Transfiguration

"The Lord is kind and merciful."
Mi 7:14-15, 18-20
Lk 15:1-3, 11-32

From a vision of glory on the mountain of the Transfiguration with another glorious vision, the sublime parable of the prodigal son and the merciful father. We saw Jesus' face shining with glory. We can imagine the face of the father shining with love and mercy as he runs out to embrace his long lost son, and as he pleads with the older son to join the celebration : "You are with me always, and everything I have is yours. But we must celebrate and rejoice!" (What a picture of God the Father has been painted in this parable taught by his Son! Only Jesus, who is one with the Father, could have described him so intimately.)
At the beginning neither the son really knows the father. They do not know how merciful he is. The older son looks better than the younger one because he is hardworking and obedient. But eventually, we learn that he has been living, not like an obedient son at all, but rather like a slave. He is bitter, suspicious and judgmental. With contempt he even judges his father as uncaring and unfair. Interiorly, he is no better off than the younger son, who captures everyone's attention because he makes such a dramatic display of his rebelliousness.
Both sons represent each one of us when we are in sin. whether we are arrogant, demanding, and self-righteous, or whether we are rebellious, wasteful, and worldly, sin leads us away from the Father's house to a "distant land." We follow the illusion that "going away" or "refusing to enter the house" will make us happy. It never works! All sin leads to misery, in this life as well as in the next. Of course, repentance changes everything, because God is merciful. The mercy of God is not a theory or merely something that we learn about in school. It is what we experience personally when we realize how God views us in our sin condition. When we turn to him, even if we are "still a long way off." he runs out to us and embraces us.
This shed light on our journey. We cannot rejoice in the mercy of God unless we acknowledge our sins. If we are convinced that we are fine and that God owes us something, we are still like the older brother. We do not yet really know the Lord. "You want to know who I really am? So do I."
The parable and the whole season of Lent invite us to repent ---- that is, to come to our senses 'at last,' to return to the Father's house and discover his mercy. Mercy is the glory shining on his face.
O Holy Virgin Mary, Blessed Mother of God, lead me in the way of repentance. Teach me to forgive as I have been forgiven.♥