We, the ones who put labels (Fourth Sunday of Lent. Cycle)

The gospel today also speaks of the “older son,” a man who stays home with his father and does not imitate his brother’s dissolute life, far from home. He is upset when they inform him of the party organized by his father to welcome the lost son. Instead of being happy, as his father, about his brother’s return, he is mad. He became angry and refused to enter to join the celebration. He never left home, but now he feels like a stranger among his own family. The father comes out to invite him with the same tenderness with which he has welcomed his brother. He does not shout or give out orders. He pleads with him with humble love to go in and be part of the welcome home party. It is then that the son explodes and lays bare all his resentment. He has spent his whole life fulfilling his father’s orders, but he has not learned to love the way his father loves. Now all he knows is to demand his rights and put his brother down. This is the tragedy of the older son. He has never left home, but his heart has always been far away. He knows how to fulfill commandments but he does not know how to love. He does not understand his father’s love for that lost son. He does not welcome or forgive him; he does not want to know anything about his brother. Jesus ends his parable without satisfying our curiosity: Did the older son join the celebration or did he stay outside? Caught up in the religious crisis of modern society, we have gotten used to talking about believers and non-believers, about those who practice their religion and those who have drifted away, about marriages blessed by the Church and couples in irregular situation… While we keep classifying God’s children, God keeps waiting for us all, since he is not the property of good people or of religious practitioners. He is everyone’s Father. The “older son” is a question for those of us who think we live closely with the Father. What are we who have not left the Church doing? Assuring our religious survival by observing the best we can what is commanded, or being witnesses of God’s great love for all his sons and daughters? Are we building open communities that know how to understand, welcome and accompany those who seek God in the midst of doubts and questions? Do we put up barriers or do we lay bridges? Do we offer friendship or do we look on others with suspicion? There is no doubt: we have many questions for our conversatin with our Lord this morning. The main one would be, am I open to all the love that God has to give me? Am I living full of resentments like the older son? • AE