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March 30, 2019
Reading I: Joshua 5:9a, 10-12
Responsorial 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
Reading II: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Gospel: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Today's gospel is the story of the Prodigal Son. The word ‘prodigal’ means to spend resources lavishly or in a wasteful manner. ‘Prodigal’ means to give on a lavish scale. There are two examples of prodigality in the story:- The son, treats his father as if he was dead, demands his inheritance and then wastes it on riotous living.
- The father gives lavishly to his son.
Prodigal: a wasteful son and a lavish father
This story is about grace, its source and how it operates. The story of the prodigal son appeals to our imagination as it tries to form a picture in us about how God is merciful and we are not. How God is lavish in his giving and we are calculating. It is a story that calls us to change; changing how we imagine God, our relationship to him and to each other. It is about the operation of grace in our lives.
God’s prodigal grace
Grace is the free gift of a lavish God. By its nature it is undeserved. Frank Sheed in his great book, Theology for Beginners, describes grace.
Grace is God's help and favor. We all have an experience of actual grace, if you would think about it. Sanctifying grace comes to us only through the sacraments."Sanctifying Grace is a life in the soul, making it almost a new thing, giving it and its faculties new powers. Actual Grace is the divine energy setting the soul in motion towards some particular goal otherwise beyond its reach. Sanctifying Grace indwells the soul and abides in it. Actual Grace does neither. It does not abide—it is transient, like a wind that blows for a while and then is gone, the whole point being to take advantage of it while it blows. Nor does it indwell: it does not live in the soul but acts upon it in a sense from outside; it sets intellect and will in motion without becoming a permanent quality of either, very much as a wind moves a boat but does not in any sense become a permanent element in the boat’s structure." Frank Sheed. Theology for Beginners (p. 172). Catholic Way Publishing. Kindle Edition.
Actual and Sanctifying Grace
Actual grace moves us like the wind blowing a sail boat. When I was in elementary school, I was sent to the library to do a book report on a saint. Browsing through these little pastel colored books about saints I saw one about St. John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests. Since he had my name, I thought I would read it and it was exciting. That is when I first recall actively thinking about being a priest. Like a breeze that blew me in on course.
Sanctifying grace, on the other hand, is the gift of the sacraments initiated by Christ. When you come to a church like St. Mark, the image of God’s world is all around us. We have statues of the saints, stained glass windows of Christ’s life, a baptismal font, an altar, the scriptures, candles and incense. God is present in a very close and sensual way. The invisible is made visible, especially in the sacraments. God is infinite and so is beyond our natural powers so we need help to see God as he really is. 1 Jn. 3:2; 1 Cor. 13:12.
Why we need sanctifying grace
First, we human beings are body and soul. Augustine and Aquinas debated whether our bodies have a soul or whether our souls have a body. In either event, there is a dimension of us that is material and another that is spiritual. Just as our material nature needs to be fed, so does our spiritual nature need to be fed. Food nourishes our bodies and sanctifying grace nourishes our souls.
Second, without sanctifying grace, we cannot see God because we have no supernatural life. In John Chapter 6 Jesus said, “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in you.” John 6:53. The Blessed Sacrament is there to give us life for both body and soul; the sacrament of reconciliation is there to give us healing for how we misuse body and soul. Actual grace is available to every human being, whether they are aware of it or not. Sanctifying grace is Jesus’s free gift to his disciples.
Grace and the Sacrament of Reconciliation
Christ calls us to holiness, a participation in the goodness of God. He gives us the sacraments to help us.- Every sacrament is a visible sign of grace. In Eucharist, the priest must say “This is my body.” In confession, the priest must say, “I absolve you from your sins…”.
- What do the sacraments do? Baptism initiates us into the life of sanctifying grace and confirmation strengthens the life of the holy spirit in each of us. The sacrament of reconciliation heals our relationship to God damaged by our disobedience. Jn. 20:19-23.
- What is required of us? We have to show up with the right attitude. In reconciliation, the indispensable condition of forgiveness is that we be sorry for our sins.
- Who is the minister? A sinful human being like your parish priest who intends what the Church intends and does what the Church does.
- What is the effect? Forgiveness of our sins.
Grace and Imagination
Our imagination is the way that we get information about and relate to God or anything or anyone for that matter. Our imagination is limited, however, and can lead us astray. We also need our gift of reason. Jesus told his disciples, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven. Whose sins you hold bound are held bound.” Jn. 20:19-23 Stories like the prodigal son tell us that we can be truly sorry or just figuring out our next move when we are in a bind. We can, like the older son, be convinced of our own goodness, but still separated from God by presumption. The prodigal father lavishes, maybe wastes his grace, on a frail human being. What we need is God’s help so that our ability to understand extends beyond the natural to the supernatural. Let not God’s grace be wasted on us, but be responded to with good effect.
This Thursday, at 5:30 pm, our parish is hosting our communal penance service. We should have about fifteen priests there. God’s grace is always offered, if we choose to respond.
