|
Sunday,
March 21, 2004 Jos
5: 9-12The People of God Celebrate Passover as They Enter the Promised
Land Only
the gospel text will be commented on here. An expanded version of this
biblical commentary is available in Spanish: (www.servicioskoinonia.org/biblico) We
will not expound on the entire gospel parable but rather concentrate
on the fundamental message. The parable’s movement is simple:
presentation of characters (vv.11-12), attitude of the younger son (vv.13-20a),
the father’s attitude regarding the lost son (vv.20b-24), attitude
of the elder son regarding the lost one (vv.25-32). As we can see, the
first three scenes parallel the attitudes of the shepherd and the woman
over the lost object; the new element appears in the attitude of the
elder son. This certainly reflects the attitude of the Pharisees and
scribes towards sinners. The food-related language in the parable is
quite interesting, reminding us of the context “there was a famine”
(v.14); he wanted to eat the forage (v.16); the father’s day laborers
“have all the bread they want” (v.17); the father orders
them to “kill the fattened calf, let us feast and celebrate”
(v.23). “You never gave me a kid to celebrate with my friends”
the elder son complains (v.29) and adds “that son of yours who
squandered your goods with prostitutes” (v.30). In addition, in
verses 23, 24, 29 and 32, eufrainộ is used, which, as we
have seen, means to celebrate through a banquet … As
we can see, the contrast is between two characters over the same situation:
the younger son/brother. Like other parables containing two characters,
perhaps the title should reflect these two attitudes rather than referring
to the “prodigal son.” One
point shows how low the younger son has stooped through a series of
very critical elements for any Jew: “far-off land”, “libertine
life/prostitutes”, “suffer want”, “care for
pigs”, they don’t even give him husks, which is animal food
(should he steal them?) to the point of wanting to “go back to
his father” as a worker. We will come back to words like “I
do not deserve” (vv.19, 21) and “it is good/right”
(v.32). Discovering his disgrace the son goes “back to his father”
(it does not say to his house, although we can assume “pros”
vv.18, 20); it is the elder son who does not enter “into the house”
(v.25). The son’s movement of leaving and returning is like the
losing-finding, and even more so like death-resurrection (the father’s
intervention ends with this parallel and then is repeated with the elder
son’s intervention). The
son has prepared a speech but the father does not let him finish it:
he will not be superceded in generosity and initiative. Contrary to
the eastern customs, he not only “runs” to meet his son
whom he sees afar, but also returns to him the status he had lost as
“son”. This is the meaning of the ring (seal), the sandals
and the best robe, worthy of a guest of honor. The father’s joy
is also reflected in the feast for “this son of mine.” The
older brother, who has just finished his duties as son, does not want
to go into the house and take part in the celebration. Once again, a
father goes out to meet a son and must endure reproaches. The elder
son refuses to recognize him as a brother (“that son of yours”)
but the father reminds him (“your brother”). The father
does not deny that the older son “never disobeyed an order”,
is “always faithful”, is one who “is always with his
father” and that everything he has belongs to him, but the father
wants to go beyond the sense of justice: the younger one “is not
deserving”, but “it is good to celebrate.” Mercy implies
reaching out to others, the sinners, who, by being so, do not deserve
it, but love is always free and goes beyond merits, looking to the fallen.
The Pharisees and scribes are models of “always faithful”
groups, but their refusal to accept brothers who were dead and came
back to life could leave them outside the house and the celebration.
The elder ones could also leave the house if they do not imitate the
father’s attitude, or they could come in and celebrate if they
are able to receive sinners and eat with them. Commentary In
our Christian life, we usually operate with caricatures of God, either
because of what we believe, what we show or what we were taught. Whether
a good-natured God, an eternal grump awaiting our mistakes so he can
smash us, a distracted one who has forgotten about humans who he made
“so long ago”, an authoritarian and capricious “father”
who makes arbitrary decisions and doesn’t allow dissent about
fulfilling his will …What is our God like? It’s
important to know what the God we believe in is like, but it’s
more important to know what the God Jesus believed in is like;
what is the God like that He revealed to us? As always, Jesus not only
talked about God with words, but also with what he did. By doing, Jesus
showed us God the Father, the true one! Today Jesus gives us a parable,
a parable that speaks to us of God, but a parable that stems from Jesus’
attitude. He tells us that faced with scorned brothers and sisters,
we can act in two different ways, as God does—which is also how
Jesus acts—or as the Jewish religious men did, those “separate”
from the rest, the pure ones. Sin
is not-giving-love, and love-not-given, which is why it
distances us from God who is love; it separates us from the father’s
house. But with his love, which continues to flow in a preferential
way because of sinners, God continues to extend his hand as a friend,
awaiting the return of his children. Often with a caricature of God,
we tend to reject, judge and condemn those we believe to be sinners.
As Jesus did, we also show which God we believe in through our attitudes.
But unlike Jesus, we show a God that looks nothing like the Eternal
Seeker of Lost Children. The
Jesus who loves and prefers sinners, and dines with them, does
none other than know the will of the Father and fulfill it tangibly.
His shared tables and meals speak to us clearly of God! God’s
behavior is seen in Jesus’ behavior. Jesus himself is God’s
living parable: his action, therefore, is a revelation. What
God, what Church, what human being do we reveal with our life? Often,
like older brothers, we are so proud of not having left the father’s
house that we think we know more than He himself: “God is unjust”,
according to our justice; God has “little backbone”, according
to our immense wisdom. Maybe God is too old to do his job and should
retire and leave it to us… Faced
with so many people who reject the Church (“I believe in God,
not the Church”), sometimes we say “but God loves the Church.”
Shouldn’t we always ask ourselves, what Church does He love? Shouldn’t
we ask ourselves, what Church do we show through our attitudes? This
Church, the one I-we show, is it the way God wants it? Jesus shows,
with his life and even with his meals, the true face of God. He shows
the table community in which he participates; even while eating he reveals
the true God. Maybe we should, once and for all, let go of our elder
son attitude, and since we are so bad at playing God, take on the role
of the younger son. We should return to God in order to fill him with
joy, participate in his celebration. And by participating in his joy
we begin to show the merciful face of this open-door God. The
Eucharistic supper is itself an expression of the universality of the
love of God: it is food for the forgiveness of sins. The God of mercy
doesn’t want to exclude anyone from his table; what’s more,
he wants to especially invite all those who are excluded from peoples’
tables because of their social situation, their poverty, gender or any
other motive. And He goes much further: He does not look kindly on those
who think they are participating in his supper and do not expect their
brothers and sisters who are excluded because they are poor to be at
the table. The God who does not make distinctions between people, loves
those less loved. However, many times we take the attitude of the older
brother. When will we sit at the table of the poor and let go of our
usual haughty and sectarian posture of “good Christians?”
When will we decide to participate in God’s celebration, recognizing
ourselves as brothers and sisters of the rejected and despised? Jesus
invites us to his meal, a meal in which we show—like in the parable—what
God is like, what the fraternity in which we believe is like. And we
will show how we are brothers and sisters, how we are children to the
extent that we participate in the father’s joy and the reencounter
of brothers and sisters. Examining
Our Lives What
do I have of the prodigal son in my heart…fleeing the father,
squanderer of the inheritance freely given? What do I have of the elder
son in me, who thinks he is better, has more rights, is irreproachable,
disdainful towards the rest of my brothers and sisters? What is there
in me that evokes the patient and mature mercy of the Father? For
the Community Meeting -
See who the players are in the parable and list them in order of greater
and lesser roles. -
Until recently, today’s gospel parable was known as “the
prodigal son”; our commentary gives it a different name…
What do you think of this change? -
Rate the significance of each player. What current attitudes could these
players represent? For
the Prayer of the Faithful -
For all those who suffer hunger in this world in which the problem is
not, however, production but distribution; that we may put into practice
the theoretical confession of being brothers and sisters because we
are children of God, let us pray. -
For family relations betweenparents and children, that they may be governed
by the “depths of mercy” that God has for each of us… -
That we may understand that God is as much Father as Mother; that a
critical conscience begin to develop in our church regarding the masculinity
that we have projected onto the image of God… -
That we may have hearts big enough to rejoice in others’ good
fortune and never be jealous of others’ joys… -
That we may “let ourselves be reconciled to God”, who calls
us to conversion in so many and such soft ways in this Lenten season… Let
Us Pray Our
God, who we can truly call Father and Mother, full of the depths of
mercy, always open to receiving and forgiveness despite our ingratitude
or disloyalty; let us imitate you in this your love, so we can honestly
call ourselves and truly be “your children” and “brothers
and sisters to each other”. We ask you this in memory of Jesus,
your son and our brother. |
|||
|
Claretian Communications,
Inc. • 8 Mayumi St. UP Village, Diliman 1101, Quezon City, Philippines
|
|||