Father Tim Lemlin
The gospel story that we heard last week about the two sons and the merciful father and the gospel story that we hear this week have many similarities. Both speak of a person who has been caught in a lifestyle that involves sins of the body. Neither can produce justification for their actions. Both come before an elder to be judged. Both have accusers. Neither is condemned. Both receive unexpected and extravagant mercy.
The similarities do not end here. Both the father of last week's story and Jesus in this week's story do not disregard the Mosaic Law (call it out of date or false), they simply choose something bigger, more encompassing. They choose forgiveness, mercy and love. Neither the father nor Jesus disputes with the accusers. They don't discredit them or berate them. They invite them to a different (a new) way of seeing life.
The elder son of last week's gospel story and the scribes and Pharisees of this week's story live almost exclusively in their heads. Life is viewed from the perspective that everything is "either-or." Either it is right or it is wrong. The guidelines that they follow to determine right from wrong are external to them. Being external, laws can easily be manipulated so that it is only possible to see someone else's faults, and there is no room for true mercy.
The new way of seeing life to which Jesus and the father invite the scribes, the Pharisees and the elder son begins with an invitation to venture forth from their cold and calculating minds and to feel life with their heart. Neither story tells us if any accepted this invitation.
Both the father and Jesus refrain from entering into the way of relating being forced upon them by the elder son, the scribes and the Pharisees. They do not enter their game of berating. They do not return the disrespect shown to them. They do not attempt to discredit them as they are trying to discredit. They simply invite them into a celebration.
As I have mentioned before, to eat - celebrate - with another person is to identify with that individual. Repeatedly, Jesus tells us that God chooses to eat - celebrate - with us. This invitation doesn't originate with us. God initiates the invitation. This is most difficult for us to accept especially if we are living primarily in our minds.
It is the feeling that we get when someone does something for us unexpectedly, or someone offers to help. Many of us feel very uncomfortable when something like this happens. When we live in our heads we usually work things out so that gratuitous help isn't ever needed, or when it is given unexpectedly, we make sure that it is re-paid. Or we manufacture an image about ourselves that we deserve the best from others - that we have earned the best. (I have sometimes found myself, for example, feeling indignant when someone goes past me and does not say, "Good morning, Father." After all, I am a priest and should be respected. I desire it! I have earned it, I tell myself.)
The truth that Jesus lives (and that is so often missed by us) is that God doesn't care about what we have done or haven't done, who we create ourselves to be, or where we find ourselves in the food chain. God invites each of us to dine and celebrate with God. God chooses to identify with us. If we can't hear this invitation, then experience it in the meal that we are presently celebrating. It is a meal in which God comes to dine with each of us.
