Fourth Sunday of Lent Cycle C
Joshua 5:9a, 10–12
Psalm 34:2–3, 4–5, 6–7
2 Corinthians 5:17–21
Luke 15:1–3, 11–32
The Fourth Sunday of Lent invites us to discover anew the implications of our relationship with Jesus Christ. We can leave behind the old journey and what has happened along the way to enter into a new situation and to embark on a new journey to the true Promised Land.
By encountering Jesus and opening ourselves to His grace, we are transformed. The Scriptures offer us images of this movement and call us to put it into practice with joy.
Joshua, now having led the people of Israel into the Promised Land, is told by the Lord, “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.” The Book of Joshua notes that the Passover is celebrated at the end of the 40 years of the wilderness journey in the way that Moses instructed them, and that the produce of the land of Canaan is the source of their sustenance rather than the manna of the desert.
God has fulfilled the promise made to the fathers and to Moses. Joshua receives the pronouncement of Israel’s new status.
Paul emphasizes this message of new freedom. All things are made new in Christ, and those made new have the task of passing on the promise to others. There is a transformation that has happened that gives new capacities for the life of grace. We become ambassadors of God Himself, serving as witnesses to the offer that is given through Jesus Christ.
Paul explains this and then invites his readers to respond to the grace that is offered.
The parable of the father who had two sons is presented by Jesus to a crowd that questions how He acts with those who have been left out, the “tax collectors and sinners.” Pharisees and scribes complain and Jesus tells a story that invites them to understand God’s mercy.
The father gives all he has to both of his sons. One squanders his share and then returns. The father receives him back with open arms. The elder son, who now owns all the property that is left, fails to understand that it is not a matter of possessions but relationship. The parable closes with an invitation to rejoice in the relationship renewed.
When the world is divided into “us” and “them,” we miss the fact that we belong to one family. When we cling to our past and old ways, we carry the desert with us into the Promised Land.
When we miss the call to serve as witnesses and ambassadors of God’s mercy, we fail to realize who we are in God’s way of organizing the world. We are invited, called, encouraged to open our eyes, see things in a different light and behave accordingly.
Our way of thinking and our approach to others who do not share that way of thinking can get in the way of our living in accord with the true meaning of what we are thinking about. The truth is not abstract but engaged in the real world.
When our grasp of the truth prevents us from having a relationship with those who are wounded by the world’s way of reacting to them, we miss the freedom of the Gospel. Every generation has persons who are marginalized and left powerless. The mercy of God is shared with us, and we are called to “pass it on.”
How we respond to the persons we would rather leave out is the true measure of our understanding of Jesus. When we act like Jesus, we experience joy. That joy then serves to invite others to come to Jesus, and we are the “ambassadors of Christ.”
Alternate readings for the Second Scrutiny Year A
I Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a
Psalm 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41
The Year A readings, used at Masses when the Second Scrutiny is prayed over catechumens of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, employ the themes of light and darkness, sight and blindness, to invite us to receive the light of Christ and to allow faith to influence how we look upon all that happens in our world.
We see with new eyes, the eyes of faith.