Just a word before we go...Fourth Sunday of Lent...March 29, 2025

We all know why the younger son in today’s parable is referred to as prodigal.  After all, he presumptuously asked his father for his inheritance while his father was very much alive.  He squandered his new found wealth, living sumptuously and with abandon, until he was forced to live and work with the pigs that were so scorned by his Jewish faith. 

As Jesus relates the story, we become aware of some striking truths about God, such that the Father might be considered to be prodigal as well.  For the word prodigal not only connotes wasteful extravagance or spendthrift behavior, but also denotes unstinting, unsparing and lavish generosity.  And what better words can describe the conduct and attitude of the Father.  In Him, we do not see a God of vengeance; instead, we see a father who exemplifies to the Nth degree what we would expect from a parent.  The father never stopped loving the son, even when he was off to the Big Apple kicking up his heels.  This father not only forgives, but takes the initiative, not waiting on the front porch thinking … “well, well, well...I knew my son would come crawling back,” but running to meet him on the way, kissing him, dressing him in finery and throwing a party in his honor.  What was it that made it possible for the son to return home?  And what makes it possible for you and me to crawl out of whatever pigpen we might find ourselves in?  That would be God’s love, God taking the initiative, planting the seed if you will, that stirs in us, moves in us, and draws us home. 

Planting seeds is an activity that involves us, as well.  Whether you donate or transport items for the monthly Merton Center collection, make sandwiches for Merton, volunteer your time for Laundry Love, or for lawn and hedge maintenance, or to refinish the pews, or to unlock the church, or to work in our many beautiful gardens...the list goes on, from helping us to pray by singing in the choir or reading the scriptures or serving the Eucharist at Mass...the way you quietly see a need and respond to it, be that in the church itself or by addressing social concerns beyond, in the greater community...in these ways, and there are many others, the parishioners of St. Anthony’s...that would be you...continue to plants seeds of hope, reflecting the loving kindness of our God to a world desperately in need of that hope. Does all this count as being prodigal, as the Father is prodigal?  I don’t know about that, but in my book, this parish is certainly headed in that direction.