By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
THE WORD IN LENT – Saturday, Second week
March 02, 2024 – Micah 7: 14-15,18-20; Luke 15: 1-3,11-32
Through the desert, God leads us to freedom. There is a highly pertinent question to ask here, which we have not asked so far in our reflection: but why does God lead us thus, to freedom? Because, as we said yesterday, God so loves us! For God so loves us that God has given the only Son for our salvation, for our liberation, for our salvation. That is why St. Paul declares: “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1). That is the abundance of love that God has for us.
Do we deserve that love? We know very well, we do not! Can we ever deserve, or merit, that love? Let us be very clear, we would never ever deserve or merit it! But these questions do not occur to God! God never sees whether we deserve it or not! God treads down our faults, and throws our sins to the bottom of the sea, tells us Micah today! But we cannot understand that, just as the elder son who could not just get it when the father celebrated the return of the younger son! He could not understand it.
The reason is: the Lord is compassion and love; the psalmist puts it so succinctly: the Lord IS compassion, not only that God has compassion! The Lord is compassion and love, and therefore, there cannot be a more profound or abundant expression of love and compassion than God’s. God’s love for us is absolute, no one can measure that love, and no one can set boundaries to that love. We cannot understand that love, we can only just get into that love and be drenched in it, just as we find the younger son in the parable.
The younger son was mindful of his unworthiness and sinfulness, but the father was not! He refused to pay attention to it; all that mattered to the father was that the son had returned. It is the same with God, who loves us to that extent that none of our sins and unworthiness stands between God and us, the moment we decide to return to the Lord. The Lord wishes to liberate us, free us, not only from the sins, but from the very thought or consideration of our sins. That is an absolute freedom, that comes from an absolute love that God showers on us. Yes, it is the Lord’s love that frees us, an absolute love that frees us absolutely!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He holds doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him on.