To be celebrated on Sunday 30th March 2025

This Sunday is traditionally known as ‘Laetare Sunday’ from the opening word of the introit: Laetare Jerusalem … (Be joyful 0 Jerusalem … Is 66:10-li), which has been retained as the entrance antiphon in the current Missal.

Gospel Reading: Luke 15:1-3;11-32
vs.1  The tax collectors and the sinners, meanwhile, were all seeking the company of Jesus to hear what he had to say,
vs.2 and the Pharisees and the Scribes complained.
“This man,” they said “welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
vs.3 So he spoke this parable to them:
vs.11 A man had two sons.
vs.12The younger said to his father, “Father, let me have the share of the estate that would come to me.”  So the father divided the property between them.
vs.13  A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country, where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.
vs.14When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch,
vs.15  so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs.
vs.16And he would willingly have filled his belly with the husks the pigs were eating, but no one offered him anything.
vs.17 Then he came to his senses and said,
“How many of my father’s servants have more food than they want, and here I am dying of hunger!
vs.18I will leave this place and go to my father and say: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
vs.19I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your paid servants.’
vs.20 So he left the place and went back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him tenderly.
vs.21 Then his son said, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
vs.22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
vs.23  Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we are going to have a feast, a celebration,
vs.24  because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.’  And they began to celebrate.

vs.25 Now the elder son was in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing.
vs.26Calling one of the servants, he asked what it was all about.
vs.27  ‘Your brother has come,’ replied the servant ‘and your father has killed the calf we had fattened because he has got him back safe and sound.’
vs.28 He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out to plead with him;
vs.29 but he answered his father,
‘Look, all these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed your orders, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends.
vs.30  But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property – he and his women – you kill the calf you had been fattening.”
vs.31The father said, ‘My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours.
vs.32But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found.'”

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We have three commentaries available from whom you may wish to choose. 

Michel DeVerteuil :     Holy Ghost Priest, director of the Trinidad Centre of Biblical renewal .
Sean Goan:                    Studied scripture in Rome, Jerusalem and Chicago and teaches at Blackrock College and Le Chéile schools
Donal Neary SJ:         Editor of The Sacred Heart Messenger and National Director of The Apostleship of Prayer.

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Michel de Verteuil
Lectio Divina: The Year of Luke
www.columba.ie

Verses 1 to 3 are one of several passages in the gospels which give us an overall picture of Jesus’ lifestyle.
In your meditation, identify who for you are
1. “the tax collectors and sinners,” people who are outsiders to the community; then,
2. who is Jesus for you – the one who always reaches out to others
3, who are “the Pharisees and Scribes” who complain.
The main part of the passage is, of course, the parable of the Prodigal Son, one of the most touching passages in the whole Bible, and indeed of all religious literature.
It is also the longest parable in the gospels, and so you will have to concentrate on one section of it at a time.
Though it is usually called the parable of the Prodigal Son, it really speaks of three people, and we can meditate profitably on each of them.

The father is the symbol of the perfect lover: you can see him at three points in the story:
• in verse 12, when the younger son asks for his share of the property;
• in verses 20 to 24, when the younger son returns;
• in verses 31 to 32, when he goes out to the older son.

The story of the younger son is in four stages:
• his original choice in verses 11 and 12;
• the result of this choice in verses 14 to 16;
• his first and flawed movement of repentance in verses 17 to 20;
• his return home in verses 20 to 24.

Don’t neglect the older son. His story too is very significant for us, and especially for us religious people. His basic attitude is in verses 25 to 30, and when he meets his father in verses 31 to 32.

Scripture Reflection
Lord, every Church community, without realizing it, gradually becomes an exclusive group, where we speak a language that only we understand
and whole other categories of people feel uncomfortable;
– but you always send Jesus to open up the community.

“We are not on earth as museum keepers,
but to cultivate a flourishing garden of life,
and to prepare a glorious future.”    … Pope St John XXIII.

Lord, there are famines and wars and the results of same in the world today:
• workers having to hire themselves out to work in foreign countries, doing menial tasks;
• children willing to fill their bellies with food fit only for animals,
and many hesitate to gives them anything, even food or medicines.

Lord, help us to retrace our steps, to recognise the root cause of our problems,
that individualism by which children of the one father
want to have the share of the estate for themselves alone,
and once they have collected what they see as theirs, leave for a far distant country.

Lord, bring us back to understand the world as our father’s house:
• where the words “hired servant” are not mentioned;
• where we are always with one another;
• where when one is lost all feel pain,
*and when one who was lost is found, all rejoice.

“We must build a world where freedom is not an empty word and where the poor man, Lazarus, can sit down at the same table with the rich man.” …Pope Paul VI

Lord, we remember parents today.
How often they must go along with children who want to take what is their due and cannot intervene when those most dear to them leave for a distant country where they ‘squander’ their money on a life of debauchery. These parents must wait until their children come to their senses and decide to leave that place and return to their ‘old’ home.
Teach them, Lord, that you too have had that experience.

Lord, we thank you for people who have taught us what true forgiveness is for: – spouses, parents, faithful friends, a parish community which reaches out to the needy.
We thought forgiveness meant having to say to the one we had offended, 

Lord, we pray today for those who are facing death and who are afraid,

Lord, many people spend their time complaining,
* that they have worked hard and not got their due reward, or
* that others have wasted time and money and have been blessed.
We see this even in the Church.
We thank you for people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Br Kevin (new and old) of Dublin’s Capuchin Centre, in Church St  or one of our own local Charity centres and shops for the poor or needy who enlarge our horizons and show us how petty our concerns often are,
who open up for us new possibilities in human relationships,
where one person can say to another,
“I am always with you,” and “all I have is yours.”

“It is God who demands that man should be free;
man himself loves servitude and easily comes to terms with it.”   ….Berdyaev
Set us free from our bondage, Lord,
showing us that you are always with us and all you have is ours.

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Today’s other Celebration: Mother’s Day