“While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.”
(Luke, ch. 15)
Dear Friends,
The story of the Prodigal Son comes right at the right time in Lent. Introspection and self-discipline very often leads to brooding for me! I am so much in need of spiritual growth and conversion of life! I miss the mark so often and can envision God just shaking his head and saying to himself why can’t my son, Fr. Tim, just get it right.
And then I read a story in which God not only knows my failings, but is on the lookout for me not to punish me, but through the power of his purifying love, to restore me to the man he has created me to be!
I read of a love that does not count the cost, but revels in me and knows my failings and still wants me around. I read of God who sends his Son Jesus to help draw me back to my lost innocence, the Second Adam who reclaims the First Adam and his descendants, and takes them back right where they belong – not in their self-enclosed universe of selfish sin, but in the ever-expansive universe of forgiving love.
It’s then that I realize that the fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday! And I rejoice at such great a love!
Sincerely, with love,
Fr. Tim
