The Prodigal One March 18

Prayer

Father, help me when I am reckless with your compassion and redemption.

Jesus, help me when I take for granted your grace and mercy, your kindness and compassion.

Holy Spirit, call me back to you when I am farthest from your love.

Like the shepherd after the lost sheep, you come down the road to retrieve us from our wayward path. Help us to be present with you always, enjoying all your blessings and love. Help us to celebrate and rejoice, for ourselves and all who were dead and lost but have been found and have come back to rebirth in the spirit.

Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/031806.shtml

Reading today’s psalm (103) reminds me of “Godspell,” that Stephen Schwartz 1970s adaptation of Matthew’s Gospel. Not exactly a rock-opera in the form of “Jesus Christ Superstar” but certainly a post-Vatican II cultural phenomenon that helped us to feel good about Jesus and popularize his message. Quite a change from the depiction in Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” some 30-plus years later.

We don’t need any of these Broadway or Hollywood shows to bring us to our senses. Psalm 103 reminds us how unlike us Jesus really is. Jesus doesn’t do that which we do all too often.

He will not always chideHe will with patience waitHis wrath is ever slow to rise
Jesus also does that which we can never do.

He pardons all thy sinsProlongs thy feeble breathHe heals thine infirmitiesAnd ransoms thee from deathHe clothes thee with his loveUpholds thee with his truthAnd like an eagle he renewsThe vigor of thy youth

As we are considering our comparable weaknesses to the Lord and the blessings he heaps upon us indiscriminately, along comes the parable of the Prodigal Son.


Webster gives us three meanings for “prodigal.”

1 : recklessly extravagant2 : characterized by wasteful expenditure : LAVISH3 : yielding abundantly : LUXURIANT

The son who leaves is certainly the one who is recklessly extravagant. Surely this is the prodigal one.

However, upon his return, the father lavishes him with gifts – a robe, a ring and a banquet. Surely this is the prodigal one.

The other son, the son who remained behind, was the one who bore much fruit in the presence of his father. He lived amid the luxuries that the family enjoyed abundantly. Surely this is the prodigal one.

Who is this parable really about? Who is really prodigal one in this story that plays such a cornerstone in our Cursillo weekends?

But maybe this is not about any of those three. Maybe it remains about us and each time we have played one or more of the roles in this story. Maybe it is about where we start, where we end and how we go from one place to the other with all of our personal baggage.

What we call the beginning is often the endAnd to make and end is to make a beginning…
With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this Calling
We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot
“Little Gidding”
(No. 4 of the Four Quartets)

Action

Where do you need to return?
To whom do you need to run down the road and greet?
Whom do you need to welcome home with open arms and open heart?
Who or what requires you to put away your jealousy?