FIRST READING: Joshua 5:9-12. The Lord said to Joshua, “This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”

While the people of Israel were encamped in Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at evening in the plains of Jericho. And on the morrow after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased on the morrow, when they ate of the produce of the land; and the people of Israel had manna no more, but ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.

EXPLANATION: After the forty years of wandering in the desert, Joshua, the successor of Moses, finally led the people into the promised land. They crossed the Jordan River (which God dried up to allow them pass) near the town of Jericho. Joshua erected there twelve stones, taken from the Jordan, as a monument to indicate to future generations the place where Israel entered the Promised Land. This place was therefore called Gilgal—meaning the circle—made with the twelve stones.

today I have . . . the reproach: God tells Joshua that the slavery of Egypt and the reproach of being serfs under a pagan dominance is removed at last. The Israelites are now freemen living in their own country.

while . . . kept the Passover: The Israelites’ first act of public worship and thanksgiving to God for their delivery on entering their new homeland was to celebrate for seven days the festival of Passover. This feast commemorated the last of the ten plagues of Egypt and the one which finally compelled the Egyptians to let them go free. God had then commanded Moses that this great occasion should be remembered annually forever in the new home he was to give them (see Ex. 12: 1-21). The people remembered this command and carried it out faithfully.

on the fourteenth . . . the month: The first Passover in Egypt took place on the fourteenth day of Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. As they counted their year in lunar months, the fourteenth day was the full-moon after the Spring Equinox. Thus the date varied from year to year and it is for this reason that our Easter is also movable.

unleavened . . . grain: Bread without leaven or yeast was unpalatable—a reminder therefore of their life of hardship and slavery in Egypt. Also, in the urgency to leave Egypt, there was no time to let yeast ferment—the women took the plain dough to bake on the journey (Ex. 12:34). And so the annual Passover feast was celebrated by eating unleavened bread and roasted grain.

manna no more: God had miraculously provided the manna for the nourishment of the Israelites all through their forty years in the desert, but now they had their own land and could produce sufficient food for themselves.

APPLICATION: The Pharaoh of Egypt refused to listen to the pleas of Moses to let the Israelites go. The first nine plagues left him still stubborn. God therefore sent the final plague. The first-born male of man and beast was to be struck dead on the fourteenth night of the first month. On that night the Israelites were to sacrifice an unspotted lamb, smearing their door posts with its blood, so that the avenging angel would pass over their homes and strike death in the homes of the Egyptians. The whole lamb was to be eaten, without breaking any of its bones. It was to be eaten by the family, or by two or more families if the members of one family were not numerous enough to eat it all. They were to eat the lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread (a reminder of their slavery) whilst standing, ready to get on their way.

This final plague of death frightened the Pharaoh and the Jews were given their liberty. Our interest as Christians in this is more than historical. It happened for us. The Israelites were set free so that from them would come the One who was to set all mankind free. The Paschal Lamb and the liberation from Egypt were a foreshadowing of our liberation from sin and our change from slavery to this world into the freedom of the sons of God.

Because Christ was our Pascal Lamb—”Christ our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed,” St. Paul says (1 Cor. 5:7)—he chose to die for us in the Jewish feast of Passover, and to be raised again on the third day to prove our true liberation. Thus the religion of the Israelites and all their festivals were brought to fruition, and fulfilled for all mankind in our Christian Passover, in Christ’s death and resurrection.

This is why we are reminded today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, of the paschal feast we shall celebrate with joy and gratitude at the end of this holy season of preparation. God’s love for us and his interest in our true welfare dates back to eternity. Before he created all things, his plan was to give man, his highest earthly creature, a share in his own divinity. With the call of Abraham, his interest in us was his motive. The liberation from Egypt was a prelude to his plan of redemption for us. The first Good Friday and Easter morning were the culmination of this divine love for mankind. It went to such lengths—the sacrifice of Christ the Son of God—so that we could share in the eternal happiness of heaven.

Cold is the human heart that fails to react to such proofs of true, unselfish love. Weak indeed is the faith of the Christian who can look on the scene enacted on Calvary while throwing his own mean little cross on the ground. Foolish beyond belief is the man who would let the passing things of this world so engage him that he has no time to earn the everlasting life that God’s infinite love has planned for him from all eternity.

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SECOND READING: 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

EXPLANATION: In these verses, part of St. Paul’s second letter to his Corinthian converts (written about 57 A.D.), the Apostle is stressing the change in our human nature which the death and resurrection of Christ has wrought. The death and resurrection of Jesus are for Paul the dividing line in the history of the human race. A radical change has been brought about in those who accept Christ’s redemptive activity.

If any one is in Christ: He who accepts Christ as the Son of God and redeemer, and is baptized, becomes one with Christ. He is in Christ.

he is a new creation: A Christian has a new relationship with God his Creator. He has a new manner of being.

the old order has passed away: The old relationship of either Jew (the Old Testament) or Gentile (paganism, ignorance of the true God) with God, has ended with the coming of Christ on earth. The new relationship with God has begun.

God . . . has reconciled us to himself: God, through Christ, is the sole author of this new economy.

has given us the ministry of reconciliation: Paul is one of the human instruments whom God is using to make men Christians—new creatures.

God . . . in Christ: It is not only the divinity of Christ that is stressed here but the activity of the Godhead in the salvation of mankind, in “the reconciling of the world to himself.”

not counting their trespasses: Through the perfect obedience of Jesus, the disobedience, the sins, of men have been wiped out.

entrusting to us . . . message: Objective redemption and remission of sin were brought about by the death and resurrection of Christ, but each one has to apply this redemption to himself. For this reason Christ established his Church, of which Paul was one of the chief pillars. The work of applying the redemption of Christ will go on to the end of time—the work of reconciliation with God through the remission of sin.

So we are ambassadors: Paul and the other Apostles are God’s delegates; they represent God and have their power from him.

We beseech you . . . be reconciled: Each one must do his part. God through Christ has already done his part to bring about man’s union with God.

behalf . . . Christ: Christ came on earth, lived, died and rose from the dead so that all men would live an eternal life. It is for Christ therefore that Paul is exhorting the Corinthians to live the Christian life.

made him . . . sin: God made the sinless Christ become the victim of sin in his passion and cruel death—a “sin-offering” for us.

so that in him: Because Christ, by becoming one of us, gave perfect obedience to the Father, we whom he made his brothers have been forgiven our sins so that:

we might become the . . . of God: We can become just, we can become saints, if we use the means that Christ has given us, and live as true sincere Christians.

APPLICATION: We are Christians. To many perhaps this statement is about as important as if we say we are Americans, we are Germans, we are Irish, we are Italians. But as every sincere Christian knows, and as St. Paul has reminded us today, to be a Christian means something different. It means that our relationship with God and the whole meaning of life has been radically changed. The divine plan of the Incarnation reached its climax in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. As a result of this plan, we are no longer mere human beings. We have been raised up to adopted sonship by God. We are already by baptism citizens of God’s earthly kingdom, and we are legal heirs of his eternal kingdom in heaven. These are not empty words, nor empty titles. Because the Son of God became a man, and one of us, we have been made brothers of his and sons of God. Because we are sons of God we are heirs to heaven, and have a legal right—through the sheer gift of God’s infinite love for us, not through any merit whatsoever of our own—to eternal happiness.

The plan for our eternal happiness was made by God before creation began. It was signed and sealed by the passion, death and resurrection of Christ. At baptism each Christian is handed his bill of rights, his guarantee of eternal citizenship, together with the map which shows him the road he must travel to attain his kingdom.

But reading and following the road map is for many of us the part we like least. We are all thankful to God and to his divine Son for all he has done for us. We are all delighted with the privilege of divine sonship and the promise of a part in the eternal kingdom of God in heaven. But many of us get sleepy and faint-hearted when it comes to following the road mapped out for us. We know that we have been raised above our mere human nature and given a new status in relation to God. We also know and feel that we are still very human, very earthly beings, naturally attracted to the things of this world.

But we can and we must overcome this attraction. This is what St. Paul is exhorting us to do today. “Be reconciled to God,” he says. Repent of past faults, of past sins, he tells us. If we turn to God with a sincere heart, he will accept us back once more into the divine family of which Baptism made us members. We are the chosen children of God, not in any metaphorical or figurative sense, but in the true sense of the words. Heaven is the eternal home earned for us by our true brother Christ. Could we be so foolish as to let some earthly passing pleasure or possession deprive us of that everlasting reward?

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GOSPEL: Luke 15:1-3, 11-32. Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.” So he told them this parable:

“There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have fed on the pods that the swine ate: and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.”‘ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry.

“Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured his means living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.”‘

EXPLANATION:The Pharisees and Scribes were a minority among the Jews at the time of Christ. But they were the self-appointed leaders of religious thought in Palestine. They kept the Mosaic Law strictly, in fact too strictly, and unfortunately were so proud of their strict observance that they despised all the other Jews for not behaving as they did. Externally they kept the law that God had given to Moses, but in their hearts they gloried in themselves rather than in God. Pride was their ruin. They refused to accept Christ because he was preaching forgiveness of sins and divine mercy for sinners. He committed the unpardonable crime of being friendly with sinners and actually eating with them.

So he told them this parable: Christ, on this occasion, answered their criticisms of him by telling them a story.

a man had two sons: This is the story of two sons and their relationship with their father. The younger son got tired of home and of obeying his father. He demanded and got his share of the property. He went into a far country and spent his money living highly and sinfully. He ended up a pauper and a slave. He realized his folly, decided to return home tattered and torn, hoping his father would take him on as a servant since he had lost the right to be a son. His father welcomed him with open arms, dressed him in new garments, killed the fatted calf and called for general rejoicing, for he had found his son who had been lost.

The elder son who had stayed at home, was disgusted and angry with his father for treating this prodigal sinner with such kindness. He refused to take any part in the joyful celebrations. His father pleaded with him, reminding him that this prodigal was his brother, but in vain. He would have no dealings with a sinner even though the sinner had repented and was his brother.

APPLICATION: This parable or story refuted the Pharisees’ objection to Christ’s friendliness with sinners very effectively. The infinite mercy of God, the Father of saint and sinner, is brought out very clearly in the story of the younger son. Even though he abandoned his father, the father did not abandon him. The father’s mercy was big enough and generous enough to forgive and forget. His love for his son was strong enough to smother any feelings of personal resentment. His son’s return, humble and chastened, blotted out all his past faults and failures. It was surely an occasion for general rejoicing.

Could the Pharisees fail to see that the father in that story was God and the wayward son the sinners with whom Christ was associating? That the elder son who had stayed with his father looking after the part of the property given to him represented themselves, must have been evident to them too. They were faithful to God and to his law in most ways even if not from completely unselfish motives. But their lack of charity, especially their lack of interest in their fellow-men and the pride they took in their own strict observance, made imperfect all their otherwise good deeds. They were the elder sons, they were still nominally God’s chosen people. But their place was about to be taken by the younger son, by the sinners and publicans, by the Gentiles they so despised.

They must have seen the point of the story and the message Christ had in it for them. Yet they failed to learn its lesson. They remained stubborn in their pride and refused to accept Christ and his salvation.

For the vast majority of us, Christians, our message of consolation and hope is in the first part of today’s parable. All of us have, many a time, been prodigal, ungrateful, selfish sons of our loving Father. But he is still a Father of infinite love, of boundless mercy. He is not only waiting for us to return, like the human father in the story. He is continually sending out messengers to recall us and to help us on the return journey. Like the prodigal in the story, we may have squandered the gifts that our heavenly father gave us. We may have abused our freedom and broken his laws. We may have descended to the deepest depths of degradation (to a Jew to become a swine-herd was the last step in human debasement). We may now feel torn and tattered, but, never forget it, our loving, merciful Father is waiting for us with open arms to welcome us back the moment we come to ourselves and decide to return. Until we have drawn our last breath on earth, the mercy of God and his pardon are there for our asking.-c229