in showing mercy?’ The prophet Micah’s question is rhetorical, the answer already given by God which leads to the assurance of asking, ‘Grant Jacob your faithfulness, and Abraham your mercy’. God’s faithful mercy is the foundation of the covenant which shall never fail. The Psalmist is in penitential mode, moved to praise and give thanks for God’s mercy shown. Two metaphors – one medicinal, ‘who heals every one of your ills’, the other criminal, ‘He does not treat us according to our sins’ – coalesce in the confession of God’s healing and forgiving love. The Gospel will present this merciful love which is beyond comparison, in the hospitality shown to the prodigal son and the hope that the dutiful son will join in the celebrations.
Fr Kevin O’Gorman SMA