THE WORD IN LENT: Saturday, 2nd week in Lent
March 6, 2021: Micah 7: 14-15, 18-20; Luke 15: 11-32
A lovely version of the interpretation of this parable says, it was not so much the Son who was prodigal with his money, as the Father who was prodigal with his mercy. It is lovely not merely because it sounds rather novel and different, but because that seems more likely the point that Jesus wanted to draw: the unconditional and limitless mercy of God.
The first reading brings out the fact of how strange it sounded to the Old
Testament people that God would endlessly forgive! It still sounds strange to
many, why even to us sometimes. We do not really grasp that logic though we
pretend as if we comprehend it. If only we truly understand it, we would be
totally humbled and heart-broken!
God offers to cast our sins deep in the ocean, the ocean of
God's love and mercy. But why? Because we deserve it? Because we would
from the moment we are forgiven, live the most righteous way of life? Because
God gains by being merciful to us? Because otherwise God will be
misinterpreted? There is but just one reason: God is Mercy; God is Love.
The Word
invites us to focus on the right perspective of Christian living... an optimism
of continual renewal and unconditional acceptance. Oh, how blessed and loved we
are! If only we realise how much we are forgiven, how much we are loved, how
much we are cared for by the Almighty, we would grow more and more humble, open
and all-embracing. All that we need to do is realise how undeservedly blessed
we are! How unworthy we are of the super abounding mercy of God. That needs a
lot of humility. That is exactly where the hope that Christian life can offer humanity lies.
To renew the hope of our generation and the next, let us relearn humility on a daily basis!