Cycle C -- Homily -- 4th Sunday of Lent-- 27 March 2022

** See my brazen Lenten suggestion at the end of this homily.

Cycle C – Homily – Fourth Sunday of Lent – 27 March 2022

Lectionary I                                           Lectionary II

(In some areas or jurisdictions, the Cycle A readings are used.  We are concentrating on the Cycle C passages here.)

Joshua 5:9a, 10-12                                Joshua 5:9-12

Psalm 34:2-7                                         Psalm 32

2 Corinthians 5:15-21                             2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 (33)                          Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”  That is the responsorial for today’s Psalm.  And what a perfect prelude for our set of readings for today’s celebration!

This is Laetare Sunday, a special remembrance in the mainline branches of the Western Church.  The word “Laetare” comes from a form of a Latin word meaning REJOICE.  The Church clearly has a sense of humor; we are being asked to rejoice because this penitential season is half over.  This mid-Lent feast falls on the fourth Sunday of the season – twenty-one days before Easter.  In some traditions, this is Refreshment Sunday and we are asked not to give up in our spiritual reformation because we are half way to realizing the glories of the resurrection.  We put aside the purple of the passion and pick up the pink of excitement and joy.

So, let us look at the “goodness of the Lord” in the various stories and parables of rejoicing that occur in today’s scriptural readings.  The passage from Joshua is literally the story of a compete transition from one set of circumstances to another.  The Israelites had been wandering in the desert.  They were struggling with the meaning of their meanderings as they ate manna and tried to establish themselves as a people with a land they could call home.  Now Joshua points out that God has rolled away the reproach of Egypt and that the people would have no more manna because they could now celebrate Passover in this new place and they could now eat food (bread and grains) produced in their new homeland, Canaan. This must have been both exciting and frightening for these people who had spent so many years on their nomadic sojourn.  Nevertheless, they knew of the “goodness of the Lord” and they began their new venture.

The second reading is from 2 Corinthians and it too is a joyful passage.  Here are some phrases from this uplifting and joyful reading: “If anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation…We are Christ’s ambassadors…Be reconciled to God…so that we might become the righteousness of God.”  If we think about what is being said, we realize that this disclosure is truly awesome!  Each of us is a new creation, an ambassador of Christ and, not only that, we each become the righteousness of God.  This marvelous endowment is indeed wonderful.  Of course, it carries certain responsibilities, but the message here has a concentration on the wonders of what God has in mind for us.

At the same time, this passage from 2 Corinthians does offer a slight foreshadowing of other events.  Notice that it reads: “Be reconciled to God.”

The gospel is from Luke, specifically Luke 15:1-3, 11-32.  This is the famous (or perhaps infamous) parable of the Prodigal Son.  We all know the story.  The younger of the two sons encourages the father to divide up the estate.  The younger son then takes his share and heads off to a foreign country where he squanders his fortune.  Some time later (we’re not certain how much later as the Scripture writers were not obsessed with the minutia of time the way we are today), this son realizes the depths of his depravity and the desperateness of his situation.  The son is so hungry he is ready to plead for even scraps not eaten by the pigs.

As a sidelight, this is especially interesting because good Jews (those accustomed to following the law) would not eat any animal with cloven-(split) hooves that did not also chew its cud.  Thus, cloven-hooved pigs – pigs are animals that do not chew their cud – were forbidden table fare.  So were rabbits but for the opposite reason.  Rabbits are not cloven-hooved, but they do chew their cuds.  Jewish law was so strict that one was not allowed to even touch the hide of a forbidden animal.  We can better appreciate how desperate this son must have been.  We are like him, are we not?  We have all reached a point where we hope for a table scrap – either literally or figuratively or both.

So, the son heads home, ready to takes whatever scraps may be available.  The father does not condemn his son.  Instead, he throws a magnificent party.

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.  The younger son could see it.  He must have been shocked.  This son humbled himself utterly and completely.  The father forgave him completely with no questions asked.  The older son was not so sure.  He wondered how the father could forgive his brother – even to the point of killing the fattened calf for the feast and throwing a massive celebration with music and dancing and every sort of merriment.

Of course, this is a precursor or foreshadowing of God’s relationship with each and every one of us.  No matter what we have done or where we have gone, we will always be welcomed back and there will always be a heavenly celebration marking our return.

Traditionally, the younger son – the fortune-squanderer – is considered to be the prodigal.  I sometimes wonder if this traditional definition is a bit too simplistic or even a bit exclusionary.  What if the older son is (or is also) the prodigal?  This older son may not have squandered his fortune and, apparently, he did remain a hard-working person, always loyal to his father.  But, did he squander something else?  What were his motives in remaining on the conventionally correct track?  We don’t know the answers to these questions, but we can get a bit of insight into this older brother as he seems to pout and put on an air of jealousy as he complains about how well his errant younger brother was received and accepted back into the household.

We are all a bit like this older son.  We are human and we do become jealous or upset with other people or even our own family members.  Perhaps this older son squandered at least some of his self-respect.  He probably also squandered some internal fortitude.  But, notice the father’s reaction.  The father loved him!  The father gently explained the situation and showed no malice toward this older son.  This is a good story for rejoicing.  Yes, there are previously unseen complexities to the characters’ interactions.  But the end result is the same.

This Laetare Sunday is indeed a day for rejoicing.  We have a home and food with God and we are Christ’s ambassadors.  Those points are significant.  We are also the embodiment of both sons in the Prodigal Son story.  Hopefully we grow in our realization that we also have the traits of the father – loving and forgiving and not mindful of the past.

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Dr Roberta M Meehan, D. Min

As you probably know, Lent began on March 2 (March 7 if you are Eastern or Orthodox).  Maybe you are still on the lookout for some thought-provoking Lenten reading.  If so, I brazenly recommend my book The Trial of Judas Iscariot, available from Amazon.  Copyright 2015.  The Scales of Justice are on the front cover.

This is a play, done as reading theater and suitable for anyone high school age and above.  This play has been presented seven times.  The play, set outside the bounds of time and space, examines what motives Judas may have had and what factors may have influenced the events surrounding the life of Judas and the death of both Jesus and Judas.

Continue having a meaningful Lent!  And, if you haven’t started on a meaningful Lenten activity yet, it is not too late to begin your Lenten project.  Think of yourself as that late-blooming fig tree (from last week’s gospel).  Now is the time to start flowering!!