Lent with Pope Benedict XVI: Meditations for Every Day by Benedict XVI Pope

Author:Benedict XVI, Pope
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Word Among Us Press
Published: 2012-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

—Angelus Address, Fourth Sunday of Lent, April 3, 2011

Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent

THE MERCIFUL HEART OF THE FATHER

On this Fourth Sunday of Lent [Cycle C], the gospel of the father and the two sons, better known as the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), is proclaimed. This passage of St. Luke constitutes one of the peaks of spirituality and literature of all time. Indeed, what would our culture, art, and, more generally, our civilization be without this revelation of a God the Father so full of mercy? It never fails to move us, and every time we hear or read it, it can suggest to us ever new meanings. Above all, this gospel text has the power of speaking to us of God, of enabling us to know his face, and better still, his heart.

After Jesus has told us of the merciful Father, things are no longer as they were before. We now know God; he is our Father, who out of love created us to be free and endowed us with a conscience, who suffers when we get lost and rejoices when we return. For this reason, our relationship with him is built up through events, just as it happens for every child with his parents: At first he depends on them, then he asserts his autonomy, and in the end, if he develops well, he reaches a mature relationship based on gratitude and authentic love.

In these stages we can also identify moments along man’s journey in his relationship with God. There can be a phase that resembles childhood: religion prompted by need, by dependence. As man grows up and becomes emancipated, he wants to liberate himself from this submission and become free and adult—able to organize himself and make his own decisions, even thinking that he can do without God. This stage is particularly delicate and can lead to atheism, yet even this frequently conceals the need to discover God’s true face. Fortunately for us, God never fails in his faithfulness. Even if we distance ourselves and get lost, he continues to follow us with his love, forgiving our errors and speaking to our conscience from within in order to call us back to him.

In this parable the sons behave in opposite ways. The younger son leaves home and sinks ever lower, whereas the elder son stays at home, but he, too, has an immature relationship with the father. In fact, when his brother comes back, the elder brother does not rejoice like the father; on the contrary, he becomes angry and refuses to enter the house. The two sons represent two immature ways of relating to God: rebellion and childish obedience. Both these forms are surmounted through the experience of mercy. Only by experiencing forgiveness, by recognizing one is loved with a freely given love—a love greater than our wretchedness but also than our own merit—do we at last enter into a truly filial and free relationship with God.

Dear friends, let us meditate on this parable.

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