March 27, 2022 (Fourth Sunday in Lent)

by Fr. Xavier Lavagetto, O.P.

[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]

Too often we miss Paul’s surprising words. He wrote: Whoever is in Christ is a new creation. … Do you feel new? … Or do you, like me, repeatedly confess the same old tired sins?  … For most, sanctity is not sinning, dying in the state of grace, and getting to heaven. … Is this the Gospel Jesus preached?

Again, Paul wrote: “The old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.” …  Or do old kingdoms of power and greed still rule? … The war in Ukraine and 27 other armed conflicts, 84 million forced displacements, 9 million starving, while at home 45,000 dying annually proclaim a kingdom of death. As a nation we thank God for freedom, yet we rank only 25th as a democracy. We have been labeled a flawed democracy for the last five year. (EUI)

Where’s the new?  …. Well, all around us for those who can see! Too bad we can’t visit the 1st century for a dose of perspective. The 17th century Enlightenment taught us to doubt everything Christian, every spiritual, yet God’s kingdom of mustard seeds’ values still inspire our best dreams.

For two millennia, a new creating happened in unlikely people; they fed the hungry, tended the sick, clothed the naked, forgave enemies, freed slaves, fought for justice and worked for peace. The human heart can come alive … if you allow!

Too often we are like some inner-city high school students I taught.  I wanted to show them talents and gifts. Sadly, some chose to only see their sadness at not being somebody else. … Can you say that you fully live and build on the goodness you are?

St. Paul also wrote, all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us … given you! … the ministry of reconciliation, ….  God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us … entrusting to you … the message of reconciliation. … Don’t tell me, that’s your job priest! … It’s yours too! 

When you were baptized, the chrism that anoints altars, the hands of priests, and the heads of bishops, was poured on you. You were given a share in Jesus’ own work. You’re called to be Christ’s ambassadors announcing a new kingdom and a new way of living!

But we dumb down that Gospel when we think it is all about getting to heaven by not messing up.” … Not sinning is not enough; rocks do as much! …  Your job is to be a healing of the world’s wounds and a light to the nations by being Jesus’ image bearing people. You can’t glimpse the first growth of the kingdom if you haven’t tried to live it.

The three men were rushing for the subway when they clipped a girl selling goods. She and everything went flying. They ran on, but one, moved by some unexpected grace, returned at the cost of being late, picked her and her goods up and paid for the damage and more. … She asked: Are you Jesus? …  Why yes; he was! …  In that moment, he was Jesus for her. … The world never becomes better by grousing on the side lines. …  Who will you be Jesus for?

Today’s Gospel ask you that question. Sadly, it’s missing some verses. Jesus told a parable to answer the Pharisees’ and scribes’ complaint: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” Luke then adds: “So to them Jesus addressed this parable” He proceeds to tell three because he wanted all three to be read as one.

The first is about the shepherd leaving the ninety-nine sheep to find the lost one. And when he does find it, he sets it on his shoulders with great joy and, upon his arrival home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’

The second is a woman seeking a lost coin and sweeping finds it. … When she does find it, she calls together her friends and neighbors and says to them, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’

Be real! …  No shepherd and no woman call neighbors to celebrate when they found what they lost. … Relief yes; party no! … But Jesus says that heaven parties!  …  “there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents. …  Do you believe that God parties over you?

God is love, yet too many are grim reaper Christians. Nietzsche wrote: “I might believe in the Redeemer if his followers looked more redeemed.” … The greatest stumbling block to Christianity are Christians who are no better than today’s scribes and Pharisees.

Throughout my priestly, I have been asked to condemn this or that!  Love the sinner; hate the sin. … Good trick! It’s still judgment!  Love the sinner in his sin! … God does! … Don’t ever talk to someone about their sinning, unless you personally, truly, tearfully love that person.  Otherwise it goes across as so much judgmental righteousness.

Jesus told us not to judge, the measure we measured will be measured out to us, conquer evil with good, be compassionate as the Father is compassionate.

I am not saying the young didn’t need to be challenged. He was a self-centered and entitled brat who wanted his dad dead. He asked for his inheritance that was to be used to care for his father in his old age. Asking for it was wishing his father was dead. … Only by hitting rock bottom did he begin to see–partially! He saw his need, not yet his father’s love: How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat. Yet give God the smallest opening and he rushes to forgive.

The three parables are to be read as one. The first two have someone seeking, but who should have sought the younger son??  … Who? … The elder brother!  He should have loved his brother!  ….  Who were to seek the sinners? … The scribes and the pharisees! They should have loved the sinners. … Who did seek them? … Jesus. How?  With a smile and an invitation! … Let’s eat together! Let’s laugh and drink?

The older son treated his father as badly as his brother! He shames his father by refusing his father’s call, by screaming at him, by crying out, “This son of yours,” by refusing to enter his Father’s joy at finding his lost son! … He loves neither father nor brother, only his own righteousness. …  Jesus’ doesn’t tell us in his tale what the older son did because it is really a question for the complaining Pharisees and scribes.

This Gospel is aimed at you. How would you answer? Would you seek and rejoice over the lost? …  But your task is not just seeking sinners for heaven, but bringing heaven to earth by living heaven here.

What is the Father doing? … He’s always on the lookout for you. He runs to you before you every get your act together. He clothes you with his life; he gives you his own sandals of spirit to walk with each other. He puts his own ring of authority to heal the wound of sin and be a light to the nations! It is not Ring of power, but it is the power of loving like Jesus. He wants a cosmos-wide block party. He wants you to bring heaven to earth. He wants his good creation back.

Was the younger son still broken? Sure, … but he came home and  God will do the rest!  … Come home, come to God’s feast!