Mar. 10, 2013: 4th Sunday of Lent (C)
Many of you here are waiting for the weather to get a little warmer to start on your gardens and flowerbeds. Some of you may have already started planting seeds in the seed-bed. Did you know that the Latin word for the seed-bed is seminarium? Sounds familiar doesn’t it. This is the word from which seminary is derived--seminary, as in theological institution for training priests. It’s a place where a vocation is planted, nurtured, pruned, and brought to flower, culminating in ordination to priesthood. Some of us may think that only holy and perfect persons go to a places like a seminary, but they call it ‘seed-bed’ for a reason. Ordinary men, aged 18 through 50, after living in the world independently for most of their lives arrive at the door of the seminary. They arrive with baggage, literally and figuratively. They need a lot of chiseling and pruning of bad habits and desires, both worldly and personal, as they study to be a holy priest.
While I was going through seminary, one of my classmates who was a Carmelite religious brother was quite funny, with a great sense of humor. But his sense of humor packed a powerful punch of reality. In a sense, he was the ‘conscience’ for everyone in our class. One day our classmates were sitting around chatting about seminary food being tasteless, our accommodation being subpar, and our professors being boring. After listening, the Carmelite brother broke out in a banter, “What about me? What about what I want? When will I get what I want?” We all broke out laughing. But we all knew that he just held up a mirror to what we were doing--our insisting on “me, me, me.” Instead of being grateful for the opportunity to be able to study, to pray, and to grow, we were moping with our selfish pettiness. We realized that when we start feeding the self--our ego, our appetites--we squander and dissipate the blessings we have received.
We have to admit, at times, we all do this. Our wants, desires, and preoccupations blind us to the the point that we cannot see those who care and love us. In today’s gospel, Jesus puts the parable of the Prodigal Son as a mirror to what we sometimes do. The younger son is determined to get what he wants, even to the point of insulting his own father. Notice when the son makes the request he mentions himself several times, “Father give ME the share of your estate that should come to ME .” This was tantamount to saying to his father, “I wish you would die so that I can have my inheritance.” This wise and gentle father gives what his son wants, just as Heavenly Father allows us to have what we want at times to teach us a lesson. The son then takes it all and goes to a ‘distant country’ to squander it all. The Greek word used for ‘distant country’ literally means “into the great emptiness.” A vast empty void is a great image to describe our sometimes insatiable, bottomless appetite to feed the ego--”me, me, me.”
How does Heavenly Father respond to our selfish ways? He waits patiently for us to come back to our senses. He does not say, “I told you so.” Instead, the moment we humbly acknowledge that our selfishness and sin only led to spiritual hunger, emptiness and dryness, He is ready to take us back again and restore us the peace we enjoyed in His presence. God is truly kinder than we are. He does not lose hope or give up when we stray. He rejoices in finding the lost and in welcoming them home. Do you know the joy of repentance and the restoration of relationship as a son or daughter of your Heavenly Father? What is that we have done that we need to seek forgiveness from the Heavenly Father. We have the opportunity to return to the Heavenly Father this coming Tuesday when the priests of our deanery will be here at St. Francis Church for communal penance service. If you are not able to come this Tuesday, please refer to the bulletin for penance services in other churches this week.
