March 14: Study and Meditation on the Scripture Readings for This Sunday's Mass

[Fidelis]

Finally, here is a meditation from Presentation Ministries:

**FORGIVENESS IS… **

“While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him and was deeply moved.” —Luke 15:20

Some people think forgiveness means being nice to those who have offended us. Forgiveness, however, is much more than that. It means actively showing love and mercy to those who have mistreated us. Forgiveness is given before our offenders apologize, and even if they never apologize or stop mistreating us. Forgiveness is expressed affectionately. The father of the prodigal son “ran out to meet him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him” (Lk 15:20). Forgiveness means honoring our offenders by giving them special gifts and throwing a party in their honor (Lk 15:22-23). Forgiveness is extending mercy, treating those who have mistreated us much better than they deserve.

Forgiveness by God’s standards is impossible by human power. “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” Because we’re not divine, we can’t do it. However, Jesus is divine. He can forgive, and we can let it be done unto us according to His word (Lk 1:38). In Jesus, we can forgive everyone who has ever hurt us; we can be like the father of the prodigal son. We can forgive by God’s standards (Col 3:13). We can receive the miracle of forgiveness, go forth as ministers of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18), and transform an unforgiving and merciless world into the image and likeness of Christ.

**Prayer: **Forgiving Father, in this Lent may I change from merely not hating my enemies into loving them.

Promise: “This means that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old order has passed away; now all is new!” —2 Cor 5:17

**Praise: **Praise You, Jesus, Mercy Incarnate. Praise You for forgiving us even when we were Your enemies (Rm 5:10). I worship You forever.

 

[Fidelis]

:tiphat:Thanks to all who followed this thread to the end. I hope this Lenten series is helpful and uplifting for you, and if you have any additional meditations or positive and holy thoughts on the Sunday readings for Lent to add, please feel free to do so. See you on next week’s thread.

 

[Fidelis]

Late edition to this thread: here is a meditation on last Sunday’s Gospel Reading from the Holy Father. Very much worth reading also, if you have access to a copy, is his full treatment on this parable in his excellent book, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Angelus
On the Prodigal Son and Spiritual Maturity
“Now We Know God: He is Our Father”
H.H. Benedict XVI
March 14, 2010
www.zenit.org

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

On this Fourth Sunday of Lent the Gospel about the father and the two sons is proclaimed; this parable is better known as that of the “prodigal son” (Luke 15:11-32). This passage from St. Luke constitutes a meeting point of the spirituality and the literature of all time.

In fact, what would our culture, art, and more generally, our civilization be without this revelation of a God who is a Father full of mercy? It does not cease to move us and every time that we hear it or read it is always able to suggest new meanings to us. Above all, this evangelical text has the power to speak to us of God, to make us know his face, better yet, his heart. After Jesus has told us about the merciful Father, things are not as they were before. Now we know God: he is our Father, who out of love created us free and endowed with conscience, who suffers when we are lost and celebrates when we return. Because of this, the relationship with him is built through a story that is analogous to what happens to every child with their parents: At the beginning the child depends on them; then he asserts his own autonomy; and in the end – if there is a positive development – he arrives at a mature relationship based on reconciliation and authentic love.

In these stages we can also read moments of man’s journey in his relationship with God. There can be a phase that is like childhood: a religion moved by need, by dependency. Little by little as man grows and emancipates himself, he wants to liberate himself from this submission and become free, adult, able to rule himself and make his own decisions in an autonomous way, thinking he can do without God. Fortunately, God does not dispense with his fidelity and, even if we distance ourselves from him and are lost, he continues to follow us with his love, forgiving our mistakes and speaking within us to our conscience to recall us to himself. In the parable, the two sons behave in opposite ways: The younger one leaves and falls further and further, while the other one remains at home, but he too has an immature relationship with the Father; in fact, when the younger brother returns, the older one is not happy like the Father, but becomes angry and does not want to enter the house. The two sons represent two immature ways to relate to God: rebellion and infantile obedience.

Both of these [immature ways of relating to God] are overcome by the experience of mercy. Only through experiencing forgiveness, recognizing ourselves as loved by a gratuitous love – that is greater than our misery, but also greater than our justice – we finally enter into a truly filial and free relationship with God.

Dear Friends, let us meditate on this parable. Let us see ourselves in the two sons, and above all let us contemplate the heart of the Father. Let us throw ourselves into his arms and let ourselves be regenerated by his merciful love. May we aided in this by the Virgin Mary, “Mater misericordiae.”

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