Fourth Sunday Ordinary time

 

Luke 4:21-30

February 3, 2013

 

 

Anyone with children can relate to this parable.

Sadly, parents don’t always act like the father in the story.

On the occasions when they do, family restoration is always healthier.

But this parable is not only about the dysfunctional family home, but also about the dysfunctional community.

It is easy to point fingers at those rebellious sons and daughters who are in a faraway country and not see the rebellion in our own house.

Some  look at the fringe people in our parishes and say, "If only they would get more involved."

However, we overlook that we ourselves may be over-involved, in fact, self-involved, to the point of being dangerously close to the mind and heart of the older son.

 Some who experienced the transition from the pre-Vatican II church to the post-Vatican II church often sound like the older son when they complain of how things used to be:

they were always good, law-abiding Catholics;

now, the church is soft on the law, the liturgies are not private anymore and if we had to learn all that Latin then, why doesn't everybody have to learn it now?

It isn't fair!

Contrast those folks with some post-Vatican II people who sometimes self-righteously and arrogantly insist on rigid adherence to Vatican II.

They have replaced the old legalism with a more current, up-to-date, enlightened legalism.

Repentance and humility are lacking in both instances.

The parable of the prodigal invites us to accept Christ's offer of love-in-humiliation and to examine our hearts.

Do we, as community, stand humbly with the prodigal or arrogantly with the older son?