Joshua 5: 9a, 10-12; Ps. 34:2-7; 2 Cor. 5:17-21; Lk. 15:11-32
Lost and found is at the heart of today’s gospel but it “lost” to the extent that the soul is dead, dead by sin, dead by choice, dead by consequence of God’s righteousness. The soul that was dead has returned to life by the sacrifice of Jesus, found his way back by consequence of his own suffering from rejecting God the Father, found his way back by confessing the truth of his sin. This is the human condition in which we struggle between our will and the call to follow God’s will.
The first reading reminds us of the Israelites who were lost in the desert, after suffering the “reproach of Egypt” and the hardness of their hearts, but now entering the land of Cana reconciled to the Lord. The Lord is merciful in search of hearts who desire his mercy. The mercy of the Lord cannot be taken for granted simply because we were once baptized into the Lord but now live a life that is self-centered insensitive to the other and the key “other” is God.
In a culture of death, God has been evicted from the public square, rejected by agnostics and atheists, ignored by the “spiritual” minded, and taken for granted by those who claim to believe in a God but have little understanding of who God is. These are lost in themselves in the desert they have created for themselves. The promise land is close but they choose to turn and go their own way.
As baptized Catholics we can very much be like the two sons in the gospel parable. We can turn away from God and live a life governed by our own will without the grace of God’s blessing. We see it in both sons, each driven by their own will. The son that left the Father to indulge in his passions suffered the greatest consequences as we do when we go about living our life without going to Church, without even a prayer. It is all about us and our passions. The son who remained was the complaint one but his heart was resentful of the Father, angry at his brother, and bitter with his state in life. We too can be faithfully compliant claiming “I’m a good person” and yet resentful of our state in life angry at God for our troubles.
The Father says to us, “My son (and daughter) …everything I have is yours”. The Lord is ready to fill us with his blessings but we fail to ask, to seek, and to trust. We want the control and don’t know how to let go and let God be our guiding light. The Lord will not mislead us but he will set the path of our greatest good, the path of the greatest treasure for heaven. Earthly treasure has its purpose to serve and be multiplied that we may be of greater service to others as we are reminded, it’s not about us but about God. When we offer ourselves and our treasure to God then there is no limit to what he can do in our lives. Right purpose leads to the best outcomes and a life well lived.
We become lost in our world, a world of everyday challenges and we lose focus on the “Big picture” purpose of even existing. We are God’s creation, created to participate in God’s salvation plan. When we order our life in line with his plan we enter into God’s “new creation”. The old way of looking at things no longer carries the same meaning or serves the same purpose. Jesus makes all things new. This is our Lenten call to come and be reconciled with God. Give him our sins, our failures, our selfishness, our control and accept his will. The Lord who makes all things new will also change us from within. In God we find our true self and we will never be misled.
Warning! God does not seek to simply make a “correction” in our life. God seeks a transformation of our souls. He is patient, he is kind, he is merciful, he is the fullness of love and the transformation he wants is for us to live in the image of Jesus fully human but also fully called to the divine life.
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