Fourth Sunday of Lent, Cycle C – March 14, 2010

Scripture Readings
First: Joshua 5:9,10-12.
Second: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Gospel: Luke 15: 1-3,11-32

Prepared by: Fr. Stephen Dominic Hayes, OP

1. Subject Matter
• This week’s Gospel presents us with the parable of the Prodigal Son- but it is not only about
the sinner and repentance only; it is a challenge to the self-proclaimed righteous people who
refuse to associate with ‘that kind” – and above all, about the humility and single-minded
mercy of the Father above who seeks to love and heal all his children.

2. Exegetical Notes
• The reading from Joshua narrates the circumstances the first Passover celebrated by the
Israelites after passing through the Jordan River with Joshua. The fall of manna from heaven
ceased as the people celebrated the feast of Passover and unleavened bread with their first
taste of the fruits of the promised land. The manna from heaven, a sign of God's presence
with people and a prophecy of the good things to come ceases because they have begun to
enjoy the promises of which the manna was a sign and promise. One could make no this
text an association in spiritual sense with the new food of the Eucharist which is provided
Christians who have turned their steps to God and his promises and passing with Christ in
the Jordan waters through their own baptism.
• St. Paul addresses the Corinthians in the second reading from the perspective of many years
in the service of Christ possibly in the year 57. The heat of his fervor is tempered now; 2
Corinthians was written as a letter rather than as a treatise, and his emotions are very close
to the surface (JBC 52:6-7.). He encourages his community of Corinthians to be reconciled
Christ and with each other. This is a reconciliation which is post-baptismal, and do
something necessary because the continual trials and wounds of the community as it seeks
to struggle towards God and its pilgrimage of common charity. Paul pleads for the
restoration of communal harmony with a fervor like that of the father in the parable which is
the subject of the Gospel : ‘We beseech you, allow yourselves to be reconciled.” He places
the source of the power for reconciliation squarely in the “sacrifice for sin” offered by Christ
on the Cross.
• Luke 15:1- 3 introduces a series of three parables on mercy and drugs joy over the repentant
sinner, of which that of the Prodigal Son is the third period. This very rich text has received
an amazing amount of commentary over the centuries, containing as it does a response to
Christ's critics of his consorting with sinners, a prophecy of Christ's rejection by his own, a
profound commentary on the shape and form of authentic repentance, and the revelation of
the merciful heart of Jesus' Father-a love which Jesus himself incarnates and manifests in
his own ministry to souls.
• The parable contrasts the two sons: the prodigal who demands as share of his Father's
property, wastes it, and is forced to return begging to be received as a hired hand rather than
a son, and the elder brother -the "dutiful" one-who nevertheless appears to serve his father
for his own benefit rather than out of love, a thing which becomes very visible in the latter
part of the parable.
• The symbolic identity of the father has received much commentary. The father gives life and
benefit to his sons without regard to their worthiness. The younger son can't wait for him to
die to receive the property and so demands his share of it presently, a terrific insult to his
father. Yet the father yields the property to him nonetheless. When this son returns, driven
not by love but by hunger and self-interest, his father does not permit him to finish his
prepared speech, but breaks in with orders to the sermons to restore him to the household.
He gives him the kiss that signifies peace, and then sacrifices the fatted calf for him. When
the elder son refuses to come into the house, the father goes out to him as he did his
younger son to try to convince him to share his father's joy as well - at which point the
parable ends, leaving us wondering what the elder son will actually do. Most commentators
easily see the father and the parable as representing God himself in his mercy towards
sinners. Some authors, however, recognizing Christ as the incarnation of God's love and
mercy which has entered history as Savior, see the father's love to be manifested concretely
in human history by Christ's own love and service of sinners. Thus this parable can be seen
as an apologia by Christ for the shape of his ministry to sinners.
• The Greek text has subtleties not immediately available in English translation. One important
point is the choice of words for the prodigal son's methods in wasting his money - the Greek
implies carelessness, not lewd behavior; however this is precisely what his older brother
accuses him of. A certain amount of commentary suggests that the older brother is jumping
to conclusions here - an kind of accusation with which Jesus was personally familiar : “Here
is a drunkard and a glutton, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 7:34, Matthew
11: 19.)
• The spiritual meaning of the two sons has received much commentary over the centuries: the
dichotomy between the elder son and the younger one has suggested in present spiritual
terms such division as: the difference between the nation of Israel and the pagans; a
dichotomy between the Jews who did not accept Christ and Christians who did; the self-
righteous Pharisees and the sinners and tax collectors who flocked to Jesus (which is the
original historical insertion of the parable of the Christ's teaching); and the self-righteous
within the Christian community versus the sinners within Holy Church who nonetheless
persist, with however much difficulty, in their pilgrimage towards Christ.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church

• CCC 545: Jesus invites sinners to the table of the kingdom: "I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners." He invites them to that conversion without which one cannot enter the kingdom,
but shows them in word and deed his Father's boundless mercy for them and the vast "joy in
heaven over one sinner who repents". The supreme proof of his love will be the sacrifice of
his own life "for the forgiveness of sins".
• CCC 589: Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his merciful conduct toward
sinners with God's own attitude toward them. He went so far as to hint that by sharing the
table of sinners he was admitting them to the messianic banquet. But it was most especially
by forgiving sins that Jesus placed the religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a
dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation, "Who can forgive sins but God
alone?" By forgiving sins Jesus either is blaspheming as a man who made himself God's
equal, or is speaking the truth and his person really does make present and reveal God's
name.
• CCC 1439: The process of conversion and repentance was described by Jesus in the
parable of the prodigal son, the center of which is the merciful father: the fascination of
illusory freedom, the abandonment of the father's house; the extreme misery in which the son
finds himself after squandering his fortune; his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to
feed swine, and still worse, at wanting to feed on the husks the pigs ate; his reflection on all
he has lost; his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father; the
journey back; the father's generous welcome; the father's joy - all these are characteristic of
the process of conversion. The beautiful robe, the ring, and the festive banquet are symbols
of that new life - pure worthy, and joyful - of anyone who returns to God and to the bosom of
his family, which is the Church. Only the heart of Christ who knows the depths of his Father's
love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in so simple and beautiful a way.
• CCC 1700: The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the image and
likeness of God … it is fulfilled in his vocation to divine beatitude …. It is essential to a human
being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment …. By his deliberate actions …, the human
person does, or does not, conform to the good promised by God and attested by moral
conscience …. Human beings make their own contribution to their interior growth; they make
their whole sentient and spiritual lives into means of this growth …. With the help of grace
they grow in virtue …, avoid sin, and if they sin they entrust themselves as did the prodigal
son to the mercy of our Father in heaven …. In this way they attain to the perfection of
charity.
• CCC 2839 (on the text of the Lord’s Prayer) : With bold confidence, we began praying to our
Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we
ourselves might be always made more holy. But though we are clothed with the baptismal
garment, we do not cease to sin, to turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return
to him like the prodigal son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before
him. Our petition begins with a "confession" of our wretchedness and his mercy. Our hope is
firm because, in his Son, "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." We find the
efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.
4. Patristic Commentary
• St. Ambrose of Milan (Exposition of the Gospel of Luke 7.213-14.) Surely whoever
separates himself from Christ is in exile from his country, a citizen of the world. We are not
strangers and pilgrims, but we are "fellow citizens of the saints and of the household of God,"
 for we who were far away have come near in the blood of Christ. Let us not look down on
those who returned from a distant land, because we were also in a distant land, as Isaiah
teaches. "To them that dwell in the region of the shadow of death, light has risen." There is
a distant region of the shadow of death, but we, for whom the Spirit before our face is Christ
the Lord our living in the shadow of Christ. The Church therefore says "under his shadow I
desired and set down."
• St. Peter Chrysologus (Sermon I): "He divided his means among them." The son is as
impatient as the father was kind…. Since he cannot shorten his father's life, he works to get
possession of his property. He was not content to possess his father's wealth in company
with his father, and he deserved to lose the privileges of a son. .. the sun could not await his
fault his debt to get his wealth, so he conceived the desire to get his pleasure from the
generosity of his father while he was still alive. The father's bounty proved that the insult lay
in his request.
• St. Peter Chrysologus (Sermon 3): "He fell on his neck and kissed him." This is how the
father judges and corrects his wayward son and gives him not beatings but kisses. A power
of love overlooked the transgressions. The father redeemed the sins of his son by his kiss,
and covered them by his embrace, in order not to expose the crimes or humiliate the son.
The father so healed the son' s wounds as not to leave a scar or blemish upon him. "Blessed
are they," says Scripture , "whose iniquities are forgiven, and two sins are covered."
• St. Athanasius (Festal Letter 7): his father neither takes him in like a hired servant or treats
him like a stranger. Oh no, he kisses him as a son. He accepts them as a dead man come
back to life again. He counts him worthy of the divine feast and gives him the precious
garment he once wore. Now there is singing and joy in the father's home. What happened is
the result of the Father's grace and loving kindness. Not only does he bring his son back
from death, but also through the Spirit he clearly shows his grace. To replace corruption, he
clothes him with an incorruptible robe. To satisfy hunger, he kills the fatted calf. The Father
provides shoes for his feet so that he will not travel far away again. Most wonderful of all, he
puts a divine signet ring upon his hand. By all these things, he begets him anew in the image
of the glory of Christ.
• Cyril of Alexandria (Homily 107): Some refer to the person of our Savior as that fatted calf
that the father killed when his son was called to conversion … if one imagines that the
virtuous and sober son means the physical Israel how can Israel honestly say that he never
gave him a kid? Whether we caught For kids, Christ is to be understood as the sacrifice
offered for sin. He was not sacrificed only for the Gentiles but also that he might redeem
Israel who by reason of his frequent transgression of the law had brought great blame on
himself. The wise Paul bears witness to this, saying, "For this reason Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people by his blood, suffered outside the gate."

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars

• Saint Ephrem the Syrian (Hymns on Paradise 14.7) : "Jacob led out his sheep /and brought
them to his father's home; a symbol for those with discernment, a parable for those with
perception, is to be found in this homecoming: let us to return to our father's house, my
brothers, and do not become captivated with desire for this transient earth-for your true city is
in Eden. Blessed indeed is that person who has seen his dear ones in its midst.
• St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Against Heresies 3.11.8): according to Luke, having a priestly
character, the Gospel began with the priest Zechariah offering incense to God. The fatted
calf was already being prepared which was to be sacrificed for the finding of the younger son.
• Jordan of Saxony (From the Lives of the Brethren IV.X.iv): there was also in Vercelli, a
great cleric, a lawyer, and when he heard of the entry of some students who were friends of
his into the Order, he forgot the books he had open before him and did not even stopped
close them, he forgot everything he had in the house, and rushed off alone to the brethren,
like a madman. Meeting an acquaintance of his on the way, who asked him why he was
running like this all alone, he did not stop, but simply said, "I'm going to God." So he reached
the place where the brethren were lodged-they did not yet have a house of their own there.
There he found Master Jordan and the brethren assembled together, and he threw off his silk
cloak and prostrate himself in their midst as if he were drunk, and all he could say was, "I
belong to God." Master Jordan, then, without asking any questions for a store getting any
response out of him except this, said, "since you belong to God, in his name we make you
over to him." And with that he got up and clothed him.
6. Quotes

• Pope Benedict XVI (Coworkers of the Truth, San Francisco: Ignatius press, 1992, pp. 97-
98:) : The word "Father" makes me sure of one thing: I do not come from myself; I am a
child. I am tempted at first to protest against this reminder as the prodigal son did. I want to
be "of age," "emancipated," my own master. But then I ask myself: What is the alternative for
me-or for any person-if I no longer have a father, if I have left my state as a child definitively
behind me? What have I gained thereby? Am I really a free? No, I am free only when there
is a principle of freedom, when there is someone who loves and whose love is strong. …
Then my glance falls on him who, his whole life long, identified himself as a child, as Son,
and who, precisely as child, as Son, was consubstantial with God himself: Jesus Christ.
When I say "Father" , the word automatically calls up the word "our." When I speak to God, I
cannot address him solely as " Father." When I say "Father", I must include the "we" of all
his children. But the opposite is also it sure: when I say "Father" I know that I have entered
the company of all the children of God and that they are at my side. Consequently, talking
with God does not distract me from my responsibility for the earth and for all mankind; it gives
it to me anew. In the light of prayer, I can venture to accept it.

• Pope Benedict XVI (God and the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, Henry
Taylor,Tr., San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002, p. 275.): If we look for a moment at pagan
mythologies, then the father-god Zeus, for existence, is portrayed as moody, unpredictable,
and willful… but God the Father as he appears in the Old Testament is quite different, and
still more in what Jesus says about the Father: here power corresponds to responsibility;
here we meet a picture of power that is properly directed, that is at one with love, that does
not dominate through fear but creates trust. …. the story of the Prodigal Son is probably the
most impressive presentation of the portrait of God the Father that we have from the mouth
of Jesus in the entire New Testament. In that sense our human experiences of all fathers
and fatherhood are corrected; a standard is set up by which they may be measured. The
picture of God the Father that we find in the Bible is not a projection upward of our own
 experiences; rather, the contrary: we are told from on high, in quite a new way, what a father
really is and what he could be and should be among us human beings.

7. Other Considerations
• The parable of the Prodigal Son can be told at many levels: one especially appropriate for
Lent would seem to be a discussion of the structure of Penance both as a virtue in a
sacrament. In the parable, all roads lead to the father or away from the father; so it is with
the spiritual road which is the universe in which the subject of each person's pilgrimage: one
moose either towards or away from God by one's actions. The decision to move away from
the Father of Jesus Christ can only result in a life wallowing in the mud of vice, hungering for
meaning, purpose, and love, with only death and death undying as a further destination.
Repentance involves a turning around on the road, a true modification of one's mind
(metanoia), and a rush into the embrace of the arms of one's heavenly Father.
• The manifestation of Penance in the sacrament takes its shape from our relation to Baptism.
The manifestation of repentance that God desires as the first turning of the sinner toward
saving grace is the reception of Baptism, that holy washing that cleanses away the muck of
sin and prepares us for feasting Eucharistically with God. The water that cleanses the heart
after baptism, and which renews our the original baptismal commitment and turns the face of
the sinner once again towards the love of the Father of Jesus Christ is the Sacrament of
Penance. Although the parable of the Prodigal Son contains within it connections to post-
baptismal penance, specifically in the acts of penitence expressed by the Prodigal Son - his
contrition however imperfect, fhis confession in words, and his willingness to accept the
penalty and lesser blessing of living as a hired man in his own father's house (a kind of
penance!) - there are also symbols which connect to the other path of baptismal penance:
the robe which is put upon the son by order of the father (which like the Baptismal robe of the
Elect would only be put on the son after the servants had bathed him!); the signet ring
pointing to the seal of the authority of the Holy Spirit given in Confirmation; and finally the
feast whose centerpiece is flesh slaughtered for the occasion, a sign of the Eucharistic feast
whose center is the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ offered for sinners on the Cross.

Recommended Resources
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Jerome Biblical Commentary. Two Vols. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1968.

Cameron, Peter John, O.P., ed. Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI. Yonkers, NY:
Magnificat/Ignatius Press, 2006.

Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Gospel of Luke. Sacra Pagina Series, Vol. 3: Daniel J Harrington,
ed. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1991.

Jurgens, William A. The Faith of the Early Fathers. 3 Vols. Collegeville, Minnesota: The
Liturgical Press, 1979.
Just, Arthur A., Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament, Vol. III, Luke.
Manlio Simonetti, ed. Downers Grove, IL : Intervarsity Press, (Institute of Classical Christian
Studies), 2002.

Thomas Aquinas, St. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels Collected out of the
Works of the Fathers Volume III- Pt. I: St. Luke.. Albany, N.Y.: Preserving Christian Publications,
Inc., 2001.

Tugwell, Simon, OP., ed. Early Dominicans; Selected Writings. Classics of Western
Spirituality. New York; Ramsey; Toronto : Paulist Press, 1982.