LOST AND FOUND

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON MARCH 18, 2007

Luke 15:32 "Your brother was dead and is alive; he was lost and is found."

One of my all time favorite movies is "Raiders of the Lost Ark". In it there is a scene in Egypt when Dr. Brody, Curator of Antiquities at the museum where Indian Jones works, has been in Egypt searching for Indiana Jones. He gets lost, and finds himself in the

middle of a mob of local Egyptians. “Does anyone here speak English?”, he says. “Or perhaps ancient Greek?”!

Perhaps some of you have been in the same situation. I certainly have. I'm thinking of places where no one spoke English - like Bosnia, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt and Transylvania. Many years ago in Transylvania trying, to get a room for the night and a meal to eat, I used the usual sign language for a bed and something to eat. Fortunately it worked. Occasionally in New York City I thought: “Does anyone here speak English - or maybe ancient Greek?”!!!!

Such an experience of being unable to communicate doesn't only happen when traveling. It can also happen in our spiritual life. Perhaps you've experienced something like that this Lent as you've tried to make more time and effort for prayer and reflection? Perhaps you have felt a bit lost?

Sometimes when we focus on the crucified Christ it does lead us to questions that we find hard to respond to. Just because we have the cross central in our lives and in our church, doesn't mean we really understand the implications it means to us personally.

So here we are half way through Lent. A lighter note pervades our Mass today and we have some relatively happy readings. I would like to reflect on them briefly.

First the Reading from Joshua. Here we are at the end of the Jewish people's 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. For 40 years they have been going around in circles, wondering when they would get to the Promised Land. For 40 years they have eaten Manna from Heaven. We don't know what this manna tasted like - but I would imagine after 40 years it was getting a bit tasteless. Now they cross the Jordan. And the Promised Land is in sight. The manna ceases and now “they ate of the produce of the land”. How delicious it must have been. And so as they hoped, the Promised Land is in sight, and all is looking good.

In our second reading from Corinthians 2 St. Paul says: "We are a new creation; the old has passed away, the new has come". St. Paul then goes on to speak about reconciliation.

This leads naturally to the gospel - the Prodigal Son. Who amongst us doesn’t feel pleased when we ponder this parable of the Prodigal Son, We may not all be parents, but we can relate to the story because all of us has been sons and daughters. It is a wonderful story that fills us with hope and joy. Just like the people of Israel felt when they crossed the Jordan and came to the Promised Land.

The story of the Prodigal Son is a parable of God's love - and of being lost and then

reconciled. But have you ever considered that each of the 3 characters, the prodigal son, the older son and the father - each of them were lost, not just the prodigal son? For there is more than one way to be lost.

The younger son is the one we usually consider lost. And we can see him as representing us. Not as someone who squanders their property in loose living! But rather - calling to mind Jesus' parable of the sower, and remembering that some seed grew only to be choked, as Jesus puts it, "by the cares of this world." The Prodigal Son had become choked by the cares of this world - and we also become choked by the cares of this world. We may or may not have been doing it as dramatically as the Prodigal son, but we get weighed down by the cares of this world.

Sometimes the cares of this world become so much a part of our daily lives that it is not easy to rise above them, to free ourselves from them. They become a part of what we do day by day. It can be hard, therefore, to come to our senses like the prodigal son.

"I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him: father, I have sinned against heaven and against you." Think of the courage that required. Think of the humiliation necessary, and perhaps wondering if he would be accepted back by his father.

For Christians a similar experience is found in the sacrament of confession. It does require courage to go to that sacrament and pour out your sins to God in the presence of the priest.

The sacrament of confession is something that every Christian should consider in the season of Lent. I can tell you from my own experience that what happens is akin to the wonderful welcome and kiss of the father as he receives the prodigal son with joy.

The younger son is familiar to us as the lost one. What about the older son? Was he just jealous and mean? Or can we understand how annoyed he was? He had done the right thing. He stayed at his post. Didn't demand any money or inheritance. He was a good man, dependable and reliable. What is not to like about him? But he was lost too.

When the moment of reconciliation came he had no joy. He was bitter and angry, and had a hard heart. So he was the loser. We are all capable of being like him. There is a fine line between a generous heart and a hard heart.

The older son reveals how he feels when he says to the father “when this son of yours came”. Not my brother, but your son." He had cut off his relationship with his brother. He was well and truly lost. Do we cut off people like that? It's easy to do. And when we cut off people like the older son, then we are the ones who need reconciliation.

And the father was lost too. We don't think of the father like that. But he was lost without the younger son. His heart ached because the younger son had left. He gave him what he wanted. But as the son lost himself in the cares of this world, so the father became lost. Therefore we understand the great joy the father felt when the son appeared in the distance. And why he wanted to celebrate it. Not just because the son was back - but because he, the father, was restored too.

The story is all about the crucified Christ. As Christ stretches out his arms on the cross, it is the father embracing us from the cross. Christ crucified is our salvation, our reconciliation, our welcome home!

In today's epistle St. Paul says: "For our sake He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God".

On the cross Jesus acted out this parable that he told. Indeed in the telling he gives us a hint when he has the father saying: "your brother was dead, and is alive."

At the heart of the story of the Prodigal Son is the resurrection. So already we have a hint of Easter joy. "He was dead and is now alive."

U So it will be with Jesus.

U So it is with us.