Other Sunday and Holy Day Readings
4th SUNDAY OF LENT (Cycle C)
(the readings for Cycle
A are used for the instruction of Catechumens)
Readings:
Joshua 5:9a, 10-12
Psalm 34:2-7
2 Corinthians 5:17-21
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
Abbreviations: NJB (New Jerusalem Bible), NABRE (New American Bible Revised Edition), IBHE (Interlinear Bible Hebrew-English), IBGE (Interlinear Bible Greek-English), or LXX (Greek Septuagint Old Testament translation). CCC designates a citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The word LORD or GOD rendered in all capital letters is, in the Hebrew text, God's Divine Name YHWH (Yahweh).
God reveals His divine plan for humanity in the two Testaments, and that is why we read and relive the events of salvation history in the Old and New Testaments in the Church's Liturgy. The Catechism teaches that the Liturgy reveals the unfolding mystery of God's plan as we read the Old Testament in light of the New and the New Testament in light of the Old (CCC 1094-1095).
The Fourth Sunday of Lent is Laetare Sunday. Every Mass has an entrance antiphon, a sentence or two (usually from the Scriptures), sung at the beginning of Mass. In former times, each Mass had a title. The title came from the first word (in Latin) of the day's antiphon. The antiphon for the Fourth Sunday of Lent is from the 66th chapter of the Book of Isaiah and begins, Rejoice, Jerusalem! Come together, you who love her. In Latin, the word for "rejoice" is laetare, which gives the title Laetare Sunday to this Lenten Mass. On this day, on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, we are halfway to Easter, and we rejoice because we are halfway home.
The Theme of the Readings ~ The Necessity of Continual Reconciliation and Renewal
Many of the Pharisees of Jesus's day believed that God would
give them their eternal salvation in return for diligently observing the Law of
Moses. They failed to consider that salvation is a gift of grace that one cannot
earn; only a selfish or callous father would sell his love that way. God calls
us to do good deeds not to purchase our eternal salvation but as evidence of
our faith and as the result of our sanctification.
In the First Reading, the children of Israel kept God's command to celebrate the sacrifice of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread as soon as they crossed over into the Promised Land (Lev 23:4-8; Num 28:16-25). Their work of obedience was a sign of their continual love and gratitude to God in remembrance of their deliverance from the Egyptians and for bringing them to the land that He promised to the Patriarch Abraham (Gen 12:1-3; 15:18-21).
In the Responsorial Psalm, attributed to David, he praises the Lord God for delivering him after the Philistine king captured him. That event occurred at what was probably one of the lowest points in David's life when he was an outcast hunted by King Saul, who had sworn to kill him. David/the psalmist resolves to give a testimony of praise to God and share his thanks and gratitude for God's comfort with others who are also afflicted and oppressed. Reflecting on his own experience, he invites all who suffer to follow his example by sharing his joy and trust in the Lord and uniting their lives to God. He assures the afflicted in every generation when they cry out to Yahweh, He will hear their petitions and intervene in their lives.
In the Second Reading, St. Paul teaches that God has reconciled the human family to Himself through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In Christ, we become a "new creature." We are no longer the lost sons and daughters in the family of Adam. Instead, we have become the "reborn" children of God through the Sacrament of Christian Baptism and can claim membership in the family of our heavenly Father.
This theme of renewal and continual conversion is carried over into the Gospel reading in Jesus's Parable of the Lost Son. It reminds us that no matter how much sin has caused us to become estranged from our heavenly Father, He is always ready to welcome us back to communion with Him and fellowship with our extended family in the Church when we return in repentance and humility. God will renew us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the healing power of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Whether you are the lost son, the righteous son in the Gospel reading, or the reborn faithful Christian in the Second Reading, we all need reconciliation that is a gift of God's grace. For our part, all we have to do is to claim the gift and receive God's grace in our forgiveness and a renewed commitment to Christ and His Church.
Joshua 5:9a, 10-12 (NJB) ~ The Israelites celebrate the
Passover in the Promised Land
9a Yahweh then said
to Joshua, "Today I have taken the shame of Egypt away from you" ... 10 The Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal
and kept the Passover there on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening
[between the twilights = noon], in the plain of Jericho. 11 On the very next day after the Passover, they
ate what the land produced, unleavened bread and roasted ears of corn [grain]. 12 The manna stopped the day after they had
eaten the produce of the land. The Israelites from that year onwards ate the
produce of Canaan and had no more manna.
[...] = IBHE, vol. II, page 568. The Jewish day ended,
and the next day began at sundown; therefore, "evening" equated to our "afternoon"
and was from noon to sundown (Jewish Book
of Why, vol. I, pages 9-10); Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews,
14.4.3 [65]; The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, Alfred Edersheim,
pages 113-115). "Corn" refers to any multi-grain eatable plant like wheat and
barley, not the maize/corn discovered in the Americas.
This event took place after Joshua had led the children of Israel to cross the Jordan River into Canaan when God parted the waters and the people crossed over on dry ground (Josh 3:14-17). It was a miracle that recalled the parting of the water in the miracle crossing of the Red Sea in their exodus from Egypt (Ex 14:15-22). The "plain of Jericho" is the steppe-like region west of the Jordan River. God commanded the Israelites to keep the Passover sacrifice annually in remembrance of the day He saved those obedient children of Israel from the death of the tenth plague (Ex 12:14, 43-51; Lev 23:5; Num 28:16).
there on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening
[between the twilights = noon], in the plain of Jericho.
The liturgical worship service began at noon, and at the end
of the service, they slaughtered the Passover lambs and goat kids. In Jesus's
time, the slaughtering of the Passover victims took place between the third and
ninth hours (3-5 PM) according to Jewish priest and historian Flavius Josephus:
So these high priests, upon the coming of their feast which is called the
Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour [3 PM] till
the eleventh [5 PM], but so that a company not less than ten belong to
every sacrifice (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves),
and many of us are twenty in a company ... (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, 6.9.3
[423]). If Passover fell on a Friday, the slaughtering of the victims was an
hour earlier (Mishnah: Pesahim, 5:1D).
11 On the very next
day after the Passover, they ate what the land produced, unleavened bread, and roasted
ears of corn [grain]. 12 The manna
stopped the day after they had eaten the produce of the land. The Israelites
from that year onwards ate the produce of Canaan and had no more manna.
The gift of the manna that began after crossing the Red Sea
on the Exodus out of Egypt (Ex 16:4-36) stopped on the day after the Passover
sacrifice in the Promised Land, on the fifteenth of Nisan that was the
celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Ex 13:14;
Lev 23:6-7; Num 28:16-25).
According to the Jewish Mishnah and the first century AD Jewish
priest/historian Flavius Josephus, the Passover sacrifices began at noon on the
fourteenth of Nisan. The people were to consume the sacred meal of the Passover
victims after sundown in the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Since the next day started
at sunset, the meal celebrated by Joshua and the people was on the night of the
fifteenth was the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Eating the
Passover victims not only remembered the first meal of the Passover before the
Exodus out of Egypt (Ex 12:1-20), but this event also signaled the renewal of
the covenant and sacred meal in the ratification of the Sinai Covenant in
Exodus 24:3-11. The end of the gift of manna is the signal that the desert-wandering
period of Israel's history was over. The people of God would not receive "bread
from Heaven" again until the first night of the Feast of Unleavened Bread at
the Last Supper. At that meal, Jesus turned unleavened bread into His flesh and
wine into His blood in the inaugural sacred meal of a New Covenant (Lk 22:15,
19-20; promised in Jer 31:31-34). It is a sacred meal that you and I continue
to consume in the celebration of the Eucharist.
Responsorial Psalm 34:2-7 ~ Experience the Goodness of the Lord
Response: "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord."
2 I will bless the
LORD at all times; his praise shall be ever in my mouth. 3 Let my soul glory in the LORD; the lowly will
hear me and be glad.
Response:
4 Glorify the LORD with
me, let us together extol his name. 5 I
sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
Response:
6 Look at him
that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame. 7 When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress, he saved him.
Response:
This psalm, attributed to David, celebrates when he praised the Lord God for delivering him from being captured by the Philistine king Achish [or Abimelech = a title for Philistine kings] (1 Sam 21:11-22:1a). That event occurred at what was probably one of the lowest points in David's life when he was an outcast hunted by his father-in-law, King Saul of Israel, who had sworn to kill him.
The response from verse 8 of the psalm refers to the sacred communion meal of the Toda/Todah, consumed only by the covenant faithful in the presence of God in the Sanctuary, reestablishing the joy of fellowship with the Lord. Toda in Hebrew means "thanksgiving," and in Greek, the word is "eucharistia." In the Toda ("Thanksgiving") of the Sinai Covenant, the people ate their communion sacrifices with bread and wine (Lev 7::1-5/7:11-25). However, in our New Covenant Toda, we literally "taste and see the goodness of the Lord" in our sacred Eucharistic meal where the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ (Jn 6:53-58).
The psalm begins with David's resolve to give a testimony of praise to God. He also wants to share his thanks and gratitude with others, who are also afflicted and oppressed (verse 2). Next, he invites all the "lowly" who suffer to unite themselves to God with him in joy (verses 3-4). Then, he gives the reasons why he praises God in verse 5:
Reflecting on his own experience in verse 6, he again calls on the poor to share his joy in the Lord God. His invitation is followed by the assurance that when the poor and afflicted cry out to Yahweh that He will hear their petitions and will save them for their distress (verse 7).
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 ~ Our Ministry of Reconciliation
17 Whoever is
in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new
things have come. 18 And all
this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us
the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely,
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their
trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 So we are ambassadors for Christ, as
if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God. 21 For our
sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness
of God in him.
St. Paul's message to the Christians at Corinth (and to us) is that God in Christ has reconciled us to Himself. In verse 17, Paul comments on the contrast between the "before and after" in one's life. The life before one's conversion experience and the profound change that takes place in the Sacrament of Baptism when one becomes a "new creation" and a spiritually reborn child in the family of God. Through the grace imparted in the Sacrament of Christian Baptism, a person becomes a member of Christ's Body to live with and in Christ, and with the promise of eternal life for those who remain faithful (Mk 16:16).
The point is that God, who created all things through Christ Jesus (Jn 1:3), has restored his work that was deformed by sin, through re-creating the goodness of His creation in God the Son (Col 1:15-20). The central figure of the "new creation" (Gal 6:15), which extends to the whole universe (Col 1:19; 2 Pt 3:13; Rev 21:1), is the reborn humanity created through Jesus (Eph 2:15) in the Sacrament of Christian Baptism. Those reborn through water and the Holy Spirit become destined to lead a new life. No longer members of the family of Adam, they are destined to lead a sanctified life in the family of God that promises the gift of eternal salvation (Jn 3:3, 5; Mk 16:16).
The transforming life experience of Christian Baptism prepares us for becoming Christ's ambassadors to the world in sharing the Gospel of salvation. But to be effective in our ministry of reconciliation, we must be conscious of the need for continual conversion and reconciliation in our lives if we want to be righteous witnesses who are fit to carry forth the Gospel of salvation to others.
Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 ~ The Parable of the Lost Son
1 The tax-collectors
[telones] and sinners were all drawing near to listen to him, 2 but
the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying, "This man welcomes sinners
and eats with them." 3 So to them,
he addressed this parable. [...] 11 Then
he said, "a man had two sons, 12, and
the younger son said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of your estate
that should come to me.' So the father divided the property between them. 13 After a few days, the younger son collected all
his belongings and set off to a distant country where he squandered his
inheritance on a life of dissipation. 14 When
he had freely spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he
found himself in dire need. 15 So,
he hired himself out to one of the local citizens who sent him to his farm to
tend the swine. 16 And he longed to
eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed, but nobody gave him any. 17 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. 18 I shall get
up and go to my father, and I shall say to him, "Father, I have sinned against
heaven and against you. 19 I no
longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your
hired workers." 20 So he got up
and went back to his father. While he 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. 21 His son said to
him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve
to be called your son.' 22 But his
father ordered his servants, 'Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Take the fattened calf and slaughter it. Then
let us celebrate with a feast, 24 because
this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been
found.' Then the celebration began. 25 Now
the older son had been out in the field and, on his way back, as he neared the
house, he heard sound of music and dancing. 26
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean. 27 The servant said to him, 'Your brother has returned,
and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe
and sound.' 28 He became angry,
and when he refused to enter the house, his father came out and pleaded with him.
29 He said to his father in reply,
'Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet
you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. 30 But when your son returns who swallowed up your
property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.' 31 He said to him, 'My son, you are here with me
always; everything I have is yours. 32 But
now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come
to life again; he was lost and has been found.'"
Verses 1-3 set the stage: Jesus was teaching the crowds of Jews who came to hear Him preach and see Him work miracles. The despised telones (the tax-collectors who served the Roman authorities) and other sinners drew near to hear Jesus. The Pharisees (the most influential religious party in Judea) and the scribes (the teachers of Mosaic Law) were high-status members of Jewish society who considered themselves among the "righteous." They interpreted the Scriptures and the Law very rigidly, often neglecting to follow the example of God's mercy and justice (Lk 11:39-52). They criticized Jesus for His interaction with what they considered the dregs of society.
Jews were obligated to keep themselves ritually clean and fit for worship by avoiding anything that might transmit ritual uncleanness. Unlike those acknowledged ritually "clean," the "unclean" sinners were not fit to enter the Temple and offer God sacrifice and worship. This event is not the first time this group of self-professed "righteous" Jews criticized Jesus for the kind of company He kept. They made the same complaint against Him in Luke 5:30. Jesus answered their criticism by offering three parables of finding what was lost: The Parable of the Lost Sheep (Lk 15:3-8), the Parable of the Lost Coin (Lk 15:8-10), and the Parable of the Lost Son (Lk 15:11-32).
The Parable of the Lost Son only appears in the Gospel of St. Luke. It is also called the Parable of the Two Sons and the Parable of the Prodigal (wasteful) Son. However, a better title is probably the Parable of the Merciful Father since the father's mercy is the story's focus, and he is the pivotal figure. The Parable of the Lost Son is an answer to the criticism of Jesus's interest in sinners. It is also an insightful commentary on human conduct, illustrating the conflict between free will and responsibility, estrangement and family love, and the theme of forgiveness and reconciliation. But above all, the parable teaches the gift of divine mercy to lost sinners, the kind of people seeking Jesus, and the restoration He promised to those who repented and accepted the coming of His Kingdom.
In verse 11, Jesus begins His parable with "a man had two sons." He set the contrast in the story between the character of the two sons: the younger son who left home because he wanted the absolute freedom to live as he wished without any obligations except to himself, and the elder son, the father's heir, who dutifully served the father and stayed at home. The parable divides into two parts: the estrangement of the younger son followed by his return and reconciliation with the father (verses 11-24) and the elder son's anger when his brother returned (verses 25-31). As in all His parables, the elements of the story are symbolic. They point to Jesus's teaching on our relationship with God and His Kingdom. Each of the people in the parable represents what is greater than the story presents:
| Symbolic Comparisons in the Parable of the Lost Son | |
| the loving father | God the Father |
| the father's home | the "Kingdom" of the Old Covenant Church/Temple |
| the distant country | the secular world |
| the elder son | the religiously observant Jews |
| the younger son | the repentant sinner and the estranged Gentile nations of the world |
In Exodus 4:22, God instructed Moses to tell the Egyptian Pharaoh: "Israel is my firstborn son." If Israel's status is God's firstborn son in the human family, then that makes all other non-Israelite members of the human family the younger sons. The people of the Sinai Covenant were collectively the "sons/daughters of God" (in Ex 4:22, the word "son" is in the singular as in Wis 18:13).
In the story, the father extends his love to both sons in the same way Father God extends His love toward the repentant sinner (symbolized by the younger son) and toward the angry older son despite his criticism of the father's decision to welcome back his brother. The parable stresses God's willingness to accept all repentant sinners into His Kingdom. As St. Luke mentioned in 7:29-30, tax collectors and sinners who were baptized with the baptism of John [the Baptist] acknowledged the righteousness of God; but the Pharisees and scholars of the Law [scribes], who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves. The younger son embodies men and women of every age, beginning with Adam and Eve, who were the first to disdain the "Father's" gifts to run after what the Divine Father told them to avoid, losing the inheritance of grace and original justice. As Pope John Paul II wrote, "The parable indirectly touches upon every aspect of the breach in covenant love, every loss of grace, every sin (Dives in Misericordia, 5).
Do not miss the significance that the younger son was so desperate that he hired himself out to tend swine (verse 15). According to the Law, pigs were unclean animals, and association with them was strictly forbidden for members of the Sinai Covenant (Lev 11:7; Dt 14:8). Yet, that he was willing to tend swine shows how far the younger son had traveled from the Law and the depths he had sunk in his personal life. His anxiety, hunger, and homelessness resulted from his rebellious free will choices (Sirach 15:14; CCC 1730-34) and enslavement to sin (Rom 1:25; 6:6; Gal 5:1). By those choices, he had lost the freedom of being a beloved son of his father to become one whose sin placed him under the power of Satan (Rom 8:21; Gal 4:31; 5:13). By contrast, the fatted calf the father offered upon the younger son's return symbolizes the restoration of communion with the father and the family in the same way a repentant sinner experiences restoration to God and His family in the Sacrament of the Eucharist within the household of the Church.
The Pharisees and scribes to whom Jesus directed His parable were displaying the same anger and unwillingness to welcome back the repentant sinners to whom Jesus extended His mercy and forgiveness like the elder brother would not welcome back his younger sibling. Another comparison can be made to the Jews who jealously guarded their status as "firstborn sons." The Jews are the "firstborn" sons, as God told Moses in Exodus 4:22, making all other nations of the earth the "younger sons" in the human family. The Jews refused to welcome their "younger brothers" of the Gentile nations into the New Covenant in Christ Jesus (see verses 29-30). The father in the parable manifests his love for the elder, upright son. However, he reminds his elder son and heir that the younger son's restoration to the family is necessary, and they must celebrate his reunion in the family communion meal. It is a subtle warning Jesus gives His countrymen and women of the old covenant faith that they must be prepared to welcome the repentant "younger brothers" of the Gentile nations into the Kingdom He came to establish.
In the parable, the elder son must make a decision: will he accept the father's rebuke and welcome his younger brother back into communion with the family, or will he reject his younger brother and harm his relationship with his father? Jesus does not tell us what decision the elder brother made. But we know that many Jews rejected the Divine Father's plan to restore the human family through Jesus's perfect sacrifice for the sins of humanity on the altar of the Cross and His Gospel message of God's gift of salvation. In their missionary journeys, Saints Paul and Barnabas followed Jesus's example. They always went to the elder brothers, the Jews, first. But when they rejected Jesus's Gospel of salvation, His emissaries turned to the Gentiles as God directed them. The Gentiles were the receptive "younger brothers" of the human family.
At Antioch in Pisidia, Saints Paul and Barnabas first offered Jesus's Gospel of salvation at the Jewish Synagogue. But later, When the Jews saw the crowds [of Gentiles], they were filled with jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said. Both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, "It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord commanded us, 'I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth'" (Acts 13:45-47). And as St. Paul assured the Galatians: For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendant, heirs according to the promise (Gal 3:26-29).
For the Bible study on Lent and Easter, see the Lent And Easter Study.
Catechism references for this lesson (* represents Scripture
quoted or paraphrased in the citation)
Psalm 34:3 (CCC 716*)
2 Corinthians 5:17 (CCC 1214, 1265); 5:17-18 (CCC 1999); 5:18-21 (CCC 2844*); 5:18 (CCC 981, 1442, 1461*); 5:19 (CCC 433, 620); 5:20 (CCC 859, 1424, 1442), 5:21 (CCC 602)
Luke 15 (CCC 1443*, 1846*); 15:1-2 (CCC 589*); 15:11-32 (CCC 545*, 2839*); 15:11-31 (CCC 1700*); 15:11-24 (CCC 1439); 15:18 (CCC 1423*, 2795*); 15:21 (CCC 2795*); 15:23-31 (CCC 589*); 15:32 (CCC 1468)
The Prodigal Son (CCC 1439, 1465, 1481, 1700*, 2839*)
God is faithful to His promises (CCC 207*, 212*, 214*)
God pardons sin and restores the sinner to the community (CCC 1441*, 1443*)
The door of pardon is open to all who repent (CCC 982*)
Israel's daily bread was the fruit of the Promised Land (CCC 1334*)
Michal E Hunt, Copyright © 2013; revised 2022 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.