Building up Community: The Prodigal Son Comes Home

Why did the older son not welcome his brother (Luke 15:11-32)? The older son was angry with his father. He considered himself better than his younger brother. The older son did not feel the need of forgiveness. The older son was interested in his father’s things, but he did not really love his father. If the older son had loved his father, he would have understood his father’s joy at the return of the prodigal son, and the older brother would have shared his father’s joy. Lack of communion with the father makes impossible communion with his younger brother. Lack of love of God makes impossible a true love of our brothers and sisters.

Imagine the younger son now, the one we call “prodigal”—which means wastefully and recklessly self-indulgent. Do you imagine him having a problem with the presence of anyone in his father’s house? Do you imagine the prodigal son saying: “What is this guy doing here? Who invited you?” or something like that? He himself was the one who should not have been there! He knew he had been forgiven, he knew that his father wanted to share the joy of his return with everyone, and he was very happy about that.
The Catholic Church is that party. It is the party of those who have been forgiven. The reason we are brothers and sisters is because we have one Father. The way to be good brothers and sisters is to love our Father. If there is no communion with the Father in our hearts, we are not true brothers and sisters. The reason we welcome everyone is that we ourselves have been forgiven. We know that our Father wants to share that forgiveness with everyone. We are happy about that because we love our Father. He is so good, that He wants everybody to share His friendship and love.

If we want to “build up community,” we have to understand first what kind of community we want: the Church is the family of God, Our Father in Heaven. The priest is not your father, it is God who is your father. But the priest is someone God put in our midst to establish and restore our communion with the Father. The priest is essential in a parish, but as an instrument. An instrument for you to use to be in communion with your Father. How do you become a child of God? By baptism, usually through the priest. How do you enter into communion with your God, how do you welcome Him in your heart, how do you give yourself to Him? By Holy Communion. How do you say “Sorry” to God for having offended Him, how do you restore your relationship with Him, broken by sin? Through Reconciliation. The community of the church is built up through the sacraments. The family of God keeps together by the sacraments, and grows by the sacraments. The sacraments are the way we enter into communion with God. The sacraments make us grow in the love of our Father. And because of that, they make us grow in our love for our brothers and sisters. (1)

This is not to say that, in order to attract people to the Church, we have only to pray. We need to organize dinners, concerts, etc. But there is one thing that we must do first, and if we don’t do that one, our reaching out is empty and sterile: that first thing is to strengthen our own communion with God through the sacraments. The first thing is to say “Sorry” in Reconciliation to our Father. We read that the prodigal son “set off and went to his father.” The son needed to say to his father—face to face—that he had sinned. He wanted to express externally what was internally a burden for him. He needed to know whether his father would forgive him. He was ready for penance. He wanted to hear from his father: “That’s ok, I forgive you, go to work”. He probably needed also an embrace and a kiss, although he didn’t expect it. The only way for the son to know that he was restored to his father’s grace was this: to hear the words of forgiveness from his father. This is one of the reasons for which Jesus said to the apostles: “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven.” (John 20:23) Because Jesus wanted us to be sure that we are forgiven. He wanted us to feel His embrace and to hear His voice.

When I myself experience the joy of being forgiven, I become able to share this joy with others. I don’t have to fake a welcoming attitude when I myself feel welcomed by God. I am forgiven, I am happy about that: welcome everyone! God was good to me, He will be good to you too. Welcome to our parish, the party of the prodigal sons and daughters, where God is our Father. Welcome to our church, the hospital of sinners. We are happy here, because we are saved, because God loved us and forgave us, and will still forgive us again, as soon as we repent.

That is the joy of the Gospel! It is not the joy of a guitar, but the joy of a harp, of the heavenly lyre, of the angel’s trumpet. It is a joy that you cannot find anywhere else. And we, at this church, are responsible to offer that joy. We don’t have drums here, and we don’t need them. We don’t have fancy lights or shows, and we don’t need them either. But we have Jesus in the tabernacle, and His forgiveness in the confessional. The world is full of drums and shows and lights and all those things, but how are we doing without God? “God loves you, come back to Him”: this is the Church’s message. God loves you, and this is all you will get here at our church. This is what should give meaning to all the things we do here, and to our reaching out and welcoming other people: nothing else, nothing less than the love of God. This is the only thing that can make you leap for joy, an eternal joy that no suffering can take away.

I invite us all to renew our appreciation for the sacrament of forgiveness. (2) Even when you don’t have any new sin, it is beautiful to hear again that the Lord forgives you for everything you may have done in the past. Even if you don’t have big sins, you may still want to say “Sorry” to God. We are sorry even when we do little wrongs to our friends. May God give us the joy of His forgiveness, and may this joy be contagious to everyone entering this church.

Notes:
(1) Cf. St. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, n.47.
(2) The Second Vatican Council speaks several times about confession: cf. SC, 6 (Constitution on Liturgy); LG 11,2 (Constitution on the Church); CD 30,2 (Decree on Bishops); PO 5,3 (Decree on Priests); PO 18,2.