Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
Today’s readings teach us about God’s mercy. In the first reading from the book of the prophet Micah, we learn that God forgives and doesn’t hold grudges. God even finds joy in giving mercy. Micah used the imagery of God as a shepherd who guides us and cares for us. Today’s Gospel tells the parable of the prodigal son. In this story, a father had two sons and one of them left the family and squandered his inheritance. Realizing the error of his ways, he returned home, expecting to be treated as one of his father’s workers rather than his son. On the contrary, his father took him back and celebrated the son’s homecoming. God’s mercy is like that of the father in the parable. God rejoices when we return to God. Through God’s mercy, we experience God’s compassion and joy.
God’s mercy is not like ours where we are quick to judge. “Cancel culture” is a good example of this. A person does something wrong and consequently is rejected from society or at least some aspects of it. The parable of the prodigal son demonstrates that the father didn’t reject his son. It was his son who rejected him. Likewise, God doesn’t reject us. We reject God. It is in coming back to God that we can embrace God’s mercy. This Gospel questions us to evaluate our perspective of what forgiveness is.
It also challenges us to accept God’s mercy. We are often our worst critics. However, God rejoices when we acknowledge what we did wrong and amend our mistakes. As painful as that process is, we are called to rejoice in that too.
This Lent (and the rest of our lives), let us return to God so as to proclaim what is in today’s Responsorial Psalm:
Bless the Lord, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
-Sr. Emily Sandoval, FMI