Thursday, March 7, 2013

Sunday Gospel Reflection: March 10, 2013 ~ His father was filled with compassion...



In the story of the Prodigal Son told in Luke’s Gospel this Sunday, the father is the embodiment of compassion, suffering with his son (com-passion), such that any possibility of judgment is excluded by the immensity of transcendent love.  The father embraces his son, and, with him, his son’s past, his sins, his transgressions – without judgment.  You are with me always, the Father tells his envious older son in an attempt to reach beyond that child’s barriers, to pull him, too, back into intimate relationship.  God’s compassion is for all, even when we are incapable of fulfilling it ourselves.

In Sunday’s first reading from Joshua, God removes the reproach of Egypt from the Israelites.  What does this mean?  While in Egypt, the Israelites neglected the practice of circumcision, a ritual grounded in their history that marked their identity as children of God.  When Joshua circumcises the Israelite men, their identity is restored, transcending the barrier they had placed between themselves and God, and allowing relationship to flourish in the Promised Land.  Paul similarly points to restored relationship in his second Letter to the Corinthians, inviting the people of Corinth to be a new creation, reconciled through the death and rising of Jesus.  They, too, are invited to renew their relationship with God, and, more still, to be ambassadors for Christ, calling others to right relationship with God.

In his invitation to covenant, God’s compassion knows no limits; Jesus didn’t come to judge the world, but to save it.   We struggle to accept this:  to embrace what God offers and respond; to find that that compassion moves us, and that the only thing that can truly fill us is love.  It’s up to us to allow God to reach beyond any barriers we might erect, to be reconciled with God, to open ourselves to the compassionate gift that is God’s love, and to be, ultimately, radiant with joy (Psalm 34).


This reflection is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source

No comments:

Post a Comment