1. All men have sinned.
Except for the Blessed Virgin Mary, all men have sinned and needs to be reconciled to God. Thus was the message of the 4th Sunday of Lent. How is this done? Through the ‘Life of Repentance.’
Repentance is the only way by which we can obtain the mercy of God. And the basis by which we can obtain compassion and mercy is the Justice of God. St. Thomas of Aquinas wrote; ‘the Father will not move to meet the son unless the prodigal son gives heaven and the father their due……this is justice without which there is no compassion and mercy.
Evidently God shows mercy only to those who are repentant. The virtue of Penance is the main theme of the Lenten Season.
2. The virtue of Repentance is natural but man had become unnatural. There are three levels possible in man; the supernatural, which is the highest level; the natural, in which most men are; and the unnatural, to which most men have descended to today.
It is possible to rise up from the unnatural to the natural even by pure human means, like through psychotherapy. But it is impossible to rise up from the unnatural and natural level to the supernatural level. Here the grace of God is needed because the virtue of Penance which is the basis of ‘Life of Repentance,’ which forgives our past sins is in the supernatural level. It needs the grace of God.
And because the human race have mostly descended to the unnatural level, and many have remained ‘fleshly,’ as St. Paul would describe them……the virtue of Penance had become very unpopular.
3. The Justice of God.
The Justice of God goes thus; ‘Give Him His due and He will pour His abundant graces on you.’ His graces are abundant compared to the due He receives. That is why it surpasses the demands of Justice. We receive much more than we deserve compared to the due we render to Him. So, in effect, God’s response to the little we render that is due to His demand of Justice is overwhelming compassion and mercy. Salvation and eternal life is such a great things compared to the repentance that is demanded from us. And this is clearly shown in the parable of the prodigal son.
4. The parable of the prodigal son.
The Liturgical color for the 4th Sunday of Lent is Rose. Rose is a combination of purple, the symbol of sorrow that should be the spirit of Lent; and white, the symbol of joy that should pervade the 5th Sunday of Lent, thus ‘Rejoice!’ the introit proclaims…….if you put into practice the message of today’s Gospel. Otherwise, there is no reason for rejoicing.
5. The parable describes the virtue of Penance.
The virtue of Penance, as we have showed in past posts, is the ‘matter’ of the Sacrament of Penance. It is the proper disposition for the forgiveness of past sins without which all absolution from sins, even from a Pope, is useless.
The absolution from a priests is the ‘form’ of the Sacrament. Since the latter absolution is the part of the priest, the most important activity for the penitent is the ‘matter.’
6. The virtue of Penance as shown by the Prodigal Son.
The parable describes the concept of sin. It is an act by which a man demands his inheritance from God, which is his mind and heart, which were given to man for the salvation of his soul. And man gets this inheritance, leaves the house of God and squanders it in loose leaving in a far country, symbolized by the world. Then he begins his repentance. It consists of four steps.
First, he came into his own. As St. Augustine wrote, he entered into his mind and heart to find out what it contains. He saw it contained a pig pen with all its dirt and smell.
The people in the world tend to live outside themselves. Their minds are focused on the world, their studies, their jobs, the events in the world and even the climate change and the walls between the US and Mexico. That is not yourself. Man does not know himself, He goes contrary to that wise saying ‘Know thyself.’
You cannot repent unless you know yourself; unless you know the contents of your mind and heart which makes up the essence of the self. Monasteries observe silence because it is impossible to enter into oneself amidst a noisy world. The world is noisy precisely because the devil does not want souls to enter into themselves. With the temptation to avoid silence and solitude the the devil has done his job. There is nothing else he must do to destroy souls. An unrepentant soul is a lost soul, as Christ said in the 3rd Sunday of Lent. The sin condemned by Christ in speaking to the Jews was that they were not repentant. Who would think that the mere lack of the virtue of Penance is a serious sin? Well, Christ did!
Firstly, by coming into himself, he discovered his sin. You have to enter into your mind and heart because sin is there. He discovered that his sin is that he left his fathers house. That is like leaving the Catholic Church since a cockle is in fact outside the Church.
Secondly; contrition. The prodigal sin is now contrite. He is sorry for his sins because he knows that he had gone against the desires of his father who was most kind to him. where there is plenty and that he is unnecessarily experiencing chastisement for doing so. He knew that that was a sin and that is now his own sin. This is filial fear which is superior to servile fear. Contrition means to pound into dust the hardness of the pride of one’s will.
Thirdly, the purpose of amendment. The prodigal son promises to obey the father, not to leave again; not to commit that same sin again and any other mortal sin for that matter. He showed this by deciding to return to his father’s house, i.e. to return to the bosom of the Church through the obedience of Faith, Hope and Charity.
Fourthly, the prodigal son performs the obligation of Justice. He makes reparation to those he had offended by his sin. First, his father and secondly, God Almighty. He knows this so he says; I will go to my father and confess, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son. This is the first act of reparation towards his father; and this is an act of Justice; ‘I no longer deserve to be called your son.
Then the prodigal son makes reparation to God for his act of injustice towards God by saying; ‘treat me as one of your hired servant.’ That is what God demands from every sinner, ‘a humble and contrite heart.
Sin is to do one’s own selfish will . This will is usually hard and unwavering. This strong will is expressed in such movements as ‘freedom’ and ‘rights’ movements. ‘I’ll do whatever I want.’ It is insistence on one’s will against every one’s will and against God’s Will. That selfish will has to be broken. And the process of breaking that strong will is called ‘Contrition.’ Unless this human will is broken there can be no forgiveness of sins.
A broken and humble heart is showed through a humble life, like a servant’s life. And an obedient life that goes along with being a servant. So the desire of the prodigal son was to live a life that is contrite and humble; ‘do not treat me as a son. But as one of the hired servant. See the humility and the obedience that are features of this life. And this life is the essence of the monastic life before; but now, it is no more.
7. These four steps that make up the virtue of Penance must be applied on each mortal sin. And it was be applied on all mortal sins so that all past sins may be forgiven.
If these four steps, and even just one of these step, was not applied to one or more mortal sins then none of the past sins are forgiven.
Because of the pervading ignorance of this virtue of Penance, most penitent who have gone to confession did not have their past sins forgiven. Almost all Catholic still have all their mortal sins intact due to the absence of this proper disposition. Remember this universal sad state of the souls of penitents was first detected by Pope Benedict in the 2012 Bishop’s Synod, though it was existing even long before.
8. So what do we do?
Since almost all of our past mortal sins were not forgiven due to a defect in the virtue of Penance, then we can be certain that all our past sins are still in our soul. Since they are still there, we can still know which ones they are today, at this very moment. So we can apply the four steps on these sins right now and have them forgiven once and for all. There, we have solved the first problem.
Secondly, since in the spiritual life a soul is never stagnant; he either progresses or regresses, that state of mortal sin had added more mortal sins in the soul. Well, it will be easier to find out what they are since they are recent sins. So, go to the first step again, know your sins and go through the next three following steps.
9, Life of repentance is no easy job. When Christ showed us how to do it, He spent 30 years of hidden life. I doubt it if we can do it that fast. Looking at the sins committed by the US Catholic candidates for presidency, those candidates are committing so many mortal sins, from slander to total lack of charity, that knowing how difficult it is to repent for sins, it would take them five life times to repent for their sins just during this campaign; which they do not have. Evidently they are examples of those who would rather gain the US presidency and lose their souls which Christ said was foolish.
But wait a minute. Pope Francis is also committing the grievous sin of scandal by saying that contraceptive is all right due to the Zika virus and adultery is all right due to a failed marriage. These are serious mortal sins. And we do not see him repenting; instead he is continuously spreading these mortal sins. And he does not have five life times to repent but only a fraction of one life time. Who am I to judge. The Gospel of the Prodigal Son is his judge. And the Gospel states that he won’t make it unless………
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