Dear Friends,
Our gospel today gives us the grace-filled story of what has come to be called “The Prodigal Son”. It comes to us in our Lenten Journey on Laetare Sunday, a day in the midst of Lent when we are invited to “Rejoice!”. The word Laetare comes from the ancient introit for the day which begins with that word, rejoice.
The prodigal son story ends with a celebration, a time of rejoicing. However, to get there, the son has to come to terms with the fact that he has done something wrong. What was his sin? He took what was rightfully his and spent it. Don’t we all have the right to do the same? It is mine after all! I can do with my money as I please, can I not?
To do its normal work, evil needs to look its best. Evil is always hiding behind looking good. Vices masquerade as virtues – lust as love, sadism as military discipline, tyranny as parental concern, lies as protection for those not ready for the truth…or, as we see on the news each evening, destruction and killing as political salvation. Jesus called the evil one “The Father of Lies” because that is the only way that evil can succeed.
In a book from a few years ago, People of the Lie, Scott Peck points out that evil people try to keep up appearances. They “are acutely sensitive to social norms and what others might think of them.” The heart of personal evil in Peck’s view is not so much wayward thoughts, cutting words and damaging acts. The heart of sin is the persistent refusal to tolerate a sense of sin, refusal to take responsibility for one’s sin, refusal to live with sorrowful knowledge of it and refusal to pursue the painful way of repentance. In Dan Ariely’s research on lying, he says that the first person we lie to is ourselves. Once we tell the lie to ourselves, we have to tell it to everyone else.
The wayward son in Jesus’ parable finds his way to rejoicing again with his family only when he can admit that he had done wrong. He had to admit that he had wandered far from love and had wasted all the gifts love had given him. He had to stop lying to himself.
Like the prodigal, we too have to learn that the only way to share in God’s gifts is to place ourselves in range of God’s presence. We have to walk with God, lean on God, cling to God, refer all things to God and, contrary to our normal self-centered existence, we have to worship God not ourselves. The gifts of God – love, forgiveness, courage, joy, peace – are found in God’s company.
May you truly rejoice today by admitting your need for God and seeking the forgiveness He longs to offer.
Peace,
Fr. Damian
P.S. I am doing the Lenten Mission at St. Wenceslaus this weekend. Fr. Taylor is exchanging places with me. Take good care of him! And, let me invite you to the Parish Reconciliation Service on Tuesday,
April 5th at 7:00 pm.