An Accessible Love: The Fourth Sunday of Lent 2025

                                                       An Accessible Love:

The Fourth Sunday of Lent 2025 

March 30, 2025

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Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 34; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-32

 

Luke gives us a difficult Gospel passage in response to the criticism Jesus faced when he ate with sinners and tax collectors violating the customs and laws of Moses. Jesus focused upon the nature of the Kingdom of God through examining a central family relationship. It tugs at our heartstrings and resurfaces many family tensions. Jesus silences his critics by showing that God will positively judge the person who returns. God’s love is so magnanimous that the father forgives the sinner even before the sinner considers returning home.

 

Far too many families experience estrangement and they long for nothing more than the relationship’s restoration. Family members would welcome back the estranged one right away without judgment and with no further questions, but often the estranged person wants to be heard and to see behaviors corrected as a precondition. Often, a person is not aware of the reasons for separation or how to change so that the relationship is nourished, and the source of estrangement is removed. It is a confusing, perplexing quandary for one party and all one can do is to pray for a restoration or for a change of heart. Because the two parties cannot reconcile, broken hearts prevail, and each side suffers.

 

We understand that God wants the union of hearts and minds and welcomes back to one who has taken an alternative path. God will always do that. In our families and friendships, we need to hear the stories of sufferings so we can understand each other better and lessen that pain. In the end, the estranged want the same thing. They yearn for the love they need and want and do not know how to get it or to create the circumstances in which they see a path forward. It takes more than returning home. It takes a commitment on both sides to understand more about each other. In most relationships, each wants to commit to a healthy, harmonious, mutual respect for the other. At the root, fundamental care and concern exists. The dilemma is how to get there and then to maintain mature engagement.

 

The parable does not end with reconciliation between the brothers, and yet, we do have a merciful parent who has a relationship with each and tries to reason with each of them to see a greater value. Because of our faith, we know that the story continues and there is hope for reconciliation for a restored relationship made stronger because of mutual understanding. This is difficult but necessary work. 

 

Theologically, Jesus shows that God has a universal love accessible to everyone. God is not just for those who claim their own righteousness, so it tells us that we ought to be cautious about making absolute, discriminatory judgments. We must be careful about whom we put on the outside of our safe categories. We tend to be loyal to our tribes – generous, accepting, protective, nurturing to those within our tribe, and exacting to those on the outside. God is the father of the just and the unjust, and God is going to be protective of all and therefore, we ought to be less certain of our reasonings. Let’s give God a chance. 

 

The foundation of this parable is the magnanimous love of God. It will win out when we see that it is a far better choice. This love had incredible power because mercy remains mysterious. May this love heal us and bring us all to union and communion.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

Monday: (Isaiah 65) The Lord is about to create new heavens and a new earth; the things of the past shall not be remembered; there will always be rejoicing and happiness.

 

Tuesday: (Ezekiel 47) The angel brought the prophet to the entrance of the temple where life-giving water flowed forth and bringing life to all.

 

Wednesday: (Isaiah 49) The Lord finds favor with Israel and promises help on the day of salvation. The Lord will help Israel keep the commandments because He cannot forget her beauty.

 

Thursday: (2 Samuel 7) The Lord said to David: Your house shall endure forever; your throne shall stand firm forever.  

 

Friday: (Wisdom 2) The wicked said, “Let us beset the just one because he is obnoxious to us. Let us revile him and condemn him to a shameful death.” 

 

Saturday: (Jeremiah 11) Jeremiah knew their plot, but like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized they were hatching plots against him.   

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 4) Jesus returned to Galilee where he performed his first miracle. Some believed in him. A royal official approached him as his child lay dying, but at the hour Jesus spoke to him, his son recovered. 

 

Tuesday: (John 5) Jesus encountered an ill man lying next to a healing pool, but when the water is stirred up, no one is around to put him in. Jesus heals him and he walks away. The Jews protest that Jesus cured on the Sabbath. The Jews began to persecute Jesus. 

 

Wednesday: (John 5) Jesus explains that he is the unique revealer of God and cannot do anything on his own. He judges as he hears and his judgment is just because he does not seek his own will.

 

Thursday: (Matthew 1) The birth of Jesus came about through Mary, betrothed to Joseph. In his dream, the angel tells Joseph to take the pregnant Mary as his wife.

 

Friday: (John 7) Jesus did not wish to travel around Judea because the Jews were trying to kill him, but he went up during the feast of Tabernacles where he was spotted. He cried up in the streets, “You know me and you know where I am from.”

 

Saturday: (John 7) Some in the crowd said, “This is the prophet.” Some said, “This is the Christ.” A division occurred because of him because they could not settled how he fit into Scripture. Nicodemus interjected, “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” The crowd dispersed to their homes.

 

Saints of the Week

 

No Saints are Celebrated this week.

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• March 30, 1545: At Meliapore, Francis Xavier came on pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle. 
• March 31, 1548: Fr. Anthony Corduba, rector of the College of Salamanca, begged Ignatius to admit him into the Society so as to escape the cardinalate which Charles V intended to procure for him. 
• April 1, 1941. The death of Hippolyte Delehaye in Brussels. He was an eminent hagiographer and in charge of the Bollandists from 1912 to 1941. 
• April 2, 1767. Charles III ordered the arrest of all the Jesuits in Spain and the confiscation of all their property. 
• April 3, 1583. The death of Jeronimo Nadal, one of the original companions of Ignatius who later entrusted him with publishing and distributing the Jesuit Constitutions to the various regions of the early Society. 
• April 4, 1534. Peter Faber (Pierre Favre) ordained a deacon in Paris. 
• April 5, 1635. The death of Louis Lallemant, writer and spiritual teacher.