Liturgical Colour : Purple/Violet

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day we heard the familiar story of the prodigal son, who went away from his father to live in sin and wickedness, and then who returned to his father in shame and in humility, begging for mercy and to be forgiven, and the father accepted him back with great joy and gladness, celebrating how the lost prodigal son had been found and had returned to him in safety.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, what we heard today in the Gospel and in the other readings have just summarised the entire meaning of our observations of the rules and customs of the season of Lent which we are in the midst of at this moment. We are the prodigal sons, and we are those who have gone astray in our path towards God, our Lord and Father, Who is filled with love and mercy for our fate, and Who wants us all to be redeemed through Him.

Through our sins and our disobedience against God, even no matter how small it was, we have been sundered and separated from the fullness of God’s love. We have to realise, brethren, that while God loves us, but no sin and wickedness can remain in His presence and go unaccounted for. If we sin and do not repent, we will have no part in Him. It is the same desire for sinning that is also the same desire causing the younger, the prodigal son to choose to go away from his father, carrying all of his wealth and inheritance with him.

In the same way therefore, all of us have been given by God, the free will to choose how we are to live our own lives. Thus, we can indeed choose to be like the prodigal son, and leave behind our Father, that is God, and all of His ways and instead following our own will and desires. Therefore this means we give in to sins and to the wicked ways of the world. The path will indeed seem to be easier, and all the allures of the world, the pleasures and happiness we encounter will persuade us to go and dwell in deeper into that path.

But after all of them ended, what will we get in the end? The story of the prodigal son told to us how after the prodigal son spent all of his wealth and squandered all of them in a life of hedonism and sin, he was truly left with nothing, and he could not even afford to eat a proper food, since he had nothing left with him. And when he tried to work at a pig farm and eat the same food that the pigs were eating, nobody allowed him to do so.

In that scenario, he became even less than a pig, an animal considered unclean at the time of Jesus by the Israelites, and therefore, he was treated as a nobody. And indeed, it is going to be the same with us, once we exhausted our time enjoying all the false happiness and joy, all the pleasures that the world is offering and giving to us. We would have nothing but desolation and destruction, and doom is upon us without hope of succour or redemption if it is too late for us.

That is also the same feeling whenever we come to realise how sinful we have become, how wicked were the things that we had done, and how great was the extent of our sins. And the danger here is that we fear, and we are afraid to retrace our steps and come back to the Lord, because we are afraid that He will be angry with us because of our disobedience.

And thus, this is why many people were not able to repent and change their ways. They are afraid that God will punish them and rebuke them. But the reality is that it is better for us to be rebuked by God rather than for us to be lost forever to the darkness. That is why, we have to take note of the resolve of the prodigal son to return to his father despite all the things he had committed.

Shall we therefore also seek to return to our Lord with a heart filled with regret and sorrow, the desire for the forgiveness of our sins? Shall we commit ourselves to a life of repentance and be forgiven for our trespasses? This is the best time for us to do so, to be like the prodigal son who regretted his sin, and resolved to return to his father seeking forgiveness.

And then, let us also not forget that, heeding the example of the elder son, it is important that we also take note the lesson from there. The elder son represented the actions of those who have been made righteous, but then they succumbed to their sense of selfishness and jealousy, and they resented the love that God gave to sinners and all those who had erred in their path, and yet forgiven by God when they repented.

We should not resent those who have yet to be saved and still living in darkness, or be disgusted at them for their sins. Remember, we ourselves were once like them, sinners and delinquents, rebels in the sight and presence of God. Condemning or being disgusted at others who have sinned, or still living in the state of sin is just like being disgusted at ourselves.

If all that we can do is just to condemn others, to be disgusted at what we ourselves had once done ourselves, and then doing nothing to help these people, then we are truly responsible for their downfall on the day of judgment. Do not think that if we do not do anything wrong or wicked, then we are certainly safe and immune from being judged, as we have to remember, that failing to do good while we are perfectly capable of doing so, is just as bad as doing something that is bad and wicked.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, therefore, in this holy season of Lent, let us make best use of the time available to us, in order to change our ways and dedicate ourselves to help one another to find our ways to the Lord. Let us no longer be apathetic or indifferent to the sufferings of others, especially those who are still trapped in the darkness of this world.

May Almighty God, our Lord and Father, awaken in us all the love which we all ought to have for Him, and may He bless us with the hope and the strength with which all of us may persevere in our path towards Him, that resisting and rejecting all forms of sin, we may always seek to be faithful to Him in all things. God bless us all. Amen.