Homily for the
Fourth Sunday of Lent
March 6, 2016
New Creation
A
reporter once asked Mother Teresa, “What do you think should change in the
Church?” She responded without hesitation, “You and I.”
Yes,
what needs to change is us.
Look
behind you at that beautiful portrait hanging on the wall. Rembrandt’s “Prodigal
Son,” bringing to life today’s parable. In some ways, this parable is as much
about the Father and His mercy as it is about the son who walked away. The
Father’s mercy is endless – but we have one prerequisite before we can receive
it.
We must
repent.
We must
be willing to walk away, to give up the sin. Imagine if the Prodigal Son had
returned home, drunk and with a woman on each arm, calling out to his father, “Hey
dad, I need more money!” I guarantee that the parable would have ended quite
differently! In order to receive the Father’s mercy, the son had to walk away
from his sin. The Father did not – and could not – give him mercy until he
first turned away from his evil ways.
With all
of this talk of the “Year of Mercy”, there might be some misunderstanding of
God’s mercy. Mercy is not a license to sin. Mercy does not mean that your sin
doesn’t matter. It DOES matter – it wounds us deeply, it disfigures the image
of God within us, it hurts others. So, mercy can never condone sin. Rather,
mercy wipes it away – when we have
repented.
After
all, St. Paul says that “whoever is in Christ is a new creation.” The old has passed away – we’ve gotten rid of it, we’ve
turned from our sin. We cannot be in
Christ if we are still living in our old ways! So the man who comes to
confession who is living with his girlfriend outside of marriage – you must give that up if you are to receive
forgiveness! The woman who wants to repent of being worldly but still keeps all
85 pairs of shoes – you must give
that up if you want to be a new creation in Christ! The woman who says she is
sorry for sleeping in and missing Mass, but purposely does not set her alarm on
Sunday mornings – you must give that up! The teen who says he wants to be pure,
but doesn’t take steps to avoid bad websites – you must give that up! We cannot
walk the path of sin and the path of Christ at the same time!
Now,
this is not to say that we have to be perfect to receive mercy. God understands
that we are weak, and that we will likely fall again. But all we need is a purpose of amendment – a desire to do
better, and taking practical steps towards turning away from the sin.
Pope
Francis told a great story about how God’s mercy can invade as long as we open
the door just a crack. In the olden days, there was a priest assigned to
accompany a certain condemned criminal as the criminal was being brought to the
place where he would be executed. The priest asked the criminal if he wished to
go to confession, but the criminal declined. Stunned, the young priest asked
why he didn’t want to go, considering he would be dead in a matter of hours.
The
criminal replied, “Because I’m not sorry for what I did. If I had to do it
again, I’d still be a drunkard and an adulterer and a murderer. I’m not sorry
for it.”
The
priest, greatly saddened, continued to travel in silence, until he was inspired
by the Holy Spirit to ask, “Well, are you at least sorry that you’re not sorry?”
The
criminal sighed and said, “Yes, I wish
I could be sorry.”
The
priest saw that as the slightest opening of grace, and he heard the criminal’s
confession before death - and mercy triumphed!
We do
not have to be holy to receive God’s
mercy, but we have to want to be holy.
And this involves taking practical steps to give up our sin, avoid temptations,
and truly desire holiness.
After
all, the Prodigal Son had to leave the land of sin to encounter the Father’s
forgiveness. And what joy there was when the son came home! What joy is there
when YOU return back to your Father’s embrace and become a new creation in
Christ!
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