A Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent (C)
[“The Prodigal Son Returns” by Marc Chagall]
This was a very busy week. I had several presentations for which to prepare. In reading the Gospel for this week, I was struck by the line at the end, when the father says to the older son, “We must celebrate and rejoice. For your brother was lost, and is now found.” I thought this was great, since today we celebrate Laetare Sunday. I made a linguist error, because I was thinking that “Laetare” is the Latin word for “Rejoice,” but it is not. “Gaudete” is Latin for “rejoice,” “Laetare” is Latin for “praise.” But since I had already written my homily when I realized this, and since we should rejoice in the Lord always, I am going to talk about Christian joy anyway.
Christian joy is unique. Earthly joys fade away when whatever causes them wears out. We might experience great joy when we have our favorite meal or watch our favorite movie. But we are going to get hungry away, and are going to want more entertainment. However, Christian joy does not fade way, because our friendship with Jesus never wears out. God’s goodness, creativity, and love are infinite. So if we really know Him, if we are actively living that friendship, we can never get tired of Him, and our joy can never wear out. This is why St. Maximilian Kolbe could lead his fellow prisoners in Auschwitz Concentration camp in singing hymns of joy even as they were being starved to death. Even the horrendous conditions of the prison camp could not take away Christ’s love.
Sadly, we sometimes let life’s hustle and bustle drown out that friendship. When that happens, we stop experiencing Christian joy. One way to keep this joy fresh is to spread it, to fulfill our primary mission as Christians. St. Paul describes that mission in one short phrase. He writes to the Corinthians that “We are ambassadors for Christ.”
Christ has given each of us the power to speak in his name: to announce the “good news of great joy” to all the prodigal sons and daughters around us that the Father is waiting for them with open arms, that God’s forgiveness is real, that life can have meaning. When we tell others about the joy of Christ, Christian joy remains fresh in our own minds too.
Often when we hear the parable of the Prodigal Son, we think of things from the point of view of the father and the younger son. Perhaps rarely we might give some thought to the older son. Have you ever thought about giving this parable a different ending? What would have happened if the older brother had been a better brother?
The younger, rebellious son abandons his father. The father has to respect that. He can’t force the young man to love and trust him. He can’t go out and try to force his son to come back home. He can only wait, hoping that the son will have a change of heart and come back.
However, the older brother doesn’t have to wait. He doesn’t have to be passive. If he had really cared about his father and his little brother, instead of just caring about himself, he would have gone after him. He would have done more than just criticize and judge him. He would have at least made one or two outings in search of him. We can imagine the conversation they would have had at the pig farm.
The older brother, “We miss you, and we would love for you to come back.”
The younger brother, “But how can I, what I did was so horrible?”
“Don’t worry, just come back – trust me, we’ll work it out. You don’t have to stay here eating corn husks…”
How much joy that effort would have given his father – even if it had been unsuccessful! How much of a help it might have been for his brother! And how much meaning and fulfillment it would have given himself!
Each one of us is surrounded by innumerable younger brothers and sisters who are lost and sorrowful. We are all Christ’s ambassadors. We all have received the mission to spread Christ and share our Christian joy.
In a sense, we are called to be God’s goodness for others. In us, through our words, actions, and example, God wants them to discover how much he loves them, so that they can enter into friendship with him and experience Christian joy.
This week, we should renew our commitment to fulfill this mission – to be Christ’s ambassadors – consciously, actively. One easy way to do this is simply to go out of our way for someone every day this week.
If each one of us makes this resolution, through us, this week alone, God will be able to reach out to hundreds of prodigal sons and daughters who are afraid to come home, who think that nobody cares. Whenever we let God work through us, our own friendship with Christ will also be deepened — and therefore our experience of Christian joy.
When we receive Christ in Holy Communion, let’s renew that friendship, ask for the grace of Christian joy, and promise to do something this week to share that joy with others.
[This homily is largely based on “My Homily for Fourth Sunday of Lent (C),” http://www.epriest.com/homily_packs]
