Homily on the 4th Sunday of Lent
St. John Paul II Parish, Cedar Springs, Michigan

Mary Queen of Apostles Parish, Sand Lake, Michigan

Father Lam T. Le, Pastor

March 30, 2025

“filled with compassion”

(Lk 15:20)

During the 24 Hours for the Lord, I walked into our confessional many times to celebrate Sacrament of Penance for our parishioners and friends, and there is a painting in the room that helps me recall the origin of it.  To make a long story short, after Saint John Paul II Parish was opened in 2013, a gentleman passed by and told me: “I have passed by here many times, but today I made the point of walking in here.”  Soon, I got a call from the hospital that he requested the “last rites.”  After the celebration of the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, the man pointed out to me the cross hang on in his room in the hospital.  I recognized the cross from the welcoming basket that the parish gave out to new parishioners.  I asked him: “What made you to consider our parish your spiritual home to return to the Lord?”  His answer was: “the simplicity of our parish.”  He then continued with tears of joy in his eyes: “I am now a prodigal son coming to his senses and returning to the father.”  After this funeral, one of his children gave me that painting to be incorporated into this church. 

Coming to his senses!  We are all familiar with this story of the prodigal son — the bratty younger son who has the audacity to ask his dad for his inheritance early, only to squander it sinfully away. Isn’t that exactly what we do when we selfishly turn away from God (in big or small ways) in our own lives? We squander away the inheritance of grace God has given us.  In desperation from his own mess, the son finally “comes to his senses” (Lk 15:17). He decides to return home: “I will get up and go to my Father and shall say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you” (Lk 15:18). His contrition is faltering and imperfect and seems motivated, in large part, by his growling stomach.  However, it is an important step that leads him to encounter something in the heart of his father that changes his life forever.

Filling with compassion! “While still a long way off, the father caught sight of him” (Lk 15:20). How beautiful is this expression!  There was no telephone, internet, and email during the time of Jesus.  How could the father know the time and hour that his prodigal son would return to wait and catch sight of him?  It must be the love in the heart of the father that moved him to perhaps stand daily at the footstep of the door to wait for his son’s return from the day he left! The father was “filled with compassion for him. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him” (Lk 15:20). The expression, “filled with compassion” is a description of the sacred place in our mother’s womb where all of us, at the beginning of our life, were nurtured, cared, and protected.  Just as the prodigal son came “to his senses” and returned to this compassion to be forgiven, healed, and restored, so all of us need to return to the “Seat of Mercy” of our God so that what is broken by our sins is made whole, what is distorted by evil is restored, and where relationships are damaged by our squandering of the inheritance, our dignity as sons and daughters of God is once again reappointed.

Please participate in another Missional Prayer Activity April 4:  You are invited to fast all day to ask the Holy Spirit to help a friend, a fellow parishioner, or a person that God puts into your lives to “come to his/her senses.”  Then, in the evening, join us in the Holy Hour to lift this person up to the Lord.

 
In fact, the word “Lent” comes from the Old English word, “Lencten,” which means spring. Let this Lent be known as a spiritual springtime for us. For this to happen, it begins with our decision to go home to the father.  May the Holy Spirit “was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen 1:2) now do the same things over the souls of our loved one so that to bring about this springtime!  Amen.

Scriptural Readings: Reading I Jos 5:9a, 10-12; Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7.; Reading II 2 Cor 5:17-21; Verse before the Gospel Lk 15:18; Gospel Lk 15:1-3, 11-32