Did you know that the welcome given the prodigal son
is the welcome that awaits every one of us!
Only one thing is required: that we come to God.
However imperfect or self-serving the young son’s contrition,
it was enough to bring him home.
No matter how strong the elder son’s indignant pique,
the father came out to urge him to come in.
Only one thing is required: that we come to God.
Such is the mercy of God for each of us – without exception.
Like the father in the story,
God waits for us to come home and be reconciled.
And when we can’t find what we need to reach out for God’s forgiveness,
then God comes out to draw us into his loving arms.
At the end of the parable there’s a great banquet
and at the end of our lives, a banquet is waiting for us, too.
Will we confess and leave our sins behind and come home to God,
asking for mercy and pardon?
Will we bow to God’s mercy when we see how he draws near
to draw us into his love?
Lent is a season to consider questions just like these
and to understand that God’s greatest desire is to forgive us
and hold us in his healing love.
The altar before us is a sign of the table that waits us in the kingdom.
It’s a mercy table where the Lord invites all of us to join him.
The way to the table is path of contrition and forgiveness.
Pray with me, this Lent, that all of us will, as did the younger son,
“come to our senses” and come home to receive the gift of God’s mercy.
