Christ the Cornerstone

As our merciful father, God forgives us, welcomes us home

The Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Lk 15: 1-3,11-32) tells the story of the Prodigal Son. This is a parable that is rich in meaning. When we hear it, we often recognize ourselves—sometimes as the younger brother who squandered his inheritance in dissolute living, other times as the resentful older brother, and occasionally as the loving father whose love and forgiveness toward both of his sons is a powerful image of God’s abundant mercy.

The Prodigal Son illustrates that no sin is so great that it cannot be forgiven. Can this really be true? Certainly there are grave mortal sins and unspeakable crimes that are committed by people who have lost all sense of humanity. Sins against children, including sexual abuse, abortion and the emotional trauma inflicted by poverty, war and injustice are especially difficult to forgive.

And yet, our Lord forgave his enemies. He was merciful toward those who committed the most grievous sin, nailing God’s Son to a cross and condemning him to a hideous, humiliating death. If Jesus can forgive his murderers, surely we can muster the courage to do the same for those who commit serious acts of violence and inhumanity against us.

In his autobiography Hope, Pope Francis writes:

The Gospel is addressed to everyone, and it doesn’t condemn people, classes, conditions, categories, but rather idolatries, such as the idolatry of wealth that produces injustice, of insensitivity to the cry of those who suffer. … The holy faithful people of God are (sinners). (The Church) is not a supposed gathering of the pure. The Lord blesses everyone, and his Church must not, cannot do otherwise.

At the beginning of his papacy, the Holy Father was asked by a journalist to describe who he is. Without hesitation, he replied, “I am a sinner.” It was not simply a pious statement. Nor was it intended to make him sound humble. It was an honest admission of who he is, and who we all are, as children of Adam and Eve whose lives have been distorted by the reality of sin and evil in our world and in ourselves.

The Church is for everyone, Pope Francis writes, “especially for poor sinners, beginning with me.” To illustrate this statement, he quotes a prayer offered by Pope John Paul I: “Lord, take me as I am, with my defects, with my shortcomings, but make me become what you want me to be.”

This is the point of the parable of the Prodigal Son: No matter who we are or what we have done, if we repent and return to him, our loving Father will forgive us and allow us to become the people he wants us to be.

The merciful father in Jesus’ parable doesn’t condone the actions or attitudes of either son. Without question, he wants both of them to change and to become better men, but he does not condemn them. He opens his arms to embrace them and to share with them everything he owns.

“My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours” (Lk 15:31), the father says to his bitter older son. “But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (Lk 15:32). This is God’s way—to rescue us when we have gone astray and to celebrate and rejoice when we return home.

The second reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent (2 Cor 5:17-21) emphasizes that we are all called to be reconciled to God through Christ. As St. Paul tells the Corinthians (and us):

Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Cor 5:17-19)

God does not count our trespasses or hold them against us. No matter who we are, or what we have done, we are urged, on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God. Even more amazingly, we are invited to become ambassadors for Christ, to represent him and be his witnesses to the world.

As we continue our Lenten journey, let us pray: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your child” (Lk 15:18-19). Every time we say this prayer with genuine humility, we will be amazed by God’s response: “Let us celebrate with a feast, because this child of mine was dead, and has come to life again; was lost, and has been found!” (Lk 15:23-24) †