Below is my homily preached at the 8:00 & 11:45 Masses today (3/31/19):
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus address the parable of the Prodigal Son not only to the Pharisees and scribes, but also to the tax collectors and sinners. They represent the lost souls for whom our Lord Jesus Christ came to save. It is a familiar parable for us because we hear it every year during Lent. However, even more than that, the parable is a timeless story of our Father’s loving mercy and care for us; particularly, those of us who have strayed far from Him. St. Augustine said that our heart is restless until it rests in God. This is very true indeed but, as I reflected on what St. Augustine said, in light of today’s Gospel on the parable of the Prodigal Son, I think that God is also restless until our hearts rest in His. When we read the parable, we can feel how restless the father becomes as he waits for his son to find his way back to him. Jesus said, “While he [the son] 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.”
I remember this one time back in high school when I wanted to go hang out with my friends but my mom would not let me. Believe it or not, I did what many teenage boys would do - I argued with my mom and, in a moment of epic disobedience and defiance, I took the car keys, got into the car, and drove off. However, I did not go very far before I came to my senses and returned home. I did not turn the car around out of fear of being punished. No (well, maybe I was just a little). I returned home because, deep inside my heart, I sensed my mom’s disappointment and hurt. But, most of all, I sensed my mom’s love for me and her love pulled me out of the darkness that possessed me, if ever so briefly. Our Father in heaven loves us, just as our parents love us. Our God delights in mercy, has compassion on us, and would rather cast into the depths of the sea all our sins (7:18-20).
Sisters and brothers in Christ, like the young son in the parable, we all have sinned against heaven and against God. While we may not have gone off to a “distant country” to live a “life of dissipation,” we have strayed from God in our lives. Thankfully, in her wisdom and mercy, Mother Church gives us these forty days of Lent as a time of repentance, a time for us to find our way back to our Father’s loving embrace. However, we must first come to our senses! In the parable, Jesus said of the young son, “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. . .” We do this when we stop thinking of ourselves, remember our Father’s love for us, and repent of the things that we have done or have failed to do that have separated us from God. We must then act on this yearning to be in the presence of our God’s loving care and go back to him with a humble and repentant heart. Once again, Jesus said of the young son, “I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. . .’”
We can only imagine what the journey home would have been like for the young son. I suspect it probably takes him forty days, through the desert, and, all while, being tempted by the evil one to abandon his journey home to his father and return to a “life of dissipation.” However, the journey back to the Father for him (and for any of us) can be a rough road that is paved with tears of guilt of our past actions, a sense of unworthiness to receive God’s forgiveness, but, most of all, a fear of being punished by the Father. If we believe this about God (that He cannot look beyond our past failures and forgive us but would rather punish us), then we have misunderstood God’s plan of salvation for us through his Son. Rather, it is as Saint Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians: “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” God and the hosts of heaven rejoice when his children return to him: “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.”
If we think about it, we all make this journey back to the Father every week when we come to Mass on Sundays (or Saturdays). During the week, we live the daily struggles AND joys of life. We care for our families. Many of us go to work. We may stumble; we may even fall. However, we continue because we know what awaits us on Sundays - the Eucharistic celebration at the altar where our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ waits for us - a foretaste of the heavenly banquet here on earth. Then, before Holy Communion, our priests say, “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.” And we, together as the One Body of Christ, respond with hope, faith, and love: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof [the roof of my heart, my soul, my very being], but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” We are so blessed for God’s compassion and to be embraced in His mercy and to receive the kisses of His forgiveness.
These past five years, many people asked me how formation was going. As I reflect back on this special time in my faith journey, I can truly say that being in Diaconal Formation was like being in the season of Lent; only instead of forty days in the desert, it was 5-6 years of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to deepen my relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. In a way, I embarked on a similar journey to the Father that the Prodigal Son embarked on in today’s parable. But while I can only imagine that the young son received help along his journey, I know that I could not have made it to Ordination and stand before you today as a deacon - in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church of Christ - but for the grace of the Father, the love of the Son, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and the intercession of our Blessed Mother.
Finally, I would not be here without the love, prayers, and support of my wife, Theresa; my parents, Vinh & Mai; my father-in-law, Tien, and mother-in-law, Thai; our siblings; and all our families and friends. I want to thank Fr. Matt for his support in so many ways, as well as Fr. Alberto and Mgsr. Bill. I want to thank Deacon David for being a wonderful mentor, as well as Deacon Jose & Deacon Gary. Last, but definitely not least, I want to thank all of you, my parish family, including my brother in Diaconal Formation, Deacon Dan Lanicek, and my brother Knights, Catholic Daughters, and Women of St. Albert, for your love, prayers and support. I am blessed for the opportunity to serve you and our beloved St. Albert the Great parish as a deacon. Please continue to pray for me as I start my diaconate ministry! I want to end by recalling these words of Saint Paul because I think they capture beautifully what Diaconal Formation had been for me and what this season of Lent ought to be for each and everyone of us. Saint Paul wrote: “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God. . .”
