Homily: 4th Sunday of Lent

March 30, 2025

My dear brothers and sisters, the gospel reading in this fourth Sunday of Lent presents us with the parable of the prodigal son. Some have really called this parable the greatest short story in the world, some others see it as the most beautiful of all the parables in the gospel. Indeed, this parable contains a lot of moral lessons. Today, we examine the parable as it addresses our virtue of religion. There are three characters in this parable. It is even hard to say who actually was the protagonist, whether it was the prodigal son or his loving father or his elder brother. All of them were major characters and they all have a depth of message for us on the virtue of religion.

First the prodigal son, he stood as the image of those fed up with God and religious practices. We can see he was fed up with regular life, work in His father’s vineyard bored him. The smell of the flock irritated him. The whole estate seemed like a prison. Most probably, his friends told him many wonderful things about distant cities, dances, clubs, music festivals, perfumed and beautiful girls and many friends. That was real living, he thought. He fantasized all these thoughts, and they made him conscienceless and heartless that he even wished death to his father so that he would take his own share of their father’s property to a place where he would enjoy his life.

Belonging in this category are some Christians who see religion and obedience to God as oppression, they see sin as freedom and see rebellion as liberation. Fifty minutes of Sunday Mass will be very boring for them, but they are never bored with unending scrolling of their phone viewing social media apps. They see saying the rosary as an irritating repetition but fail to remember that everything needed for us to be alive requires daily repetition. We repeat our morning coffee, lunch and supper daily. We repeat morning and evening doctor’s prescription to be healthy, most times we religiously attend to our gym work-out daily to lose weight and be physically fit but when it comes to prayers, repetition becomes odious. People in this group simply want to get out of the Church to a place where they will enjoy life.

The prodigal son has a message for this group of Christians. He thought there was a better life away from his father and home, when he detached himself from his dad to enjoy life, he ended up homeless and penniless, his life simply became meaningless, if not that he retraced his steps, he was already getting very close to the grave. When Christians detach themselves from God, the author of their life, their life becomes meaningless, John 15:5, “cut off from me you can do nothing.”

The elder brother of the prodigal son was no better. He embodies another group of people who call themselves Christians but with no conviction and recognition of their Christian dignity. They see obedience to the commandment of God as slavery. Love of God and neighbor do exist in their dictionary. They are Christians only in the broad daylight, but under the cover of darkness, their true color will shine out. We can see that this elder brother claimed to be a bona fide member of the family, yet he wished death for his younger brother. We see a total lack of sympathy and empathy in him. He had a peculiarly nasty mind. There was no mention of harlots until he mentioned it. No doubt, he suspected his brother of the sins he himself would have liked to commit.

The character of these two brothers could be contrasted with that of their dad. He showed love to them all. When the first son was fuming in hatred, he calmed him down in love. When the prodigal son wandered away in disobedience, his arms were perennially extended to welcome him back, and when he came back, he welcomed him with warm embrace and a royal treatment. Brothers and sisters, this is God for us. God allows us our freedom; He showers us with His love. The ball is always on our court to reject Him or to accept Him. Like the prodigal son, if we are not on the right track, this Lenten season is a time of decision, we must get up and go back to our Father.