HOMILY FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR C

Today being the Fourth Sunday of Lent called “Laetare Sunday,” is a day of celebration within the somber season of Lent. It is a day of hope and expectation of the salvation that Jesus would win for us on that Easter morning. In that sense we rejoice for our redemption is close at hand.
We rejoice because the Lord tells us in the First Reading; “Today, I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.” God has removed the reproach of our slavery to sin and eternal damnation. He is reconciling the world, you and me, to himself in Christ, not counting our trespasses against us, as the Second Reading says. This reconciliation is the salvation He would win for us on Easter morning. We rejoice because our salvation is in sight, when we shall become new creation in Jesus Christ, where old things will pass away and new things come. This is a cause for rejoicing and that is the point of Lent; to be redeemed by God.

But for us to partake of this redemptive work of God, we have to let Him reconcile us to Himself, or better put, we have to implore His grace to help us be reconciled with Him, and to do this is to turn back wholeheartedly to Him; conversion. Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the interior judgement of conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of Truth in our innermost being, becomes at the same time the start of a renewed source of grace and love. In this convincing of sin, we discover a double gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of redemption, the salvation that Jesus would win for us. This is why we have the example of the prodigal son in today’s Gospel.

Jesus describes for us the process of conversion: the fascination of illusory freedom, the abandonment of the father’s house, the extreme misery in which the son finds himself after squandering his fortune, his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to feed swine, and even worse, wanting to feed on the husks the pig ate, his reflection on all he has lost, his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father, convincing himself of sin, the journey back home, the father’s generous welcome – all of these are characteristic of the process of conversion.

The task of daily conversion is not an easy one. It involves all of these that we see in the prodigal son but may be different for us due to our unique situations. But the point is that God does not just let us walk alone on this path of daily conversion. He gives us the help that we need by shading the light of His grace into our lives to notice those aspects of our lives that need conversion where we gain the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty of redemption. Once we gain these, we can sing as in today’s responsorial psalm, “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord,” because “I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears… When the poor one called out, the LORD heard, and from all his distress he saved him,” the Psalmist says.

My dearest friends, let us ask the Lord, as we are at midpoint of Lent, to not cease in granting us His grace to persevere in our efforts of daily conversion so that as in the conclusion of today’s Gospel, the Lord will say of you and me; “But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.” May it be so for us all through Christ our Lord, Amen! Peace be with you!

FR. Stan