Immersed in Christ: March 6, 2021
Saturday of the Second Week of Lent
Micah 7:14-20; Psalm 103; Luke 15:1-32
The Father Welcomes
Who is there like you...? Micah 7:18
Jesus knew the Father as no one else did or could (Matthew 11:27).
No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known (John 1:18).
Nothing Jesus ever said reveals the Father’s heart better than the story of the Prodigal Son.
When the father “caught sight of his son, he ran to him, embraced him and kissed him.” Jesus, who is “close to the Father’s heart,” says that is the way the Father responds to us.
The father didn’t even let the boy make a “complete confession"! As soon as his son said, “Father, I have sinned,” he ordered his servants, “Quickly, bring the finest robe, put a ring on his finger, slaughter the fattened calf! We are going to have a feast!”
Now we know that no matter what we have done, if we go to our Father with desire to do the best we can, we will be welcomed with joy. Anyone who does not welcome us to the table of our Father doesn’t know the Father’s heart. Because the older son in the story didn’t, he excluded himself from the feast.
To be converted is not only to change one’s way of living, but also one’s way of thinking. It is a transformation of thought (Pope Francis, Angelus, 1/22/17).
Maybe we all need to repent.
ACTION: Re-read the story.
PRAYER: “Father, forgive me; I know not what I do.”