Fourth in : Laetare Sunday; Fr. Rick, homilist

In the Season of Lent, we are encouraged to reflect and examine ourselves regarding our relationship with God, others, and even ourselves. To help me do this, I often select one or two books to read during this holy season. I am reading now Falling Upward by Fr. Richard Rohr, a prominent spiritual writer, retreat director, and Franciscan friar. In January, he gave a presentation on the second half of life at an Episcopal Church in the Phoenix area. Falling Upward is about the two stages in life: the first is when we are busy about establishing ourselves, making a career, and finding friends and a partner. The second half is living out the question of what all this means. From Rohr’s perspective, this generally entails a crisis in one’s life, wherein one’s current spirituality no longer works. Either in spite of or because of this crisis, one can move into a deeper spirituality. In today’s , Jesus tells a story which has as an inner message: an invitation to spiritual growth. He shares with his audience, then and with us now, a story of a man and his two sons. One of the sons asks for his share of his father’s inheritance so he can leave home. Considering that would be his only when his father dies, his asking is shameful, disrespectful, and insolent. His father is within his right to say no and punish him for his arrogance. Yet, with great sadness, he does as he was asked. This meant giving the son a portion of his father’s land. The importance of land was significant to the Hebrew people. We heard in the reading from Joshua, the story of the wandering Hebrew people, finally getting their own land. But the young son is leaving his home. His land, part of his home, will be a commodity he will use. Turning his back on his family and moving in a different direction, he departs. Soon, his land is lost to him because of destructive choices. He finds himself in extreme poverty, taking a job feeding pigs and desirous of the pigs’ food. At the lowest point of his life, he realizes his father’s hired hands are better off than he. He decides to return home, acknowledge his foolishness and arrogance, and confess to his father that he is not worthy to be his son and ask if he could be a hired hand. He knows this is chancy. His father may scornfully respond, “You made your bed, now lie in it,” or may refuse to see him. Possibly with fear and trembling, he approaches his father. We know the story of how he is received. Instead of a father disowning him, telling him that he is dead to him, his father runs to him, casting aside the concern that this behavior is embarrassing and lacks dignity. He welcomes his son with a kiss, furnishes him with a robe and a ring, and throws a party for him. The feast, with the neighbors invited, would have been an invitation of the father that they see he how much he cares for his son, though a few may think the young man undeserving. But that judgment is not theirs to make. His older brother is not happy. Sibling rivalry is not uncommon in our human experience. The ancient story of Cain and Abel shows that. The tension between Jacob and Esau demonstrated the uneasiness of two brothers’ relationship. Martha and Mary had their moment. My sister and I, in our relationship, had a moment from time to time. How about you and your sibling or siblings? The father speaks with the irritated older brother, envious of the treatment his brother is receiving. He reminds him that all he has is his, so why be upset? Does this brother feel unappreciated? Does he believe he should get more than what he is getting? His brother’s actions did not remove any part of his inheritance, so why the anger? Except it did remove from him his younger brother. Could his anger be the result of the hurt of his brother’s leaving him, which he kept within himself all this time, using party envy as an excuse? The father invites both sons to spiritual growth. For the son returned, the growth moment is to accept that he is loved and worthy to be loved, despite destructive behaviors, to know his family cares for him. For the older son, the growth is to value his younger brother despite the pain and hurt he caused himself and his family; he is his brother after all. He is to be loved. Jesus told this story to the devoutly religious and the marginalized people gathered around him. They knew which brother symbolized them. But the moment of growth came as Jesus revealed an understanding of a God who rejoices as people awaken to how we are loved and valued, and that is for all people. The devoutly religious can walk over to the “younger brother” and let him know he rejoices as he comes to know God’s care for him. The marginalized can say to the “older brother” that he knows that his religious practices help him know God, and he also hopes to know God more fully. Jesus’ story does not mention a middle child. For the child born between the oldest child and the youngest is one who may experience Middle Child Syndrome. It is the experience of feeling excluded because the first child is more prone to receiving privileges and responsibilities (by virtue of being the oldest), while the youngest in the family is more likely to receive indulgences. What would this middle child’s experience be? It may be that one does the work one’s parents gives the child to do, for the most part. It may be that he has a rebellious side that, while it may not go to the extreme of the younger brother in Jesus’ story, it occasionally violates his family’s values. Who could this child be? It could be the person of faith living the teachings of one’s faith tradition, sometimes missing the mark. So, what is their moment of growth? It is to return to and trust in God’s dream. Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes of God’s dream: I have a dream God says. Please help Me to realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness, its alienation and disharmony are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace and compassion and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords shall beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are all members of one family, the human family, God’s family, My family. [Desmond Tutu, God has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time; New York: Doubleday, 2004; pp. 19, 20] Spiritual growth for us, whether we are in the first or second half of life – whether we are the oldest child, middle child, or youngest child – it is to know everyone is loved by God and we are to love one another as God loves us in thought, word, and deed. It is to truly see value in each and every person until we treat one another as the sacred people everyone truly is. Amen.