Jos 5:9a, 10-12
Ps 34:2-7
2 Cor 5:17-21
Lk 15:1-2, 11-32
Laetare Jerusalem:
et conventum facite omnes
qui diligitis eam:
“Rejoice Jerusalem
and all who love her. . . “
The name Laetare Sunday comes from the first word of the entrance antiphon, Laetare. Rejoice.
It is an important Sunday that visibly marks the progress of Lent. In one of his many essays, the late Jesuit Father Jim Schall a long-time professor of political philosophy at Georgetown wrote, "Laetare Sunday is a respite. It makes us feel the nearness of the Passion and the Resurrection, but with a reminder that even amid the Lenten fast and the coming remembrance of the Crucifixion, we are not to forget that Christianity is a religion of joy.”
He goes to explain that "Christianity is a religion of joy since it knows this world is not all there is; (it knows that ) there is something precious beyond the world." Today's readings remind us that joy follows sorrow.
After thirty days of mourning Moses’ death, the Israelites had reason to rejoice. Joshua led them into the land toward which they had been traveling for forty years. “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.” Their punishment had ended. They ate a Passover meal from the produce of their own land. The manna with which God had fed them was no longer necessary. It never appeared again. They were home.
The parable of the prodigal son is more than familiar. The Prodigal Son is a figure of speech that is used and understood by Christians, non-Christians, and even those who are militantly hostile to all things of faith. It is a challenging parable that is rich with characterization, motive, action and reaction. Psychiatrists can have a field day using this gospel as a case study of personality types and disorders, sibling rivalry, loneliness, jealousy and anger. We might even see ourselves in one the characters in the narrative.
Perhaps we want the immediate gratification of the younger son. "Show me the money NOW." Maybe we identify with the resentment of the dutiful elder son who felt unappreciated. "He got a goat and clothes and you never even gave me a six-pack of beer." We may even identify with the man who said, “Sure kid, slop the hogs. But don’t eat any of the slop.” We all can identify at some point or another with the prodigal’s regret at having made some stupid decisions and taken a path that led nowhere but to a personal hell.
The prodigal son's story is like that of so many who were temporarily flush: the whores, hangers-on, and good time Charlies were there when the money flowed. They were gone the moment the cash dried up. Some things haven't changed in millennia.
The importance of the parable however, is not as a social or psychiatric case study or cautionary tale about acting stupidly. It is a case study of the depth of God’s mercy. The parable reveals God’s forgiveness once we realize that we are sinners in need of forgiveness and seek that forgiveness. The father loved the son enough to let him go out on his own well-financed and well-provisioned. He gave him every advantage. The rest was up to the boy.
The son reveled in his new freedom He caroused and partied, drank and slept around. The money went fast once a famine hit. Only when he hit rock-bottomdid he yearn for his father’s love. Only when broken and wretched did he dream of the safety of home. After squandering everything he swallowed his arrogant pride, admitted his wretched state to himself, and made his way back to his father. To his credit, he was prepared to be treated as one of the hired help rather than a son. At least he would be fed, warm, and have a place to sleep.
He set off on his journey unaware that his father was desperate for his return. The son had been lost. He did not know he was about to be found. Soon he was home. But then what?
As is the case with Jesus’ parables the narrative does not have a neat ending. There is no real resolution. The parable does not end with "and they lived happily ever after." Did the kid settle down, go back to school, get his degree, and begin an accounting practice? Did he head out again for the sordid life again once he recovered? We don't know.
The parable of the Prodigal Son is like seeing two acts of a three-act play or discovering that the last chapter of an Agatha Christie whodunnit had been ripped from the book. We don’t know how the prodigal son behaved after the newness of his return wore off. We don’t know if his angry older brother reconciled with the prodigal or if he apologized to his father for his rage. Did the two brothers speak to one another again? All we know for certain is that his father welcomed him back.
God endowed human beings alone with the gift of free will. He allows us to go out on our own, well-financed and provisioned. Like the prodigal son we sometimes mess up to the point of desperation and despair. But like the father in the parable God forgives us and welcomes us back .He welcomes us back again and again, more effusively than the prodigal’s father. He welcomes us back when we realize our need for His love, confess our sins in the sacrament, and amend our lives.
For this reason Paul assures us, “God has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ.” In Paul’s words we can hear the beginning of the formula of absolution pronounced at the end of the sacrament of confession:
"God the Father of mercies
through the death and resurrection of His Son
has reconciled the world to Himself,
and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins . . . "
In response we can only sing:
Laetare Jerusalem. . .
gaudete cum laetitia,
qui in tristitia fuistis
Rejoice Jerusalem . . .
Be joyful.
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The time in Slovenia was the source of much of my photo library. These three shots are from Ljubljana
The Cathedral. I did not know it was a preview of coming attractions. I took this photo on my first walk in the city with Fr. Jože a few hours after I arrived in the community after flying over night, laying over for a bit in Frankfurt, and then landing in LJ.Ljubljana with a very wide-angle lens. The white tower in the left background is sv. Jože where I staying. It was a rather short though steep walk to the castle. I made it often.
A devotional work on the outside wall of a private home.
Fr. Jack, SJ, MD