Fourth Sunday of Lent Year C 2025
Josh 5:9a, 10–12; 2 Cor 5:17–21; Lk 15:1–3, 11–32
Imagine the joy that would be in the world if all parties on this planet who are involved in armed conflicts, would throw away their weapons and sit around the table and settle for peace.
Envision the jubilation the world would have when all drug barons of the world who are creating their wealth by selling drugs that young people would say: This is not good we are stopping creating false wealth through the supply of drugs.
Imagine the joy and celebration that would be in the world when all people who are exploiting their countrymen and other nations would say: What we are doing is wrong, we are not going to exploit our brothers and sisters anymore.
The joy of turning away from what is bad and evil and coming back to God is the joy of this fourth Sunday.
This fourth Sunday of Lent is called Laetare Sunday or Rejoice Sunday. The entrance antiphon begins the liturgy of this Sunday by inviting the people to rejoice: Rejoice Jerusalem and all who love her (Is 66:10).
As the celebration of Easter draws near, this feeling of joy continues to grow. As pilgrims of hope we are invited to celebrate the joy of returning to our loving Father, the joy of conversion. Though we are sinners, we rejoice because our Heavenly Father is merciful and is ready to forgive us, as we turn away from our sins and come back to Him. As we return to the loving and merciful Father, we are called upon to admit in humility that, by sinning, we betray and offend God’s love and wound and disfigure the body of Christ, which is the Church.
In today’s gospel, St. Luke tells us that tax collectors and sinners were drawn to Jesus, eager to hear his words. However, the Pharisees and scribes criticized Jesus for welcoming and dining with these outcasts (Lk 15:1-2). The Pharisees and scribes failed to grasp the meaning of Jesus’ mission who “came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mk 2:17). In his desire to help the Pharisees and scribes to understand why he welcomed and ate with tax collectors and sinners, Jesus told them the parable of the Prodigal son or the parable of the Loving Father. This parable reveals God’s infinite mercy and love. It teaches us that despite the fact that our sins hurt God our Father, we have the firm hope in his mercy.
In the parable, the younger son asked his father to give him a share of his inheritance, which the father freely gave him. The son squandered all his inheritance, living a life of debauchery, until he found himself in a disgraceful situation of feeding and eating with swine, something abhorrent to the Jews. Coming to his senses, he decided to return to his father, seeking forgiveness and willing to be treated as a hired servant. In other words, the younger son, after realizing the folly of moving away from his father, started a pilgrimage of returning to his loving father.
The season of Lent should help us to realize the folly of our sins and the emptiness of living faraway from God. It spurs us to embark on a pilgrimage of conversion, with the hope that our loving Father is ready to welcome and forgive us.
When the son finally came back, the father saw him from afar, was filled with compassion and rushed to embrace him with great affection. He threw a grand celebration to mark his son’s return, for he said his son who was dead had come back to life and who was lost was found (Lk 15:24).
The parable reveals the father’s extravagant love. The father who remained vigilant, awaiting the return of his son. The elder son like the Pharisees was reluctant to welcome the sinful and repentant brother. The elder brother resented his younger brother’s squandering their father’s wealth.
Do we realize that in our families, communities and in the world at large, we fail to have peace because there are some parties who do not want to forgive?
As we continue to reflect upon this parable, we realise that the younger son’s story mirrors our own lives. We can easily see ourselves in his shoes, for we sin against God’s love in various ways. Perhaps we have pursued wealth and power at the expense of our families and communities, leaving others to suffer. Maybe we have exploited our positions of influence for personal gain and stole resources meant to benefit the community. Perhaps some parents have been so irresponsible such that they spent their earnings entertaining themselves at the neglect of their children. Children may also be irresponsible and may want more resources to be spent on them alone at the expense of the rest of the family.
The world over, we might think of corrupt leaders and executives who abuse public resources or company funds, leaving countless citizens to struggle in poverty and causing businesses to collapse. Yet, no matter how grave our sins may be, the parable of the prodigal son offers us hope. We are comforted by the words of the Lord in Isaiah: “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall become as white as snow (Is 1:18).
Today’ Gospel reminds us that everyone has the capacity to change, to turn away from his or her sins, and to return to God. Let everyone say with firm hope and trusting in the love of the Father: I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you (Lk 15:18).
This repentance should lead to celebration and that celebration is the coming Easter. There will be great joy in our communities and in the world when all communities and nations make a communal lament and join the psalmist and say : We have sinned like our fathers, we have gone astray, we have behaved wickedly (Ps 106:6). Our Merciful Father is ready to clothe us with the garment of salvation which we lost when we sinned against him.
Our celebration will be great when those who have wronged others take responsibility for their actions and to make restitution, restoring justice and dignity to those they have harmed. If we are the ones who were betrayed and injured by the sinful actions of our brothers and sisters we are called upon to forgive and sit at the same table once again with our repentant brothers and sisters.
As we make this pilgrimage of conversion let us pray and ask the Lord to give all the people of the world a humble and contrite heart that desires to come back to the house of God.
May our Mother Mary intercede for us!