Homily for the 4th Sunday of Lent
29 March 2025
Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 34; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Listen at https://soundcloud.com/frank-brennan-6/homily-30-3-25
Today’s gospel presents us with two segments from Chapter 15 of Luke’s gospel. The first segment is just three verses which introduce the theme of all that is to follow. ‘Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”’ These religious authorities and religiously righteous persons were distressed that Jesus was attracting tax collectors and sinners. He was just not attracting the right sort of religious people. ‘He was not attracting our sort of people!’ In fact, he was attracting the wrong sort of non-religious people. So Jesus then tells three parables to the snooty, righteous interrogators who were complaining about the company Jesus was attracting and keeping.
In today’s gospel, we’re not given the first two parables. The first parable is addressed directly to those who are complaining. Jesus asks them to imagine having 100 sheep. Then imagine losing one. What would you do? You’d do all you could to find it. When you did find it, you wouldn’twhinge and complain as you are doing now. You wouldrejoice. The shepherd finding the lost sheep ‘goes to his house and gathers his friends and neighbours. He says to them: “Rejoice with me! I have found my lost sheep!”’
The second parable is about a woman with 10 valuable coins. She loses one and does all she can to find it. When she does find it, she rejoices. She does not complain. ‘When she finds it, she gathers her women friends and neighbours. She says, ‘Rejoice with me! I have found my lost coin!’ So too with Jesus. When he finds a tax collector or sinner who was lost, he says to one and all, including the self-righteous ones: ‘Rejoice with me. Come to the table. Share the feast. The one who was lost has been found.’ That’s his message to us, especially during Lent.
The second segment of today’s gospel is the all too familiar parable of the prodigal son. There’s a rich father with two sons. One son is a goody goody who stays home and does the right thing. The other is a vagabond who takes off with his share of the inheritance, wasting it all on wine, women and song. He falls on hard times. He then wakes up to himself, realising that his father’s servants would be doing it better than he is, eking out an existence as a hired farmhand. He decides to return home seeking forgiveness. He never gets to deliver his prepared speech. The father spotting the lost son far off, rushes to him, and orders that he be attired with robes, ring and sandals. The father orders a feast proclaiming: ‘This is my son! He was dead and has come back to life! He was lost and has been found!’
The goody goody son sees all this. He doesn’t like what he sees. He is like those Pharisees and scribes Jesus is addressing. Rather than rejoicing at the return of his brotherwho was lost, he complains. He says it’s just not fair. The father says to him: ‘My son, you are here with me always;everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’
The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt great painting in a Hermitage at St Peter’s, pictured by Fr Frank Brennan SJ. Image: supplied
In December 2008, I was privileged to visit the Hermitage in St Petersburg. It was so cold that there were hardly any tourists. It was as if my niece and I had the place to ourselves. It meant that we could spend time uninterrupted pondering Rembrandt’s great painting of The Return of the Prodigal Son. Later on our tour of the gallery, I slipped back and saw a young Asian mother with her two little children in front of the painting. She was obviously explaining the painting to the kids. I was moved that such a painting could speak to people of all cultures and all ages.
It was only later that I learnt that earlier the young 29 year oldRembrandt had painted The Prodigal Son in the Brothelportraying two people who were identified as him and his wife Saskia. As a young couple they had a happy marriage. Rembrandt was a highly successful artist. They were living the good life, the carefree life, the style of life which was frowned upon by many religious folk in Calvinist Amsterdam. It was 32 years later that Rembrandt painted The Return of the Prodigal Son. Saskia and all their four children had died. Rembrandt was on his own. New artists like Vermeer were taking the spotlight from Rembrandt. He was just two years from death. Rembrandt saw something of himself in all three main characters in this later painting – the compassionate father, the righteous son, and the son seeking forgiveness.
That’s what makes the painting so warm and inviting. Just as there is something of the artist in all the main characters, there is something of each of us in all the main characters. We all have the capacity to be self-righteous and judgmental. We all have the capacity to seek forgiveness. We all have the capacity to show compassion. There have been times when each of us has been self-righteous and judgmental. There have been times, and during Lent there is every opportunity, to seek forgiveness. There have been times when we have shown compassion and when we have received compassion. The spiritual writer Henri Nouwen writes in his book The Return of the Prodigal Son: ‘Though I am both the younger son and the elder son, I am not to remain them, but called to become the Father.’
Looking closely at the hands of the father in the painting,Nouwen reflects:
‘The father’s left hand touching the son’s shoulder is strong and muscular. The fingers are spread out and cover a large part of the prodigal son’s shoulder and back. I can see a certain pressure, especially in the thumb. That hand seems not only to touch, but, with its strength, also to hold. Even though there is a gentleness in the way the father’s left hand touches his son, it is not without a firm grip.
‘How different is the father’s right hand! This hand does not hold or grasp. It is refined, soft, and very tender. The fingers are close to each other and they have an elegant quality. It lies gently upon the son’s shoulder. It wants to caress, to stroke, and to offer consolation and comfort. It is a mother’s hand’.
‘As soon as I recognized the difference between the two hands of the father, a new world of meaning opened upfor me. The Father is not simply a great patriarch. He is mother as well as father. He touches the son with a masculine hand and a feminine hand. He holds, and she caresses. He confirms and she consoles. He is , indeed, God, in whom both manhood and womanhood, fatherhood and motherhood, are fully present.’
I don’t know what that young mother told her kids at the Hermitage back in 2008, but I do hope they came away, as did I, touched that we are offered healing, forgiveness and fulness of life with both hands, whether we be the righteous child, the disgraced child or the forgiving parent. All of us are invited to the table of the banquet.
Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
We will glory in the Lord;
let the humble hear and rejoice.
Proclaim with us the greatness of the Lord;
let us exalt the name of God together.
We sought the Lord, who answered us
and delivered us out of all our terror.
Look upon God and be radiant,
and let not your faces be ashamed.
We called in our affliction and the Lord heard us
and saved us from all our troubles.
The angel of the Lord encompasses those who fear God
and will deliver them.
Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
[1] Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, London : Darton, Longman & Todd, 1994, 98-9.
[2] During the week, I delivered an address in the parish on Catholic Social Teaching in the Public Square – reflections on 50 years as a Jesuit. It is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrYg2Kh78UY
Fr Frank Brennan SJ is serving as part of a Jesuit team of priests working within a new configuration of the Toowong, St Lucia and Indooroopilly parishes in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. Frank Brennan SJ is Adjunct Professor of the Thomas More Law School at ACU and is a former CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia (CSSA). Fr Frank’s latest book is An Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Considering a Constitutional Bridge, Garratt Publishing, 2023 and his new book is ‘Lessons from Our Failure to Build a Constitutional Bridge in the 2023 Referendum’ (Connor Court, 2024).
