THE WORD
Mic 7,14-15.18-20 / Lk 15,1-3.11-32
(The parable of the Prodigal Son) ...“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”
IN OTHER WORDS
One morning while I was making up my bed, I heard some of our lady-helpers passionately exchanging thoughts on an Aglipay Christian who attended in the previous Sunday’s Eucharistic celebrations.
What caught my attention were their arguments on whether the Aglipayan Christian should be welcomed or not in the Eucharistic celebration.
One of them kept on repeating with affection how the Aglipayan was so hurt when she heard a comment from the congregation saying, “may naligaw na kambing ngayon” (literally, a goat lost
his/her way and found him/herself here). For this, according to her, the Aglipayan decided to stop coming to the Catholic Church. She was wounded and ashamed.
In our gospel today, the scribes and Pharisees were complaining against Jesus because He welcomed sinners and ate with them. This was followed by the “Parable of the Lost Son” as if to remind us that the Father is so happy when a sinner comes back to Him.
If we apply this to the Aglipayan Christian, she is not even a sinner compared to the “tax collectors and sinners” in the gospel. She just wanted to attend the Eucharistic celebration with the intention of returning back to the Catholic fold.
Sometimes, we are also guilty of the same harsh judgment. Maybe not the same as the one who commented against this Aglipayan Christian but in some other ways, we judge other people and exclude them in our concept of “church” simply because we think they are not worthy to be in the fold of Christ because of their status and disposition in life.
But Jesus, in the parable, is reminding us how precious to God when a sinner returns to Him. For this, we are strongly invited by our gospel to be instruments for the facilitation of a sinner’s restoration to the fold and not a hindrance, lest we become scribes and Pharisees!
- Fr. Ross Heruela, SVD | DWIMS, Tagaytay City
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
