|
|
|||
The Fourth
Sunday in Lent LK 15/1-3, 11-32 |
||||
| Background: This poor
man lucked out with neither of his sons. He loved them both and they both were goofs. The
first was too wild, the second was too rigid and nasty. Neither one appreciated their
father’s love. Both tried to exploit him. What’s more he knew they were
exploiting him. This is not a story of a prodigal son, but of an indulgent father, indeed
of a hyper-indulgent father. Note that he runs to meet the first son and cuts off his
phony speech. Note too that he is incredibly patient with the mean-spirited and ungrateful
second son. This story is not supposed to provide a model for family life. Rather it tells
us that God loves us like the indulgent father, so much that my human standards, he’s
quite over the top. |
read the padre |
|||
 |
Story: Once there
were two teenagers whose parents went away for the weekend. As some teenagers do, they
decided they would have a party. You know the rest. A couple hundred people showed up.
They drank all the family liquor, trashed the house, tore up the garden, wrecked the
family cars, burned down the garage, smashed the windows in the neighboring homes, rioted
when the police came, and even threw beer cans on the rectory lawn (Really!). When the
parents came home to find the national guard patrolling their streets, they said to their
children, “You shouldn’t have done that.” Why not, said the kids. You went
away it’s your fault, not ours. You should have never trusted us. But the parents
love their children so much that they weren’t angry at them. That’s the way God
love us.
Background: This is
perhaps the most scandalous story in the Gospels. Many scholars think that it is not part
of St. John’s Gospel because it does not quite fit here and does not appear in some
of the ancient codexes. It may have been a free floating parable of Jesus which the editor
placed in St. John’s gospel, changing it from a parable Jesus told to a story in
which Jesus participated because it seemed less scandalous if Jesus was the principle
actor. The scandal of course is that Jesus forgives the unpardonable crime of adultery and
indeed gives “absolution” before the sinner confesses. Story: Once upon a time a man named Dean Acheson who had served in the Roosevelt administration was called back to serve in the Truman administration. A friend of his was Alger Hiss who turned out to have been a highly placed Communist spy in late nineteen thirties and the early nineteen forties. After Hiss’s conviction on perjury charges, reporters asked Acheson who worked in the State Department (and probably designed the famous Marshal plan which saved Europe from hunger and Communism)what he thought of his friend Hiss now. The son of an Anglican Bishop and a frostly, prickly man, said the famous words, “I will not turn my back on Alger Hiss!” Immediately the Republicans in Congress branded him as soft on Communism and perhaps a Communist spy. This image stuck in the minds of many Americans, although Acheson was the most determined of Cold Warriors, perhaps indeed the first Cold Warrior. He committed the unpardonable sin of forgiving a traitor who had not even asked forgiveness. That’s what Jesus did.
March Homilies: 5th | 12th | 19th
| 26th | Bonus Homily |
|||
