[stephenkhoo]

CONSCIOUSNESS OF SONSHIP AS THE KEY TO CHRISTIAN COMPASSION  

SCRIPTURE READINGS: MICAH 7:14-15, 18-20; LK 15:1-3; 11-32
http://www.universalis.com/20140322/mass.htm

On Monday, the liturgy invited us to be compassionate just as the Father is compassionate.  Throughout the week, the theme of compassion prevailed.  Thus, it is appropriate that the liturgy concludes with the classic parable of God’s mercy in the story of the prodigal.

Indeed, as the Holy Father Pope John Paul II tells us, “Mercy, as Christ has presented it in the parable of the prodigal son, has the interior form of the love that in the New Testament is called Agape.  This love is able to reach down to every prodigal son, to every human misery, and above all to every form of moral misery, to sin.  When this happens, the person who is the object of mercy does not feel humiliated, but rather found again and ‘restored to value’.  The father first and foremost expresses to him his joy, that he has been ‘found again’ and that he has ‘returned to life’.  This joy indicates a good that has remained intact: even if he is a prodigal, a son does not cease to be truly his father’s son; it also indicates a good that has been found again, which in the case of the prodigal son was his return to the truth about himself” (Dives In Misericordia, 6). 

Thus the lack of compassion for our neighbours springs from the lack of consciousness of our common sonship in Christ.  Compassion for our brothers and sisters presupposes that we recognize ourselves in them, that we are all brothers and sisters.  So, the gospel began with the Pharisees and the scribes complaining, “’This man’ they said ‘welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”  The Jewish leaders failed to recognize that sinners too, were their fellow brothers and sisters who needed help.

In the gospel story, both the younger and elder sons were not conscious of their sonship.  The younger son said to his father, “’Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.’” So the father divided the property between them.”  In asking for his share of the inheritance, it was tantamount to wishing that his Father were dead.  Then, we read further, that “A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.”  Cut off from his Father’s love, he reduced himself to a slave, first of pleasure and sin.  Later he became a slave to misery and hunger.  And when he came to his senses, he decided to return to his father’s house and asked to be treated as one of his “paid servants.”

If the younger son had lost his identity, the elder son, though he did not leave the house, was never a son from the outset.  He acted like a slave more than a son.  When his brother came back, he was so angry and “refused to go in”, in spite of his father coming “out to plead with him”.  By refusing to enter the house, he was neither a slave nor a member of the family, but worse, an outsider.

More significantly was the complaint he made to his father, “Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends. But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf we had been fattening.”  In so saying, he revealed his true colours – all this while he considered himself to be no more than a slave to his father!.  Finally, he even denied his brother when he called the younger brother, “this son of yours.”

The truth is that we are all in some ways like the two sons.  We sometimes behave in a childish, selfish and rebellious manner, like the younger son.  At times, we behave like the Pharisees and the Scribes, passing judgment and condemnation on others, especially those who failed to live up to the standards of the gospel.  If we are honest, we can surely identify ourselves with them in many ways.  None of us is perfect and quite often, we are both childish and self-righteous at the same time.  Recognizing that we too have forgotten our sonship and our brotherhood, we must now seek to return to the Father’s house.

How then can we reclaim our identity as the sons of the Father?  The root of this lack of awareness is our forgetfulness of our Father’s love.  We must once again experience the depth of the Father’s love for us.  This is the theme of today’s liturgy.

In the story of the Prodigal Son, the father’s conduct reveals to us the heart of our Heavenly Father as mercy and compassion.  God is faithful to His fatherhood.  This fidelity is expressed by the father lavishing gifts on the prodigal son and his patience in waiting for his return.  And upon his return, after having squandered his inheritance, the father not only welcomed him home with a banquet and with joy, but he even restored the dignity of his sonship by giving him the ring and sandals. So faithful is the father to himself and his fatherhood that he would not even wait to hear his son’s humble confession. Such is the compassion and generosity of God, a generosity that angered the elder son.  But the father did not only show his love towards the lost son, he was equally concerned about the elder son.  He humbled himself to beg the elder son to join them in the celebration and assured him that his love for him is no less.  He understood the jealousy of the elder son, which prevented him from sharing in the joy of the recovery of his lost brother.

In the light of what Jesus has revealed to us about the Father, we can therefore open our hearts to His love.  We must be confident that God is waiting for us with open arms to return to His love and our sonship, even though we don’t deserve it.  It doesn’t matter how great our sin is.  Just like the prodigal son, all we have to do is to open our hearts. Like the prodigal son, we only have to come to our senses by reflecting on the emptiness in our hearts and the brokenness in our lives. Only then can we feel homesick for our Father’s house, thereby arousing in us the desire to return home.  Yes, the gospel exhorts us to come to our senses, for if the Prodigal Father can treat the servants so well, as the prodigal son came to realize, he would surely treat him better, since he is his son.

In the same vein, if we feel that we have tried to live holy lives and still fall short of our calling, we should not condemn ourselves too much.  We should also consider that if God has compassion towards sinners, He must have much more compassion towards those who strive to be faithful to Him.  St. Therese of Lisieux understood this very well: “What joy to remember that our Lord is just; that He makes allowances for all our shortcomings, and knows full well how weak we are.  What have I to fear then?  Surely the God of infinite justice who pardons the prodigal son with such mercy will be just with me ‘who am always with Him’?” (“The Story of a Soul”, Chapter 8).

The season of Lent is therefore truly a season of grace and even joy, because these days help us to renew our appreciation and acceptance of the great mercy of God. The first reading expresses such joyful wonder when prophet Micah says: “Who is there like You, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of His inheritance; Who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, and will again have compassion on us, treading underfoot our guilt? You will cast into the depths of the sea all our sins; you will show faithfulness to Jacob, and grace to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from days of old!” Jesus in His teaching and His association with sinners demonstrates the love and mercy of God in person.

WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV MSGR WILLIAM GOH