Dear People of God May the Lord give you peace and good health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 27th March 2022. We reflect on Joshua 5:9-12Ps 34:2-72 Cor 5:17-21;and Luke 15:1-3,11-32.We celebrate Laetare Sunday. We have reached the halfway mark of Lent. We rejoice that we are closer to celebrate the Easter We all need to travel further during Lent as Moses did lead the people of God to the Promised land. We are invited to reflect the compassionate and forgiving face of the Father. God is eagerly waiting for our return no matter how much we have messed with our life as the younger son in the Gospel. “There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Lk 15:6). God would do anything bring us back. St Paul reminds us that God reconciled himself to us through Christ. “For our sake God made the sinless one into sin, so that in him we might become the goodness of God.” (2Cor.5:21)The parable of Prodigal son is peculiar to the Gospel of Luke as that of the lost sheep, the lost coin. However unusual is the behaviour of the father in the parable yet that is what we see in the magnanimity of the Father. Yes, we see the misuse of the affection and love of the Father and the anger of the elder brother on display in the parable. The undeniable power of forgiving father is highlighted throughout the parable. We need to exam and identify with whom we are leaning towards whether to the younger son or the older brother. We are all expected to leave our sinful and habitable ways and to begin a new way of life even if we have messed it all. The doors of the Sacrament of Reconciliation never get slammed on anyone. God is eagerly waiting for our return with open arms. God is not a military general but rather God is waiting for us eagerly for our return. Are we finding it hard to receive the sinners and broken members of the church into the mystical Body of Christ? As God embraced the lost son, so we are all expected to look welcome the lost ones back in the family, church and community. May we continue to resemble forgiving and loving heart of Father-God. May God bless you. —
Peter Fernando OFM Cap.
The DirectorOffice of Family Ministry
Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia
P. O. Box 54
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
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