[ Home ] [ Up ]  [ Pastor's Page ] [ Come on Home! ]  [ Contents ] [ Links ] [ Search ] [ Businesses ] 

03/18/2007

Knights of Columbus

FR. OLMAN'S HOMILIES

02/04/2007

02/11/2007

02/18/2007

02/25/2007

03/04/2007

03/11/2007

03/18/2007

In the Gospel we have heard read the parable of the prodigal son.  Actually it should be called the parable of the merciful father. 

The process of conversion and repentance was described by Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son, the center of which is the merciful father: the fascination of illusory freedom, the abandonment of the father’s house; the extreme misery in which the son finds himself after squandering this fortune; his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to feed swine, and still worse to feed on the husks the pigs ate; his reflection on all he has lost; his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father, the journey back, the father’s generous welcome; the father’s joy.  All these are characteristic of the process of conversion.  The beautiful robe, the ring and the festive banquet are symbols of that new life –pure, worthy and joyful- of anyone who returns to God and to the bosom of this family, which is the Church. 

The son is reconciled with the father.  Confession of sins is an essential part of this reconciliation.  He had to acknowledge that he had gone astray.

In order to be reconciled with God we have to confess our sins.  A sick man will never be well until he admits his sickness.  The best doctor cannot help us unless we realize that something is wrong with us, and want to seek his help.

The proof that the prodigal son really returned is his confession.  Confession is the gate way to a spiritual health and healing.

St Paul tells us and we heard it in the second reading: “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them” the word World means all creation but in a special way it signifies man.  In the visible world, man above all has need of reconciliation with God because only man, as an intelligent and free being, is prone to sin.  Man’s sin is shared in a way by all creation.  As a consequence of man’s sin the world becomes an occasion if sin for man.  In this sense the New Testament speaks of the sin of the world.   If man obtains forgiveness of sins in Christ, by means of his sacrifice, of his obedience unto death, so in the same way the world also finds reconciliation with God in Christ.

The Apostle Paul says that, for reconciliation of man with his Creator and Father, God “for our sake made Christ to be sin who knew no sin”.  This is a strong expression.  Christ was completely without sin.  Jesus was “a man like us un all things but sin”.  If the Apostle writes that for our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, then, these words mean that Christ has taken upon himself man’s sin as already in the Old Testament the prophet Isaiah proclaimed concerning the future Messiah, the Servant of Yahweh.

Jesus has taken upon himself man’s sin, that is, together with the Cross, with his death on the Cross he has accepted the evil caused by sin.  The sacrifice of the Cross offered through love has had the redemptive power.  Love is stronger that sin.  In the power of the redemption, the world and man above all is reconciled to God.  The Son’s love in the sacrifice of the Cross has this victorious power.  It unites to the Father whatever has been separated from him because of sin.  That which was opposed to God because of sin is newly directed toward that Creator and Father in Christ.  In a certain sense, it is restored to God.

St Paul writes that by means of the redemptive Sacrifice, we “become the righteousness of God”.  It is as if we had been newly created in Christ.  “So if any one is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; everything has become new. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation”.

No sinner is lost because if his sins.  He is lost because he does not trust in the mercy of God, because he wants to be lost, because he will to rise and go to his Father and say to him “father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am longer worthy to be called your son”

Let us celebrate the Holy Eucharist in the joy of forgiveness and gratefully eat the manna, the food that Jesus Christ gives us on our journey to our true home, heaven as the Israelites ate the manna in the desert to reach the Promised Land.

[ Home ] [ Up ]

Send mail to webmaster@stanthonyoakley.org with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified:03/25/07