Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 23, 2019
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,
but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them Jesus addressed this parable.
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,
‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant country
where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country,
and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought,
‘How many of my father’s hired workers
have more than enough food to eat,
but here am I, dying from hunger.
I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son;
treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”‘
So he got up and went back to his father.
While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him, and was filled with compassion.
He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
His son said to him,
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
But his father ordered his servants,
‘Quickly, bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.’
Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field
and, on his way back, as he neared the house,
he heard the sound of music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him,
‘Your brother has returned
and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’
He became angry,
and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply,
‘Look, all these years I served you
and not once did I disobey your orders;
yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends.
But when your son returns
who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
He said to him,
‘My son, you are here with me always;
everything I have is yours.
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.'”
Many of us have grown up hearing that God is love, and that love is unconditional. Implicit in today’s Gospel is another truth: love is vulnerable.
I revisit this story of the “Prodigal Son” after spending a year as a hospice volunteer in Oregon through Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest. Coming out of a fast-paced undergraduate environment where I meditated most on the clock, it was somewhat of a shock to be asked to just sit with people.
Hospice gave me a daily opportunity to meditate on the love I witnessed in the midst of mortality and vulnerability. Vulnerability means exposing our limitations as a human being, so if mortality is our ultimate limitation, then dying is among our most vulnerable moments.
I spent every Friday afternoon of my JVC Northwest year with a mother and her daughter. The mother, my patient, was almost completely dependent on her adult daughter. This patient could no longer speak, but she had the brightest smile I had ever seen. On my patient’s most difficult days, when even my ukulele music couldn’t coax a smile, her face lit up when her daughter entered the room. Her daughter’s face lit up, too. As her daughter lovingly carried her mother’s frail body from her bed to her red recliner, the mother smiled.
The mother’s vulnerability left room for her daughter’s loving caregiving. Vulnerability—
an opportunity for love— flowers even in places of suffering and limitation.
Vulnerability, today’s Gospel reveals, is also critical for our relationship with God. Like the Prodigal Son, all we have to do to be welcomed home is stand in front of our Father authentically, in all of our weakness. Wounded though we are, when the door opens, God will catch sight of us as we are, and, filled with compassion, embrace us with open arms.
During this Lenten season, let us remember that, in God’s eyes, we are enough.
Prayer
Hear our prayer, Lord, look not on our failures, but on our hearts that desire to be one with your grace and call. Let us honor you in word and deed, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo was a 16th century Spanish missionary to the new world who defended the rights of Latin American natives.
He was born to a noble family in Spain, and capitalized on a very good education by studiously developing a sharp intellect. He went on to teach law at the famous University of Salamanca. His virtue and wisdom led him to appointments from the king, and he was ordained a priest.
In 1578, he was sent to Peru and named Archbishop of Lima. He often traveled throughout the immense diocese on foot, engaging anyone he met. He learned the local dialects in order to converse with the native people there—he instructed and baptized them. He traveled alone and was exposed to extreme weather, wild animals, tropical diseases, and even threats from hostile tribes.
He was a powerful voice for reform in the new world. The conquistadores exploited the indigenous people, and the clergy were often complicit in this oppression. He was known as a staunch defender of the rights of natives against the Spanish settlers, and though he met powerful opposition from Spanish governors in Peru, he persisted in his advocacy.
In Peru, he built roads and churches, schools, and hospitals, and opened the first seminary in the western hemisphere. It is said he welcomed 500,000 people into the Church in Peru, and among those he confirmed were St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin de Porres.
He died on this date in 1606 from a fever. Relics of one saint named Turibius rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica on campus.
St. Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo, who defended indigenous people from Spanish conquistadores—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo is in the public domain. Last accessed February 6, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
