To Err is Human, to Forgive is Divine. Begin Again! Homily/Sermon on the Prodigal Son

To Err is Human, to Forgive is Divine. Begin Again!

Homily for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Year C

by Fr. Tommy Lane

“To err is human, to forgive is divine” goes the proverb. This is precisely what we see in the Scripture readings today. In the first reading (Exod 32:7-14), God relented following Moses’ intercession and did not inflict his threatened punishment on the Hebrews at Mount Sinai for the sin of the golden calf. The psalm is always a prayerful response to the first reading, and today (Ps 51) contains part of David’s plea for mercy from God following a well-known sin. The second reading (1 Tim 1:12-17) reminds us of Paul’s past persecution of Christians and his conversion, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and arrogant, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.” (1 Tim 1:13) And that brings us to the Gospel (Luke 15) and the three parables of God’s mercy, and above all to what we know as the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) which for many, is the most beautiful of all the parables. It is always a joy to read and listen to that parable, reminding us afresh each time of God’s merciful love for us.

The younger son, the prodigal, wanted freedom and adventure and left his father. He went to live in a far country, representing us when we wander from God. He left life lived in union with God and went to a place far away from God. We heard that he squandered his inheritance. Luke’s Greek, I think, means a lot more than just squandering his inheritance. I think it really means he squandered his own being or he squandered himself. He was badly lost. Due to a famine, the situation became dire. He had to work on a pig farm. For Jesus’ Jewish listeners, for whom pork was forbidden, this revealed that he had hit rock bottom. Of all places, on a pig farm! The situation was so difficult that he even wanted to eat what the pigs were eating. Of course, Luke doesn’t say anything about the smell on the pig farm. Of all the smells on a farm, the smell of pigs is I think the most difficult. It even gets into your clothes. The younger son wanted adventure and freedom without God, and discovered that life without God is not adventure or freedom but could be something close to slavery.

Then three things happened. The first thing is that the younger son came to his senses. Another way of understanding this is that he admitted what a mess he was in. It was a moment of conversion. I wonder if this moment of truth was in some way connected with the fact that his money had run out and he was now dealing with the odors of the pigs. Did suffering help bring about his conversion? His suffering must have aided his conversion in some way. I think we all know people who came closer to God through suffering or we know people who found their vocations as a result of some suffering. In Salvifici Doloris, Pope John Paul II wrote,

Man suffers on account of evil, which is a certain lack, limitation or distortion of good. We could say that man suffers because of a good in which he does not share, from which in a certain sense he is cut off, or of which he has deprived himself. (Salvifici Doloris #7)

The suffering of the young prodigal, experiencing evil because of lacking good, must have helped him arrive at the second thing that happened: he reflected on his situation. “How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food to eat but here am I dying from hunger.” (Luke 15:17) He took time out to reflect on his situation. Taking time to reflect, to slow down, helps us connect with God and see who we are meant to be. One sign I saw recently said, “No Wifi. Pretend it’s 1993…Live.” The prodigal’s reflection helped him arrive at the third thing that happened; he made a decision. He got up and went back to his father. He returned to life with God as it is meant to be. And what a welcome he got.

While he was still a long way off his father caught sight of him. His father was longing for his return even more than the son wanted to return. The father also suffered while the son was with the pigs. God our Father is in some way incomplete when we are lost but when we return he rejoices and re-clothes us with the finest robe. However Luke’s Greek doesn’t describe it as “the finest robe”, but rather “the first robe.” (Luke 15:22) What could the first robe possibly be? For the Church Fathers, the first robe meant Adam’s robe, his life with God which he lost at the Fall and so in this parable the son returning home and being clothing again in the first robe is being clothed again in God’s love and mercy.

Some of us may unfortunately have heard what I call “horror stories” about someone who was not helped in the confessional. To my way of thinking, that penitent experienced some of the reaction of the older brother in the confessional and not as much as necessary of the loving welcome of the forgiving father. And yet, to my way of thinking, when someone goes to confession, that penitent has already in some way, shape or form, however briefly already gone through the same three stages of the prodigal: admitting the situation, reflecting on it even if only briefly, and making a decision to go the father’s house. I find helpful a passage in The Joy of Discipleship, which is a collection of writings by Pope Francis on various aspects of discipleship.

God always shows us the greatness of his mercy. He gives us the strength to go forward. He is always with us in order to help us go forward. He is a God who loves us so very much. He loves us and that is why he is with us, to help us, to strengthen us, to help us go forward. Courage! Always forward! Thanks to his help, we can always begin again. How? Begin again from scratch. Someone might say to me, “No, Father, I did so many reprehensible things . . . I am a great sinner . . . I cannot begin from scratch!” You are wrong! You can begin from scratch. Why? Because he is waiting for you, he is close to you, he loves you, he is merciful, he forgives you, he gives you the strength to begin again from scratch! Everybody! (The Joy of Discipleship page 37, which is an excerpt of Pope Francis' Sunday Angelus Address, December 15, 2013)

After the sin of the golden calf at Mount Sinai, God, moved by Moses’ pleading, displayed his mercy. God’s mercy endured since just some chapters later in that Book of Exodus (Exod 40:34), we read of God’s presence, or Shekinah as it is often called, coming down on the tabernacle. The Hebrews continued to feel God’s love and mercy when they drank water from the rock in the desert (Num 20; previously in Exod 17). St. Paul in 1 Cor 10:4 gave that rock a spiritual sense and said they drank from the supernatural Rock which was Christ. In other words, in some way Christ accompanied them in the desert. During this Eucharist, we experience the mercy of God and will consume the manna of the New Covenant and drink from the Rock of Christ, his Precious Blood, who accompanies us in our journey through the desert of life. On our journey, every time we return to God we are clothed again in his first robe. We are clothed again in his love and mercy.

This homily was delivered in Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland.

More Homilies for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday Year C

God waiting to welcome us back 2016

Other Homilies on the Parable of the Prodigal Son:

The two brothers did not know their father. Do we know God? 2010

Some of each son in us 2007

Our Heavenly Father offers us all he has

Saints have a past, sinners a future

Ring on our finger (homily excerpt)

Why confess sins to a priest?

Joy of the Gospel 2021

Begin again 2022