Fourth Sunday of Lent This weekend, the Church observes Laetare Sunday, the name being derived from the first word, in Latin, of the Entrance Antiphon. This word is “laetare,” or “rejoice.” The Church rejoices that salvation, finalized in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus, is near. Pri ests may wear rose (not pink) vestments. Pink blends red and white. Rose mixes red and gold, reminding us of the first rays of the sun as they creep across the horizon after a dark night. Daybreak recalls that, after a dark night of anxiety, or separation from God by sin, Christ, the light of the world, is coming. Easter will commemorate this coming. The Book of Joshua, the first reading, looks back to the time when God’s people finished the long, hard trip across the Sinai Peninsula, then, as it is now, bleak in sterility and danger. Along the way, they disowned God, but God still rescued them from starvation, sending manna from the sky. Scientifically speaking, what was manna? No one knows, but it was real. The people could not have created it. It was God’s gift. With it, the people survived. St. Paul’s Second Epistle to the Corinthians furnishes the second reading. In the reading, Paul urgently appeals to the Corinthian Christians to be reconciled with God in Christ. Imagine Paul’s frustration as he saw the Corinthians toying with their old pagan ways. Of course, urgency flowed in his words. They revealed his belief that nothing else matters but life in union with God. Thus, he implored the people to return to God, to become “new creations” in Christ. For its final reading this weekend, the Church gives us, from Luke’s Gospel, the reassuring parable of the prodigal son. Much of the parable is self-evident, even to us in the 21st century. Quite clear is the unqualified, constant love of the wayward son’s father, who is a symbol of God. The parable is best understood by considering the ancient context. The prodigal was not the older son, the heir. The prodigal had no right to an inheritance, whether he was good or bad, but he had no right to abandon his father. This especially would have disgusted Jews at the time of Jesus, who prized loyalty to parents. Most of all, vital to the message, the prodigal son rejected the privilege of being part of the People of God. He repudiated the primary obligation of this status – namely, to bear witness to God. He consorted with prostitutes, scorning the sanctity of marriage, so precious to Jews, and risked defiling the pure stock of God’s people by begetting children who would be reared as pagans by pagan, unbelieving mothers. His sins brought him no reward. He had to serve not humans, not just animals, but pigs – filthy, ugly predators, the lowest of the low, in Jewish eyes. Nevertheless, the father forgave all and lavishly gave him an undeserved inheritance. Reflection The Church is joyful. Salvation, to be with God in and through Jesus, is near! Wisely, the Church realizes that all its members, to some degree, at some time, have been prodigals, wandering away as the Corinthians wandered. This weekend, however, is not of denunciation and divine revenge. Instead, in the reading from Joshua, precisely with its reference to the manna, and in the Gospel, with its thrilling story of the forgiving father, the Church reassures us. Although we may sin, God never abandons the promise to protect us. God loves us. He is forever merciful, regardless of how far we stray, however sinful that we are, if we repent. In Jesus, the sacrificial victim of Calvary, God awaits us with the Eucharist, manna for our starving souls, for which there is no substitute. Observe Lent. Turn to God. The post Our Joy Comes from Knowing God Will Never Abandon Us appeared first on Today's Catholic. ...read more read less