Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
Prior to this parable are two others about a lost sheep and a lost coin, and both tell us that just as the shepherd and the widow celebrated when they found what they had lost, all of heaven, all of its angels, rejoice when just one sinner repents. Today’s parable, however, illustrates for us what our Father does when one sinner repents: He runs to the returning sinner, clothes us with the finest robe (Galatians 3:27), puts the ring with His seal upon it on our finger to reclaim us as His own, puts shoes on our feet to restore our dignity, and slaughters no mere fattened calf but calls us back to the altar to receive the Body and Blood of the Lamb who takes away our sins (John 1:29, Revelation 19:9). There is a celebration in Heaven indeed, and even the Father celebrates. There are those, like the older brother, that might balk at God’s mercy for sinners because of their own perceived righteousness, but we must not let them discourage us from doing as the younger brother did: to go home, to return to our Father, regardless of our sins, our stink, our filth, trusting that He is far more concerned that we are home safe than He is about where we have been.
Too often we approach the confessional with the same dread as we might approach our own crucifixion. But the Sacrament of Confession receives its power from Jesus who was crucified for our sake: “God the Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to Himself…” What happens in the confessional is not another Good Friday; this parable teaches us that it is, rather, a new Easter, for our Father embraces us and, turning to all the saints and angels of Heaven, says, “…now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.”