On this Laetare Sunday, we rejoice as we move halfway through the Lent season and only three Sundays away from the glory of Easter
Reflections on the readings for Fourth Sunday of Lent (March 27, 2022): JOS 5:9,10-12; PS 34:2-3,4-5,6-7; 2 COR 5:17-21; LK 15:1-3,11-32
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
The purple that marks the rest of the penitential season is replaced with rose or pink. The liturgical readings also emphasize the joy we experience through God’s mercy.
The Church has observed a day to express joy in the middle of Lent since the early Middle Ages. It comes from the Latin word Laetare that begins the Entrance Antiphon: “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning…” The purple that marks the rest of the penitential season is replaced with rose or pink. The liturgical readings also emphasize the joy we experience through God’s mercy. This is especially so in the much-loved parable of the Prodigal Son that Jesus tells in today’s Gospel. The story begins with a younger son demanding that his father give him his inheritance immediately. The father lets him have his way; and the young man takes his possessions and newly acquired wealth and heads for a distant land. There he quickly spends his way through everything he has and finds himself in the middle of a famine without resources or friends. He has no option but to tend swine and finds himself envying the animals who had more to eat than he did. Desperate, he heads home. He realizes he has no right to be welcomed as his father’s son, but hopes he will be accepted as his servant. “While he was a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.’ But his father ordered his servants, ‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him. … Take the fatted calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again” (Luke 15:20-24).
The young man’s foolishness and selfishness, even his apology, are obliterated by the love of the father. He does not waste a moment on recriminations or interrogations. His erring, reckless child has returned. The father envelopes him in complete forgiveness and generosity. We soon see that the older brother does not emulate that welcome. Jesus lets His listeners know that just as the younger son has sinned, so has the elder. His self-righteousness kept him from loving either his brother or his father. Only the openhanded mercy of the parent of these two self-centered children can save them from themselves. Only his heart is big enough to offer them the chance to turn back to him in contrition and gratitude.
