Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
When I use the word ‘scandal,’ what is it that comes to your mind? Perhaps we are thinking of a serious or a systemic immoral situation. For example, the abuse of children in the church – that is surely a scandal. It is normal to consider a scandal to be a negative situation. And we are right. There is nothing right about a child who demands his inheritance even before the death of his parents and then wastes it all in a life of dissipation (Lk 15: 11-20). There is nothing right about an entire people abandoning the God who saved them from slavery only to show their loyalty to the mere image of a golden calf (Ex 32:7-11). A scandal is serious business. It hurts the people involved, it destroys relationships, and most of all, it leads people away from God.
However, what if I said to you that there is a good and positive way of being scandalizing? There are three parables in today’ gospel reading (the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7), the parable of the lost coin (Luke 15:8-10), and the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-24). It is important for us to understand the context in which Jesus tells these parables. The context is given in the very first verse of Luke chapter fifteen. “Tax-collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus, but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (Luke 15:1). They were pointing toward a scandal. The Pharisees and scribes are represented by the very unhappy and angry older son at the end of the parable. But Jesus turns the table of them by sharing the parable of the lost son. We cannot imagine how scandalizing this story must have sounded to the Pharisees and scribes. But that is exactly the message that Jesus was trying to communicate – God’s love is scandalizing! Paul, in his letter to Timothy, calls himself “a blasphemer, a persecutor and an arrogant man” (1 Tim 1:13) but considers himself “treated with mercy…” by God (1 Tim 1:13). And he concludes, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15b) Christ saved the world by the scandal of the cross.
So today, I want to say that the parable of the younger son is the story about two scandalizing characters. But it is in way that they are scandalizing that is different. The prodigal son is scandalizing in his demand for independence and freedom from his father. The father, on the contrary, is scandalizing in the freedom he offers. Whereas the son is scandalizing in his sin, the Father is scandalizing in longing for his son’s return. Whereas the son is scandalizing in his shameless return the Father is scandalizing in his welcome of the sinful son.
Let me offer three practical implications of the readings today.
1. First, we must be aware that sin is serious business. We must ourselves and teach our children to take sin seriously. Every sin is a scandal. Sin seriously damages our relationship with God and some sins can even break our relationship with God. Sin also breaks our relationship with one another. Sin hurts those involved. One look at the crucifix and we know how painful sin is. Most of all, sin ruptures our relationship with our own selves. The lost son lost his identity when he left home. He BECAME a care taker of swine – the most impure animal in Hebrew culture. In sin, we become who we are not… we become strangers to our own selves. We must keep the consequences of sin constantly before our eyes. Sin is scandalous.
2. Second, most of the time this parable is preached, we are told that we are the prodigal sons/daughters and God is the forgiving Father. And this picture is true. At heart, we are all sinners in need of repentance. The truth of the matter, though, is that each of us has a dual role – that of the son and that of the father. There are times when we as sinners stand in need of forgiveness like the son. There are other times when people seek forgiveness from us and we need to forgive like the father. The key is this - there should not be a dichotomy between the two roles. In the same manner that we expect to be forgiven, we must forgive. Any contradiction here is hypocrisy. I am sure that each of is in some way knows that we have sinned. But could we become scandalous in the way we love and forgive?
3. The losers in the parable are the Pharisees and the scribes symbolized by the older son. They considered themselves righteous. They consider themselves saved. They stood outside and looked at sinners and were glad that they were not like them. These are the most pathetic people. They have no compassion for others and they do not understand the scandalizing love of God. But in the process something sad happens. They become incapable of sharing in God’s joy. No matter what happens, let us never become like them. We only exclude ourselves from the Kingdom.
As we come to celebrate this Eucharist, let us remember that this Eucharist is a celebration of the scandalizing love of God. The cross is the scandal of God’s love and this Eucharist commemorates that celebration. Let us come to the God of scandalizing love like the prodigal son and say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I wanted to be your son/daughter again.” Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph