Bible Study:
Joshua 5, 9 to 12. 2nd Corinthians 5, 17 to 21 and Luke 15, 1 to 32.
The saying
is indeed true that there is no place like home. On this fourth Sunday of Lent,
we are called to return home. This call is echoed deeply in the voice of the
prodigal son who upon coming to his senses, said to himself: “How many of my
father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with
hunger! I will arise and go to my father.” Luke 15, 17 to 18. The hunger of the
prodigal son reflects that deep longing in us which no earthly food can
satisfy, that hunger for which St. Augustine writes: “Our hearts are restless
until they rest in God.”
The call
to return home is foreshadowed in our first reading, wherein we see the people
of Israel under the leadership of Joshua finally settling down in Gilgal. For
the first time after four hundred years, they were no longer to feed on manna
but on the fruit of the land of Canaan; the land flowing with Milk and Honey. Manna
was a symbol of their rebellion in the desert, a symbol of sojourning across
the desert.
Being heavenly-bound,
we too are on a journey through a desert as well. Think of all the problems the
world is facing today, listen to the news and you will appreciate the fact that
we are just in a desert. All the world has to offer us is manna at its very
best and this is why Jesus was not carried away by Satan’s offer of earthly
kingdoms. Jesus knew that all the kingdoms of the world are simply desert
compared to the glory of heaven and so refused to bow.
The
prodigal son represents that desire in us to grab and grab the material
pleasures of the world. That he was able to squander all he had within a short
time shows that all the world has to offer only last for a short time; money reduces
in value, beauty fades, things get broken, fame diminishes, love soon turns to
heart-break, nothing lasts forever on earth!
Every time,
we value the things of this world over and above God, we are acting very much
like the prodigal son. Every time we refuse to obey the voice of God for the
sake of enjoying that which the world has to offer, we are stepping out of the
father’s house. Every sin is a prodigal act. It always looks very attractive and
beneficial at the beginning and God respects our freedom if we choose to go to
that direction. But no sooner had we fallen, do we realise the pain and sorrow
of our foolishness.
In the
end, that which promised us lasting enjoyment away from the father’s presence soon
turns into starvation and misery and it dawns on us that we would have been
better off in the father’s house; that is, within the comfort zone of obeying
God’s commandments. Quite often, like children standing in front of their father’s
compound, the grass always greener in their neighbour’s compound. We tend to
believe that there is something to be gained from sin and instead of
appreciating where we are in God, we begin to see God’s house as burdensome.
Both the
younger son and the older one had the same problem; they were no longer satisfied
with what they had. While the younger son decided to explore what was out
there, the elder son kept to himself. He too longed to go out but he wanted his
father to give him a go ahead, his obedience was not genuine; it was just a
show. This was why he felt cheated when the younger son returned. He didn’t see
the need to celebrate his brother’s return because he did not appreciate the
fact that this boy was dead and is now back to life. He felt the boy only went
out there to “enjoy.”
Many of us
strive to avoid sin, yet deep down within us, we believe there is something to
enjoy in sin so we envy people swimming in sin. A story is told of a monk who
died and went to heaven, and upon getting there, he saw a man who was quite
notorious on earth. He became angry and said to Angel Michael: “All my life, I
remained a virgin just to get in here. You mean after all the things that that
man over there did with so many women, he was still allowed in here? This is
not fair at all!”
Dear friends,
if only we able to see sin for what it really is as something that kills its
victims, we would never envy anyone living in sin. Sin not only destroys the
life of God inside us, it de-humanizes us and takes away our dignity by making us
think less of ourselves, such that we soon start believing that we cannot
really be good anymore. Like the prodigal son who forgot he was a son and had
to hire himself out as a farm-worker, sin gives us a low image of ourselves. We
soon begin to think it is impossible for us to be sinless and we forget we have
a capacity for holiness. Any person who says he or she cannot do without sin is
a type of prodigal son who is just refusing to come to his senses and return
home.
Dear friends,
no matter how deep we may have engrossed ourselves in sin, no matter how much
pig food we may have consumed, we still have the capacity to return home. Hence
St. Paul encourages us: “if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old
has passed away; the new has come.” We are not slaves to sin, we are ambassadors
of Christ; we are the righteousness of God. We have everything it takes to live
above sin, to live as sons in the father’s house once again. Let us return
home.
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, I shall leave this place and return to you. Grant me the grace of true
repentance. Amen.
God bless
you. Good morning. Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. Happy
Sunday.
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