One Good Word for Easter: Alleluia!

“Mary Magdalene saw the stone had been rolled away

from the entrance of the tomb.” Jn. 20:1

One Good Word for Easter: Alleluia!

Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013

Acts 10:34, 37-43  Colossians 3:1-4  John 20:1-9 

The first reading from Acts

Peter proceeded to speak: “You know what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached. You know about Jesus of Nazareth, how God poured out on Him the Holy Spirit and power. He went everywhere doing good and healing all who were under the power of the Devil. We are witnesses of all that He did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to appear, not to all the people, but only to us who are the witnesses chosen by God in advance. We ate and drank with Him after he rose from the dead. And He commissioned us to preach to the people and testify that He is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in Him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”

The word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Glory to you, Lord.

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early in the morning, while it was still dark, and saw the stone had been rolled away from the entrance of the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they put Him.” So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first. He bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. It was not lying with the burial cloths but was rolled up by itself. Then the other disciple, who had arrived at the tomb first, also went in. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand the Scripture which said He must rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back home.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction

Easter 2013

The back of winter has been broken and the greening of spring is everywhere. The robins are returning from wintering down south, and will soon be nesting. The recent papal conclave elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, as pope - a simple man who daily took the bus to work. Easter 2013 is filled with much hope and promise..

The Nazis’ power to murder God.

German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900) is famous for his strange but intriguing declaration that “God is Dead."  In his work The Madman, he places the expression in the mouth of a demented man who declares:

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed Him. How shall we (murderers of all murderers) comfort ourselves? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has known has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to cleanse ourselves?

Nietzsche was right: man has the awesome power to murder God! On November 9^th 1938, the Nazis murdered God, as they rampaged through Germany and in one night destroyed 7000 Jewish businesses and torched 191 synagogues. That night goes down in history as Krystallnacht (Night of the Shattered Crystal), and it marks the beginning in earnest of the Holocaust. By the time Nazis had accomplished their `final solution of the Jewish problem,’ they had murdered six million Jews! The most prominent fatality of the Holocaust, however, was God Himself! Activist and author Elie Weisel is the Holocaust’s most well-know Jewish survivor. In a little volume entitled Night he recounts his first evening in the concentration camp of Buchenwald, when  he saw the bodies of little children going up in smoke from the crematories. He writes:

That was the night which murdered my God and my soul, and turned my dreams into dust. Never shall I forget it, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never!
 

The Islamists’ power to murder God.

Again, Nietzsche was right: man has the awesome power to murder God. On September 11^th 2001 radical Islamists drove two 747s into the Twin Towers in Lower Manhattan. It was the most horrific act of violence ever perpetrated against the USA. It took ten months of utterly grim labor at ground zero to haul away 2,000,000 tons of debris. 1600 bodies and 20,000 body-parts were gathered for proper burial. The most prominent fatality of 9/11, however, was God Himself! One New Yorker, a security guard who lost more than thirty friends that day, said of that horrific event:

It was utterly barbaric the way their lives were taken. So I look at God now as a barbarian and I probably always will. My old God was murdered that day, and I don’t know how to bring Him back to life.

 

Nature’s power to murder God

Not only man but also nature has the awesome power to murder God. Two years ago on March 11^th 2011, a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake occurred off the coast of Japan. It caused a tsunami of over-whelming statistics: 27,000 people dead or missing. 318,000 people left homeless, and the cost of 306 billion dollars to haul away millions of tons of debris and to rebuild. Ominously topping those horrific statistics were the crippled nuclear reactors in Fukushima Prefecture. The cost in human grief, physical pain, deep despair, irreparable loss and ominous fear of radiation was overwhelming.  

That tsunami murdered God for Austin Kenny. In an article entitled God, Allah & the Tsunami Disaster he unambiguously declares his atheism. And what’s more, he openly expresses a thought which even we believers at times are tempted to entertain quietly down deep, especially in the tsunami moment of our own lives. Kenny writes:

Where was God when the tsunami hit? He was where he always was: in the imaginations of those who believe in him. He exists nowhere else. He can neither help nor hinder us. We have nothing to thank him for, nor do we have anything to blame him for. We’re simply on our own! 

Man’s awesome power to raise up a murdered God

Man indeed has the power to murder God, but he also has the awesome power to raise up a murdered God. Fr. Mychal Judge (May 11, 1933-Sept. 11, 2001) had such power. He was a priest of the Franciscan Order and beloved chaplain of the NYC Fire Department. On the apocalyptic day of 9/11 chaplain Judge rushed to ground zero where he became the first recorded fatality of that infamous day. He had taken off his helmet to give the last rites to a dying fireman when suddenly a mass of debris came crushing down upon him. He died there on the spot and his body was carried off by his fellow firefighters to nearby Episcopal St. Paul Chapel at 209 Broadway. There it was reverently laid on an altar. Fr. Judge's last moments crowned a life of extraordinary unselfishness.

 

The darker side of Fr. Judge

New Yorkers knew much more about Fr. Judge than just about his heroic death on 9/11. They had often experienced his playful character -- his legendary knack for story-telling and for bursting into old Irish standards at the drop of a hat. They experienced his great gift for making people feel as though they were the only ones in the room, and his bartender's knack of bringing strangers together. New Yorkers were amazed at Judge’s encyclopedic memory for people’s names, birthdays and passions. And they were well-aware of his deep compassion for the City’s needy and forgotten.

But New Yorkers also knew the darker side of Fr. Judge. They knew he was a recovering alcoholic who comforted alcoholics, assuring them they were not evil people. He’d tell them: “Look you’re not a bad person; you just have a disease that makes you think you’re bad.” Despite some raised eyebrows, he opened the doors of the well-known St. Francis of Assisi Church on 31^st Street in Upper Manhattan to Dignity, an organization for gay Catholics. He told the raised eyebrows, “They too need a place to pray.”And then to top it off, people saw him, clothed in his Franciscan habit, march quietly and dignifiedly in the first gay-inclusive St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City.

A sea of 3,000 people

Fr. Judge’s funeral Mass on Sept, 15 was presided over by Cardinal Edward Egan in St. Francis of Assisi Church, and it was attended by a sea of 3,000 people. In that huge crowd were former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And when a memorial service was later held in the Anglican chapel of the Good Shepherd Chapel on Ninth Ave, cops, firefighters, lawyers, priests, nuns, homeless people, rock-and-rollers, recovering alcoholics, local politicians and middle age couples from the suburbs came flocking from every direction. New Yorkers came flocking to celebrate the life and death of a `saintly sinner.’ By his utterly unselfish life and then by his heroic death Fr. Mychal had rolled away the stone before the tomb of God who had been murdered quite soundly on 9/11. 

Conclusion

One good word for Easter: Alleluia

Words fall short on Easter Morn. Homilies which pretend `to prove’ that Jesus truly rose from the dead are never brilliantly successful. More successful in engendering Easter faith is a `sinful saint’ like Mychal Judge who by his selfless living and heroic dying rolled away the stone before the tomb of God. More successful in engendering Easter faith is the yearly return of the robin rolling away the stone before the tomb of winter, announcing the arrival of spring and building her nest according to a blueprint indelibly written within her. More successful in engendering Easter faith is a vibrant parish rolling away the stone before the tomb of a dead God, and making Him come alive with living Liturgy and living Word.

Words fall short on Easter Morn. At the end of the day, there is only one good word for Easter: `Alleluia!’  `Alleluia!’ is an unintelligible exclamation -  a kind of ecstatic babble - which wells up in our hearts because of `saintly sinners’ like Mychal Judge,  nesting robins,  vibrant parishes, and popes like Francis who as Archbishop of Buenos Aires daily took the bus to work.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio – now Pope Francis

Rubric for Palm Sunday: Read the Passion Passionately

“A great crowd of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut down palm branches and spread them before Him.” (Mt. 21:8)

 

Rubric for Palm Sunday:

Read the Passion Passionately 

Palm (or Passion) Sunday, March 24, 2013

At the procession with palms

Luke 19:28-40 

 

At the Mass of Palm Sunday
Isaiah 50:4-7   Philippians 2:6-11 Luke 23:1-49

Palm Sunday

Today, March 24, Palm Sunday, is the opening of Holy Week. We receive blessed palms in remembrance of the first Palm Sunday when the Lord rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. The incredible news that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead (Jn. 11:1-45) had spread far and wide. So when the people heard that He was coming to town, they enthusiastically went out to welcome the wonder-worker. Cheering crowds laid palm branches before Him, as He rode into Jerusalem, seated upon a donkey.

Passover

This week is holy also for the Jewish community. This coming Tuesday, March 26, is the first day of Passover - a seven-day celebration commemorating the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. The Lord God instructed the enslaved Israelites to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a spring lamb. Then the Lord God rained death upon the unmarked homes of the Egyptians, but passed over the homes of the Israelites marked with the blood of the lamb. Hence the Feast of Passover. (Ex. 12:21-23)

`The Sound of Silence’

If the Passion is read passionately, if it’s read eloquently, it speaks for itself, and it needs no further words. After an eloquent reading of the Passion the ` Sound of Silence’ is far more powerful than the words of a preacher who might feel that he needs to add a few words of his own. After the readers have worked hard at an eloquent reading of the Passion, let the` Sound of Silence’ speak loudly for itself.

A Very Comforting Scripture

 

“Habemus papam!” “We have a pope.”

Pope Francis  

 This past Tuesday March 12, 115 cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI who resigned on February 28. One by one the cardinals walked up to the altar beneath Michelangelo's painting of the Last Judgment and the Creation of Adam with its famous depiction of God and Adam touching fingers. At the altar each cardinal knelt briefly in a moment of prayer and then, before dropping his ballot into a special urn, he recited in Latin:

"I call as my witness Christ the Lord, who will be my judge that my vote is given to the one who before God I think should be elected."

 Then on Wednesday March 13, white smoke from a temporary chimney on the Sistine Chapel announced to the world outside: “Habemus Papam!” (“We have a pope!”) Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, a Jesuit, received the required two-thirds of the 115 voting cardinals to make him pope.

 Then the Dean of the College of Cardinals asked Cardinal Bergoglio two solemn questions. First: "Do you freely accept your election?" He replied: "I do.” At that moment he became pope. The Dean then asked: "By what name shall you be called?" Cardinal Bergoglio replied: “I shall be called Francis.” The new pope was then led through the `Door of Tears’ to a dressing room where three sets of white cassocks were waiting: small, medium, and large. Donning the appropriate size, the new pope reentered the Sistine Chapel where he was given the Fisherman’s Ring.

 Then the senior Cardinal Deacon appeared on the great central loggia of St. Peter’s and proclaimed: 

I announce to you a great joy: we have a Pope!
The most eminent and most reverend Lord,
Lord Jorge Mario  Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Bergoglio,
who takes for himself the name of Pope Francis.

 Pope Francis is the son of middle-class Italian immigrants, and is known as a humble man who denied himself the luxuries that previous Buenos Aires cardinals enjoyed. He often rode the bus to work, cooked his own meals and regularly visited the slums that ring Argentina's capital. He considers social outreach, rather than doctrinal battles, to be the essential business of the Church. Catholics are still buzzing over his speech last year accusing fellow church officials of hypocrisy for forgetting that Jesus Christ bathed lepers and ate with prostitutes.

Pope Francis - elected to repair a Church fallen into ruin?

Pope Francis has chosen a much-beloved Italian saint who is identified with peace, poverty and a simple lifestyle. He is the first pontiff from Latin America, and the first pontiff to choose the name of that rich young man from Assisi who renounced wealth, and founded the Order of Friars Minor in the 13^th century. Franciscan history tells us that it was a voice from a crucifix in the rickety old chapel of San Damiano fallen into ruin that spoke to Francis, saying, ”Repair my Church.” Has Pope Francis been elected to repair a Church fallen into ruin?

---------------------------

 

“Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger

 in the dust on the temple floor.” (Jn. 8:6)

A Very Comforting Scripture

March 17, 2013, 5^th Sunday of lent

Isaiah 43:16-21    Philippians 3:8-14     John 8:1-11

Alleluia, alleluia.

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning He arrived again in the Temple area, and all the people started coming to Him, and He sat down and taught them. Then the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees dragged in a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the front of everyone. They said to Him, “Master, we caught this woman in the very act of committing adultery. In our Law Moses gave a commandment that such a woman should be stoned to death. Now what do you say about that?” They said this to trap Him, so they could have some charge to bring against Him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dust on the temple floor. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.”

Again He bent down and continued to write on the Temple floor. In response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”

A passage in search of a rightful place

Strange to say, this powerful passage about a woman caught in adultery and rescued from stoning by Jesus has had to wander down through the centuries in search of a rightful place in the canonical gospels. A few editions of the New Testament do not contain this wonderful passage at all! When editions do contain it, they betray an ambiguity or a misgiving about it. The New American Bible or Good News for Modern Man, for example, puts the story of the woman caught in adultery in brackets (“because it’s not included in the best and oldest Greek manuscripts”). Other bibles place the story of the adulteress in the 7^th chapter instead of the 8^th chapter (as in today’s reading), or even in the 21^st chapter of John. Some even place the passage not in John’s but in Luke’s gospel, in the 21^st chapter after the 38^th verse (“because the vocabulary, style and theology of the passage are not John's but Luke’s”).

 

Sexual moralism alive and well 

Why did this passage about the adulteress, rescued from being stoned and forgiven by Jesus, have to wander down the centuries in search of a fixed and rightful place in the canonical scriptures? Was it because `sexual moralism’ (which makes sexual `purity’ the height of all morality, and sexual `impurity’ the depth of all immorality) was alive and well in the early Church? Just as it is alive and well in every age. Did such moralism cause the early Church to feel uncomfortable and even a bit embarrassed by this passage which portrays Jesus dealing forgivingly and lovingly with an adulteress? Did Jesus’ behavior, in fact, directly clash with the Law of Moses? (Lv. 20:10; Dt. 20:22)

 Nowhere do we find sexual moralism (with its peculiar frame of mind) in the words of Jesus. It’s not in his words to the chief priests and Jewish elders: “I tell you that tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.” (Mt. 21:32) It’s not in his words to the woman in this Sunday’s gospel, who was caught “in the very act of  committing adultery:” “Neither do I condemn you.” (Jn. 8:11)

A Cardinal who criticized the emphasis

Cardinal Oscar Rodriquez Maradiaga, 70, who is currently the Archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is critical of sexual moralism. He strongly criticized the US media’s treatment of the clergy sex abuse in the USA. In fiery language he compared it to the persecution of Christians under the emperors Nero and Diocletian, and under the dictators Hitler and Stalin. The Cardinal, however, was sharply criticized for being too reactionary and too defensive. But he stuck to his guns. In an interview he made it clear that not for a moment did he question the sufferings of sex abuse victims or deny the failures of some shepherds to intervene when they should have. But what he criticized was the emphasis. The sex abuse issue got such extensive coverage precisely because of our sexual moralism which in so many words says that the height of all morality or the depths of all immorality has something to do with sex.

 That’s not true, said the Cardinal. Then he launched off into a whole litany of issues that deserve just as much coverage and even more than the sex abuse issue: Millions of people in the world go hungry every day. A whole generation of Africans are being killed off by the AIDS pandemic. 1.2 billion people drink polluted water. The combined salary of 12,000 Nike workers in Indonesia for a whole year doesn’t add up to what one basketball star gets for one endorsement. For him those issues deserve just as much and even more coverage than any sex scandal. What the Cardinal criticized was the emphasis

A Bishop who neither condemned nor condoned

 Bishop, Kenneth Untener (1937- 2004) of Saginaw, Michigan, was an outstanding shepherd of God’s people. Without any doubt he preached that marriage is a life-long commitment. But he asked, “What if, for some reason, it all falls apart? I like the distinction which Jesus carefully used upon the woman caught in adultery. He said, `Neither do I condemn you.’  But some people think the opposite of condemn is condone. Condemn comes from the Latin word `to damn.’ And the opposite of damning someone is helping someone.” Then Bishop Untener said, “I am not here to condemn divorced people nor am I here to condone them. I am here to help them. Jesus did not come to condemn or condone the woman caught in adultery; He came to help her.”

Not a man’s world anymore

The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees dragged a woman into the Temple, whom they had “caught in the very act of adultery.” They were ready to stone her to death in accordance with the Law of Moses. (Lv. 20:10)  Since the Temple was always in a state of repair, there was always plenty of masonry stone lying around to accommodate them. If the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees caught the woman “in the very act of adultery,” they must have caught her partner as well, for it takes two to commit adultery! The poor woman’s partner, however, was not dragged into the Temple with her, even though Leviticus says that both the adulterous woman and man should be stoned. (Lv. 20:10)

 Culturally and historically, however, it’s only been the adulterous woman who gets singled out for stoning. That’s because it’s always been a man’s world, but it isn’t any more! Now men like John Edwards (former U.S. Senator from North Carolina)  or like Mark Sanford (former Governor of South Carolina) or like Tiger Woods (world’s most famous golfer) all have been caught in an act of adultery and all have been publicly stoned.

What did He write in the dust?

When the teachers of the Law and Pharisees asked Jesus how He felt about the law commanding an adulteress to be stoned to death, they were setting a trap; they were hoping to impale Him on the horns of a dilemma: If He said she should be stoned, He’d be contradicting the Roman occupiers who took away the right of capital punishment from the Jews. If He said she should not be stoned, He’d be contradicting the Law of Moses. (Lv. 20:10; Dt. 20:22)

 Jesus refused to fall into their trap; He didn’t answer them; instead He bent down and wrote with his finger in the dust on the Temple floor. Then He straightened up and gave their tricky question a tricky answer which bypassed Rome and the Law of Moses: “Let the one without sin among you cast the first stone.” (Jn. 8:7) Bending down again Jesus continued to write with his finger in the dust on the Temple floor. What did He write in the dust?  Some guess He wrote `Ho-hum!’ Others guess He wrote the names of all the men who had her!

A priest and Levite who walked right by

The Parable of the Good Samaritan would, indeed, be a very appropriate gospel reading for Lent.  And yet, it’s not prescribed for any Sunday of Lent, whether in Cycle A, B or C. The parable is about a gross act of immorality which a Jewish priest and Levite committed on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. A man journeying on that road was waylaid by thieves who beat him to a pulp, robbed him of his money and left him half-dead. Along came a Jewish priest and Levite who saw the poor man, didn’t lift a finger to help him, and passed him by. How much more immoral than that can one get!  Then along came a despised Samaritan who worshipped God `in the wrong place,’ that is, on Mount Gerizim instead of in the Temple in Jerusalem. (Jn. 4: 20) This guy who worshipped `in the wrong place’ stops to pour the oil of compassion into the poor man’s wounds, hoists him on his beast of burden and hurries him off to the nearest inn, where he pays for the man’s care and cure. How more moral than that can one get! (Lk. 10:25-37)

The Scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we caught this woman in the very act of adultery.” There’s a religiosity and moralism in us which catches people “in the very act of adultery,” but doesn’t catch people like the Jewish priest and Levite in the very act of walking right by someone in need! Most of us by all means would confess having committed adultery. Not too many of us would confess walking right by and not having stopped to pour the oil of compassion upon someone in need.

Conclusion

A very comforting Scripture

Unlike the early Church, we are not ashamed of the Scripture passage which portrays Jesus dealing lovingly and forgivingly with the woman “caught in the very act of adultery.” We happily remove the brackets around this wonderful but poor wandering passage, and we give it a rightful and fixed place in the canonical gospels. What’s more, we are by no means ashamed of this Scripture passage which has Jesus neither condemning nor condoning but forgiving the adulteress. That’s a very comforting Scripture, for side by side with the adulteress stand John Edwards, Mark Sanford, Tiger Woods and all of us, “For none of us is righteous; no not one. We have all sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” (Rm. 3:23) To all of us Jesus says, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone at her.” (Jn. 8:7)                                                                                                                                                 

 

The Fall into Grace



The Return of the Prodigal Son

(By Rembrandt van Rijn c. 1668–1669)

 

   

The Fall into Grace

March 10^th 2013, 4^th Sunday of Lent

Joshua 5:9a, 10-12   II Corinthians 5:17-21   Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

 

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke.

Glory to you, Lord.

 On one occasion a number of tax collectors and sinners came to listen to Jesus. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law started grumbling. “This man welcomes sinners and even eats with them!” So Jesus told them this parable:

The younger son

A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, “Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.” So the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings and took off for a distant land, where he squandered his inheritance on parties and prostitutes. When he had run out of money, a severe famine struck that country, and he found himself in dire need. So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him out to his farm to slop the pigs. He longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the pigs fed, but nobody gave him any. Coming to his senses he thought about his father’s many hired hands who had more than enough to eat while he was starving. He said to himself, “I shall arise and return to the house of my father. And I shall say to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and thee. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.’” So he got up and started home to his father.

While he was still a long way off, his father spied his son on the horizon. Filled with joy the father ran out to greet his son whom he embraced and kissed. The   son remorsefully said to the father, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son.” But the father ordered his servants, “Quickly bring our finest robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then let us celebrate with a feast because this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found.” Then the celebration began.

The older son

Now the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the house, he heard the sound of music and dancing. He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. The servant said to him, “Your brother has returned and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.”  The older son began to pout and refused to enter the house. His father came out and pleaded with him. He said to his father in reply, “Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son who has wasted all your money on parties and prostitutes returns, you go and slaughter the fattened calf for him.” The father said to him, “My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
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Introduction

Cum clave 2013

115 Cardinals, `Princes of the Church,’ will elect the 266<sup>th</sup> pope. Political interference in papal elections in times past caused long vacancies between popes. That prompted Pope Gregory X to decree during the Second Council of Lyons in 1274 that the cardinal electors should be locked in seclusion cum clave (Latin for "with a key") and not be permitted to leave until a new Bishop of Rome had been elected. That’s the etymology of `conclave.’

The conclave is held in the Sistine Chapel.  There above the altar is Michelangelo’s great painting of the Last  Judgment, which took six years to complete.  Conclave 2013 will soon open. Black smoke emanating from a very unremarkable chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel will tell the city of Rome and the world that no pope as yet has been elected. White smoke will tell us that the conclave has accomplished its task – that the 266^th pope has indeed been elected.

Rembrandt's painting

In the parable of the Prodigal Son (the longest parable in the New Testament) the younger son takes off for a far-off land, squanders his money on parties and prostitutes, is reduced to feeding the pigs to make a living, and finally decides to return to the house of his father. In Rembrandt’s painting the father is an old half- blind man dressed in a deep red cloak, and he is receiving his wayward son with open arms.
 
The elder son, however, has played it safe: he stayed at home, never got lost, and therefore never really found himself. In Rembrandt’s painting he is the tall figure on the right of the picture who observes the scene from the sidelines. He doesn’t show any joy; he doesn’t step up onto the platform to join the celebration over the return of his wayward brother. The story itself, as well as Rembrandt's painting, say that it is very difficult to convert someone who has played it safe and has done everything right. Outwardly he is an obedient son who has observed all his father’s wishes, but inwardly he is filled with resentment and pride

Judaism and Islam delight in observance.

Both Judaism and Islam delight in observance of religious laws. The Orthodox Jew delights in observing `the yoke of the Law’ which is a huge corpus of 613 major laws, plus a whole constellation of minor rules and regulations. The orthodox Jew is matched by the orthodox Muslim who delights in ` the yoke of Shari’ah’ which for Muslims is a hefty corpus of religious laws and prohibitions. dealing with  crime, politics, economics,  as well as personal matters such as sexual intercourse, hygiene, diet, prayer and fasting. Both Judaism and Islam, therefore, are closer to each other than they are to Christianity. Both are dismayed by transgressors of their respective religious laws.

Christianity delights in repentance.

Christianity, however, delights in the repentance. It delights in Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son: after a wild fling in a foreign land where he squanders all his money on parties and prostitutes, and is reduced to slopping the pigs, he decides to return to the house of his father, who daily has been looking off into the horizon, hoping his wayward son would return.

A diamond with many facets

That parable is a diamond with many facets. It’s traditionally called the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It’s also called the Parable of the Prodigal Father who upon his wayward son’s return is prodigal with forgiveness and love. He bedecks him with a fine robe for his skeletal body, a costly ring for his boney fingers, and soft sandals for his calloused feet. 

 Furthermore, it’s a parable not just of one but of two sons: one is disobedient and the other obedient. By a strange twist, the `disobedient’ son was `obedient’ to the Law of Growth which beckons us to leave our safe nest, get out on our own, and fly away as young robins do in late spring. On the other hand, the `obedient’ son was `disobedient’ to the Law of Growth, as he stuck close to home, played it safe, never matured and ended up as a pouting kid.

 Finally, the parable begins with the father opening his arms and letting go of the son whom he loves very much, but whom he doesn’t want to let go. The father, however, chooses to let go of his son because he trusts in an ancient wisdom which says: “Let go of the ones you love. If they return to you, they are yours. If they fly away for good, they were never yours in the first place.” The parable, which begins with the father opening his arms and letting go, ends with the father closing his arms around “a son who was dead but has come to life, and who was lost but now has been found.”

Conclusion

The fall into Grace

Anglican theologian William Coats writes: “There is a strain in Roman Catholic theology which sees us human beings as naturally good, but who `fall from Grace’ when we commit certain sins. It’s all so much nonsense!” The Prodigal Son, Coats writes, didn’t fall from Grace; rather he fell into Grace. He fell into the arms of an incredibly Prodigal Father who wrapped his son’s skeletal body in a rich robe, soothed his calloused feet with soft sandals and adorned his boney finger with a ruby ring. Then he prepared a great feast with a fatted calf, because “he who was dead has come back to life, and he who was lost has now been found.”